The Eve of Christmas Eve

We had our Christmas dinner with mom on the eve of Christmas Eve. Instead of the traditional menu, my brother Jared and his girlfriend Jodi created a vegetarian feast that was absolutely fantastic. They worked for 2 days on this meal and the fruits of their labor are posted below.

We had decided on a couples gift exchange and with 3 couples it wasn't exactly a secret who got who (do the math). Jack and I were buying for brother Derek and his girlfriend Annick. We managed to find a whole new outfit for the alotted amount and you can see that it has really increased his confidence. We got Annick a gift certificate to her favorite salon and she was pretty pumped.

BEFORE ---------------------------------- AFTER

And if you did your math correctly, you've then figured out that Jared and Jodi were buying for us and they got us some pretty cool stuff for the house - including more cutlery so we can now serve more than 4 people at a time! Horray!

This is the meal that Jodi and Jared made...

Thai Carrot Soup to start...















Served with Fluffy Cheese Puffs















Peace and Love Salad with homemade Hummus















Cheese Ravioli with Grilled Vegetables















Banana Chocolate Crepes. Sadly I have no photo of this course. It was just too good.

New Years idea...
for people in Winnipeg...

Jack has been asked to DJ at the following event on New Years Eve. As you can see, he is not the headliner but will be one of the local guest DJs. The event looks cool and even has it's own myspace!!! Which is more than I can say for myself...

It's being held at the Art Gallery and the hefty ticket price of $70 ensures that you'll be enjoying the all you can drink sensation of either life in Japan or a non-mennonite wedding.

http://www.myspace.com/thecountdown2007 for more info. Ticket prices go up after xmas. Jack and I will be there.

Buy Nothing?

Buy Nothing Day (November 25) was a breeze when I was in England. When you have a klepto for a friend and a Safeway pizza counter that allows you the option of either paying for your freshly baked pizza immediately or to take it through the regular check out, it's easy to eat for free. In defense of my klepto friend, he would only steal from corporations. He said that they made enough money off the general public and poor people overseas so they deserved it.

The concept behind Buy Nothing Day is summed up in the following pie chart. As a member of the "lucky" 20% on this planet, I am participating in a culture that consumes"80% of the worlds resources. It's surprising how hard it can actually be to consume through buying - nothing ...for an entire day.

A new movement has since come along called the Buy Nothing Christmas. Again, the idea is a move away from consumerism to remember why you actually celebrate this holiday. There are many versions of this around the world, but the one we are seeing locally has it's homebase at buynothingchirstmas.org and is very much rooted in Christianity.

According to the above website "The goal is two-fold: First, have some fun in this season of shopping madness. And second, encourage people to buy less, make more gifts on their own and think about the environmental impact of the mountains of gifts this Christmas."

While even the organizers of this movement will agree that you will probably need to buy something at Christmas - whether it be craft supplies or mandarin oranges - I think the message is clear. Buy less. Give because you want to give. Give within your means. Minimize the amount of trash that is left over after Christmas.

Any thoughts?

Well, to finish off the "three days of birthday" this is what I actually did on the 12th. Jack and I enjoyed our first 'couples massage' but it wasn't raunchy or anything (shucks). Then we drove with 2 other recruiters (Karyn and Liz) to Brandon where we stayed over night so that we could visit Killarny school the next morning. The whole thing was pretty unusual as it was a rescheduled event from the day when there was serious freezing rain in Brandon (see November blog). So it happens to be on my birthday and since Jack is finished school I figured we could take advantage of going together. It was a good chance to relax after the craziness that Jack has been through in finishing up term 3 of Creative Communications. And since Cre Com is a Red River program I officially made Jack my "ambassador". We had a rule not to touch in the school or call each other 'baby' ...and I think we pulled it off! Anyways, it was fun. We had dinner with all the recruiters (pictured above) and they very much embarrassed me after dinner.

The server came with some dessert (not pictured here) and said 'happy birthday'. I kinda thought - this is lame, is no one even going to sing for me? Well, as it turned out, I wished they would have left it at that. The server then asked me to get on my chair and announced to the 100 or so other people in the restaurant that it was my birthday. He proceeded to tell everyone that I had ambitions of being America's Next Top Model but now that I was 28 I was too old to apply. I was frantically gesturing that I disagreed with that (it's actually Amy Tegg that wants to be ANTM). He said some other stuff and then they
sang some song about getting old, and then I was allowed to get off the chair, at which point I promptly hid under the table.











The final thing I need to say...Jack's gift to me was 2 paintings by the lovely Emilie Lemay. Pretty cool. I am now a real grown up. I own 2 pieces of art.


28 is gonna be great, I just know it. And since it's my birthday boxing day (i'm writing this on the 13th) I think I'm going to go have a drink to celebrate!

Cheers!

WOW! I have the coolest friends ever!!! Thanks April for this creation!!! Really hope I can see you tonight!

3 days of birthday!!!

For me, a birthday is a good excuse to chill out and enjoy some time for yourself. To do this I usually enjoy treating myself to something...like a massage, or a movie in the middle of the afternoon (hey, it's winter). And then I like to collect as many friends as possible into one place.

This year, the celebrations started on December 10 when my mom made a FANTASTIC lasagne and cheese cake. On December 11 I enjoyed a lovely lunch with my co-workers and then the evening with friends at The Freehouse. Now, it's the morning of the 12th - my actual birthday and we will see what other fun awaits!

Hey, this did go out by email last week but I thought I'd put it up here as well.

Ali G - Christmas Message

Behold...A Christmas Tradition

Before Borat...there was Ali G.

Sacha Baron Cohen is the incredibly witty mastermind behind Borat, Ali G and Bruno - the Austrian fashion reporter. While in England in 2003 I fell head over heels for these characters, hoping desperately to take a piece of them back to Canada. Since UK DVD's don't play here, and I couldn't find a copy of Ali G in da USAiiiii which was playing on HBO, I ordered a dodgy VHS tape of season 1 off ebay. So worth it as it has been making friends and family alike laugh for 3 years now.

One of my favorite traditions at Christmas is to watch Ali G's Christmas message from 1999. Yes, that is how far behind we North American's are lagging on the Baron-Cohen humor...but no worries. You can start catching up today. The Christmas message played at the same time as the Queens annual Christmas message that year in the UK. If this doesn't make you pee your pants laughing, there is definitely something wrong with you. Or you have very strong urinary tract muscles.

ps. someone has done some editing from the original on this youtube version, but just a few raunchy-er lines are missing.

Not my birthday suit...

The other outfit that I wore for Jack's photo shoot was not my birthday suit (as Jack implied in his comment on my previous post). I do not plan on wearing this outfit next Tuesday, which is my birthday. It's going to be -30 degrees, why the heck would I wear this in December?

Anyways, it was good fun so here are some more shots for amusement. I'll post the final photo that he hands in for his assignment, which will be all photoshopped up and I'll finally have those Double D's I've always dreamed of. Happy Birthday indeed!

I'm living the teen dream...
So Jack had a portrait assignment for his photography class and he asked me to help him out. This involved going into the studio for a photo shoot while all his classmates were in the room working. And me ...trying to prove that the hours I've spent watching America's Next Top Model were not wasted. Hearing Tyra's voice in my head saying - "it's all in the eyes".

As I imagined it was way harder than it looked. I felt awkward and didn't know how to move myself and where to put my hands. Jack had me sitting in a these funky colored chairs which was fun, but the room was very quiet.

I helped my friend Nina do portraits when I was in Grade 9 and she was in high school photography. That is probably the last time I was the subject in a setting like that. I'll have to scan some of those photos in for comparison.

All in all it was fun. Here are some of my favorite shots from outfit #1.