The hills are aliiiiiive...

Last night the Sound of Music was on (and of course I sang along), and the night before, Matt put on the Sound of Music record that he bought me (and of course I sang along to that) so I'm in Sound of Music heaven! There's just something about it that makes me so happy. I don't really know what exactly it is, but on the whole it's great and it makes me think of my mum and my sister and makes me smile!

Christmas came and went. Matt and I flew to Toronto on the 18th, which worked out flawlessly! We were really worried, since there were huge storms, flight cancellations, and all the flights to Toronto were sold out for about days. We decided to just go for it, so we packed an all day picnic, brought all sorts of things to amuse ourselves, and baked treats for the staff, and were mentally prepared for a full day at the airport. We got there around 4:30 am and by 7 we were boarded and ready to go on the first flight of the day! I had to sit up in the flight deck while Matt got some person stuck in the line-up's seat, and we were so relieved. As we were walking down the gate thing we were giggling and smiling and so happy! Anyway we got to Toronto and went straight to his little brother's hockey game, and then the Christmas festivities began. Christmas dinner here, there, at this Aunt's house and this other person's house. It was a lot but it was great. His parents were SO great about the whole gluten free thing. They were so careful, they'd watch every person and make sure they didn't use the same knife in two things, make sure no one touched this or that, it was awesome. Matt said we should take a page out of their book because I don't think we're even that careful. They even bought me a new toaster to keep at their place!

Christmas was fun at their place. His little brother got rock band, so we had fun playing on that for a while. Matt's parents got us a GPS for the car, which is really cool. We've already used it a few times and now Matt wants to take a road trip so we can use it more! My stocking was way bigger than any of theirs, and they all made fun of it, but Christmas came around and theirs were overflowing and basically had the same amount as mine. Anyway I got lots of nice presies and I had a great first Christmas away from home.

We made it home without a problem either, so all in all, standby travel at Christmas worked out really well. I thought it would be so much worse, and it really wasn't! Yay for us!

Now we're home, getting ready for Christmas number two with my family. We have new year's fondue, then on Friday we're doing Christmas with everyone here. It will be fun.

On a side note, I got a new coffee maker with my giftcard from futureshop. I would never have spent this much on a coffee maker, but since it was a gift, I decided to be frivalous. It's a kitchenaid coffee maker with a timer, a re-usable filter, a thermos pot, and a built in grinder. It's incredible. Our old coffee maker and grinder were the cause of much chagrin between the two of us. Matt hated the grinder, which really was terrible and would put grinds EVERYWHERE, and I was defensive over this poor grinder for no reason whatsoever. The coffee maker was once awesome, but the coffee started tasting really bad, and brewing all funny, and we tried a lot of things to make it taste better, but nothing worked. I still haven't gotten rid of it because it has an espresso maker attached and a frother, and I like making espresso drinks. I do have a stovetop espresso maker but no frother, so until I get something else, I'll keep it and pull it out when I need it. Last night we set the timer, put in the water, whole beans, and this morning at 5:30 I woke up to "burrrrrrrrrrrrrrwhirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgrinddddddddddddd drip drip drip" which made me giggle. Yay for new appliances!

I hope everyone has a good new year!

It's a storm!

Calgary is snowy. I don't like driving in the snow much, but it has to be done. I walked as much as possible today and yesterday, but I did have to drive to my mum's and check on the cat. The drive was alright, though I went slowly. The cat was lonely and sad to be locked out of my mum's room. My mum had put notes on every door saying "please leave closed" so even though Willow was meowing outside them, I had to obey the post-its.

I'm leaving for my last pairing of December tomorrow. I'm happy to have the rest of the month off, though I wish I didn't have to fly standby over the holidays. I have a feeling it will be a smidge busy.

I made some fudge last night. It's from Kirsten's recipe and it's super easy and delicious! I just need to stop eating it every time I open the fridge. I only take a little taste, but I'm thinking all those little tastes add up to a little more than I should have.

I got a $200 gift card for Future Shop at my second job's staff party! I couldn't believe that I won something, finally!!! I never seem to win draws or raffles, and this time I did! Now I need to figure out what to buy with it. Any suggestions?

Have a good week!