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Keeping Busy
Dec. 11th, 2008 10:00 amHow come, even though I plan so many things ahead of time for the holidays, I always wind up scrambling around this time of year to get everything done? Apparently I still need to learn how to pace myself. On the plus side of things, my car is getting serviced this morning and I remembered at the last minute that they have wi-fi here... so I grabbed my laptop. I may not be able to work on the 18 billion other things I need to get done, but at least I've finally got a bit of time to sit and update my LJ! (Here's where I should admit that quite a bit of my online time lately has been taken up with Lord of the Rings Online, since the Mines of Moria expansion just came out - I really love the new Warden character class!)
We got our first Christmas cards in the mail this last weekend... including one from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shapinglight, which proves she's probably the most amazingly on-the-ball person I know (considering she had to have sent that card out early enough from the UK for it to be among the first to arrive here!) and one from enigmaticblues! That same day we also got a card from tomte's mom, with an invite to their family's annual Smörgåsbord... which ended up changing our travel plans a bit (we'd intended to leave here on the 20th, but that's the day they're having it, so now we're looking at leaving on the 19th, or possibly even the 18th, depending on the weather). Nothing says Christmas like pickled herring!!! Yum!!
Speaking of Christmas, I can't begin to say how happy I am that CostCo has started carrying Tom Smith Christmas Crackers! They cost about a third what we used to have to pay for them at the British import store (and considering we like to buy enough for everyone at the big family dinner, that can get quite pricey) and we hadn't found any good weekends in December for a run up to Canada this year (although I do want to go at some point soon, since we still need to pick up Season 5 of Corner Gas on DVD -- and yes, I could just order it from Amazon Canada, but it costs about as much in shipping as it does to drive up there... and if I go myself, I can also buy chocolate). I'll still be swinging by British Pantry to get some more child friendly crackers (they usually sell some of that sort loose in a bin), but this a huge load off the budget!
Still way too much to get done before this weekend... my niece and nephew are having their first birthday and we're having a big family gathering down in Portland. I'm hoping to have everybody's Christmas presents ready and wrapped so I can hand them out then, rather than mailing them later. I'm also rather happy to be getting down to Portland again, since I've got a bit of shopping I need to do at Bob's Red Mill and at the Penzey's store (we're completely out of bay leaves and smokey paprika), plus when I was booking our hotel, it occurred to me I should check my Club Points... and sure enough, there were enough to cover the room! Woot!! Life should have more happy surprises like that.
We got our first Christmas cards in the mail this last weekend... including one from
shapinglight, which proves she's probably the most amazingly on-the-ball person I know (considering she had to have sent that card out early enough from the UK for it to be among the first to arrive here!) and one from enigmaticblues! That same day we also got a card from tomte's mom, with an invite to their family's annual Smörgåsbord... which ended up changing our travel plans a bit (we'd intended to leave here on the 20th, but that's the day they're having it, so now we're looking at leaving on the 19th, or possibly even the 18th, depending on the weather). Nothing says Christmas like pickled herring!!! Yum!!Speaking of Christmas, I can't begin to say how happy I am that CostCo has started carrying Tom Smith Christmas Crackers! They cost about a third what we used to have to pay for them at the British import store (and considering we like to buy enough for everyone at the big family dinner, that can get quite pricey) and we hadn't found any good weekends in December for a run up to Canada this year (although I do want to go at some point soon, since we still need to pick up Season 5 of Corner Gas on DVD -- and yes, I could just order it from Amazon Canada, but it costs about as much in shipping as it does to drive up there... and if I go myself, I can also buy chocolate). I'll still be swinging by British Pantry to get some more child friendly crackers (they usually sell some of that sort loose in a bin), but this a huge load off the budget!
Still way too much to get done before this weekend... my niece and nephew are having their first birthday and we're having a big family gathering down in Portland. I'm hoping to have everybody's Christmas presents ready and wrapped so I can hand them out then, rather than mailing them later. I'm also rather happy to be getting down to Portland again, since I've got a bit of shopping I need to do at Bob's Red Mill and at the Penzey's store (we're completely out of bay leaves and smokey paprika), plus when I was booking our hotel, it occurred to me I should check my Club Points... and sure enough, there were enough to cover the room! Woot!! Life should have more happy surprises like that.
