Attended a fun-filled Christmas Eve party at the neighbours last night. A bit too much red wine to drink and lots of laughter. J spent the day cooking up a traditional Christmas meal and, from my perspective, spent her time well. Since it had been about 8 years since she’d cooked a turkey there was a bit of panic in the cooking stage. Luckily S (not me) was around to offer up her expertise.

I brought our video camera and some blank disks over to L & J’s and we recorded messages and snippets of the evening for Drew. C brought out his guitar and performed some impromptu songs. Hopefully Drew will be able to hear the words over our crazed giggling.

We did a secret Santa stocking exchange and had fun opening and showing off our gifts. C was a good sport – having been the victim of our sense of humour in gift purchases – and modeled the silly tree hat we gave him while strumming his guitar and singing.

I was loaded up with left over turkey and gifts before I left. I sucessfully avoided peeking at them until the morning.

Drew stood in line for hours in order to make his phone call home and we had a great talk. I opened my gifts while Drew was on the phone and learned that Drew had conspired with J in the purchase of my present. I wanted a new fancy scmantzy blender. We’d loaned our old one to J over the summer and while it was gone I’d decided that we should let J keep our blender because I wanted one of the new ones that crushes ice and pours the drinks from a tap on the container. Drew traditionally does his Christmas shopping Christmas eve. No shopping for Drew equaled no presents for me and thus no blender…

I actually whined about how disappointed I was that I wasn’t getting a blender from Drew because of his deployment while we were in the kitchen at J’s.

I don’t know how J kept a straight face while I whined.

Apparently J had picked up a blender for me when she was out shopping with Drew and I. Drew’s job was to keep me distracted while helping her pick it out. He did a fabulous job because I’d had no clue what J had bought – or that it was for me – when we spent the afternoon together. I bought her line about picking up a food processor for her kitchen hook, line and sinker.

True to my word I ignored all incoming phone calls while waiting for Drew’s call. I did manage to talk to my sister before she headed to our adopted family in Winnipeg for her Christmas dinner. I missed a call from Drew’s grandma and my mom. By the time I could call it seemed too late in the evening. I’ll have to return their calls tomorrow.

‘Twas a good Christmas all things considered. Tomorrow I’m going to go back to working on collecting more items for Drew’s next care package. I’ll need to transfer the videos we took to CD or DVD and I need to write a letter to go with it.

Hope you had a merry Christmas and were able to spend the day with your loved ones.

DO NOT CALL ON CHRISTMAS.

It’s Christmas Eve in Kandahar and Drew called for a short period to let me know he’s calling Christmas morning. I have caller ID and fully intend to use it. If you’re not calling from a military switchboard I’m not picking up the phone until after I’ve spoken to Drew.

I feel as giddy as a school girl. We’ll get 40 minutes to catch up on all the news and I’m looking forward to every second.

It’s like my Christmas in Manila when my parents (and Drew) called the hotel to wish me Merry Christmas. Of course my parents got through the hotel switchboard on their first attempt while Drew was told to call back later since the hotel claimed I was sleeping and hadn’t even attempted to put his call through. I guess dad’s Scottish accent was unique or impressive enough to get his call put through immediately. It was neat getting calls from back home at Christmas since I did most of the calling home when I was traveling. It was a lot cheaper for me to call from my locally sourced cell phone than for anyone at home to call my hotel.

While you’re at it, don’t call Christmas Eve either. I won’t be home.

So how is Drew spending his Christmas Eve? Why he’s heading to Timmies for a coffee of course. I’m sure he’ll enjoy every sip.

For any Broomers visiting I shout have updates (and photos) relating to Mr. Orange Toque’s activities soon. Drew has access to the Internet (finally) and will be forwarding details soon. He’ll catch up on blog reading soon and will be able to read any messages passed on in the comments.

Exams are over and, discounting the weekend that I know will be nuts as we try to get everything ready for Drew’s departure, I’ve been busy doing as little as possible today. Got to sleep in this morning which was very lovely. Decadent even. Classes and exams are done until next semester so there was no need to get us early to study.

When we finally crawled out of bed we headed to the mall – Kingsway, not WEM – to do some last minute shopping for friends and neighbours. I’ve been pretty lazy this Christmas and am using Drew’s impending departure as my excuse. I didn’t sent out Christmas cards this year and am only sending a few packages out to friends and family. I haven’t actually shipped any of those yet either. The plan is to get them in the mail tomorrow. So don’t feel that I snubbed you if you receive nothing from us this year. You’re in good company as we snubbed nearly everyone. Grandma’s excepted. Can’t miss sending a package to Drew’s grandma. Just have to find her address. It’s around here somewhere…

After shopping we headed to our local Legion to renew our memberships. We really should be more active in our Legion since they do so much good work. I tend to say that it’s hard to find the time between school and work but I’m sure if I tried harder I could. Must do better in future.

As for school, I have one of my texts already so perhaps I should make use of the break between semesters to get some pre-reading before classes begin. Sounds like a good and mature plan. Likely means I won’t get around to it during the Christmas break. I don’t think my books for the other two classes will arrive before the new year.

Enough babbling. Time to spend some quality time with the hubby. Night all.

I frequently blog about how fortunate we are in our neighbourhood. We are surrounded by generous and giving people who are always willing to offer help.

For the past few weeks my back door handle has been sticking and I’ve been having trouble getting the for open. Today I couldn’t get the back door to open at all. I had to go around the house to get in through the front door. After letting the dogs out I walked across the alley for help. Within minutes L was at my backdoor with tools and working to ensure I could enter the house from the back. Since we park off of a back alley and all our motion lights are at the ban of the house being able to enter the house through the back was the most convenient and safest way to get into the house in the dark of night – otherwise known as winter.

I continue to be thankful that we live in an area where neighbours are always willing and available to lend a helping hand. Lucky. That’s us.

For those who have served and fallen – both during their service or after retirement – take a moment to remember their sacrifice.