sweet tooth

The novelty of eating well is wearing off.
I need scandalously delicious recipes to entice me to continue on this journey to better health.
So far I've discovered a love of grapefruits and sliced & baked sweet potatoes.
Wait - is it grapefruit, or grapefruits?
Anyhow, since I opened my Christmas stocking from Jamie and it was full of delicious morsels like ferrero rocher, hershey's chocolate mint 60 cal sticks (they're only 60 cals if you only eat one!), and Terry's Chocolate Orange, I've definitely been enticed to sneak a taste (or more than just a "taste") a few times.
*sigh*
My sweet tooth is just too much for me sometimes.

sweet find

Today I went to Value Village to a) try and find black pants and b) help Jamie find some "throwback" suits for a video he's making.

Instead, I walked away with this sweet find for $1.99 (and it's not from China - made in England!):

It's a silver tray. I'm quite pleased with it. Just in time for the Christmas season of taking Christmas cookies to and fro to friends and relatives.
I also debated buying a scandalous green dress.
I decided against it because ... well, basically I would never wear it in public. And that would be a waste of money. Let's be honest, here.

tunes

As I sit here wasting my time away fiddling with this blog and listening to Christmas music on the tv (I love those cable stations!) I started thinking about my favourite Christmas songs.
Here are mine:
*Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (just because there aren't any words doesn't mean you can't sing along to it!)
*O Holy Night
*Do They Know It's Christmas? (when it's sung by The Barenaked Ladies - the live version!)
*All I Want For Christmas Is You - sung by Mariah Carey of course
*Baby It's Cold Outside
*Christmas Waltz
*Christmas Time All Over The World
*Joy To The World
And one I wish I could sing and mean it: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - only because there's no snow. :(
What are some of your Christmas faves?

baking goddess

I just finished watching A Christmas Carol - the REALLY old version.
It was a truly festive evening as I sat on the couch with my hot chocolate and mini marshmallows and watched this old Christmas favourite.

And this afternoon I discovered the amazing smell of boiling a stick of cinnamon and orange peel with a bit of water. My apartment now smells incredible! And very festive. :)

I baked like a mad woman yesterday; I made Chewy Molasses-Spice cookies (my favourite of the bunch), Bittersweet Shortbread (made with huge chunks of bittersweet chocolate and pecans) and Peppermint chocolate cookies (which taste good but were extremely sticky and difficult to work with).
So it turns out that Martha (that's Martha Stewart of course!) really DOES know a thing or two about recipes - and Christmas recipes especially!
The Chewy Molasses-Spice cookies recipe I got from her website and you can get it too right here!
So enjoy and happy eating! :D

Sincerely - The Baking Goddess

Bing and Heroes

Oh how I love the whole Christmas season.
Tonight I watched Bing Crosby in White Christmas, sipped warm milk with cinnamon and wrapped a plethora of presents.
It was...delightful!
I realized something today - or at least during my preparations for Christmas;
I love giving gifts. Receiving them is (are? Beth...help me out here) nice, but I really do love giving gifts. BUT...when you start buying presents for people for the sake of buying presents for them - then I feel...frustrated with the sense of obligation that I feel - and don't WANT to feel.
On an entirely different note:
While browsing facebook I found a wall-to-wall with Priyanka and Jenn about tv addictions and Pri left a link to a site where Jenn could get addicted to Heroes. This show looks interesting to me so I clicked on the link (cue foreboding music now) and watched the pilot episode.
It was good.
I might watch a few more episodes...*famous last words*

trip

My time in Tanzania has come and gone and I'm left with (among other things) a slight glow of a tan.
Actually the shepherding trip to Tanzania was encouraging for both myself and the STINT team. It was really good to catch up with the girls and to see their place, meet their disciples and the other girls they work with and get a reminder of African culture.
Someone asked me when I returned if it made me more excited to go on STINT next year.
My answer is definitely no.
It was more of a reality check - which is a good thing. I think it's good that I know and have a better idea of what I'm walking into, what I'm committing a year of my life to and the kind of living conditions I'll be living in.
Anyway...so this trip was good for me to rethink through my reasons for going next year and if it's the best decision for Jamie and I.
Oh and lying on the beach was also pretty incredible. :)

tomorrow

Tomorrow we leave for Tanzania.
As usual, I haven't started packing yet. Speaking of which - I need to switch my laundry.
Alright. Laundry switched and a tentative laying-out-of-clothes to be packed.
So we leave tomorrow.
I'm excited, actually. It'll be really good to see the gang and I'm looking forward to being able to encourage and minister to them. I feel like this is a time when you get tired and just want to slow down and so I hope that God will use me to bless and lift up the STINTers.
It's kinda funny to be getting out my shorts and tanks and t-shirts and thinking that in a few days I will be sweating my brains out.
Apparently it feelsl ike 40 degrees in Tanzania right now.
Good grief.
Celebrating Christmas in the summer is an interesting experience. The last time I did that was in 2000 when I was in Australia with some friends. It was much more laid back and much less commercial. We went surfing on Christmas morning. So bizarre!
I'm excited to surprise and delight the STINTers with some gifts and letters that will hopefully encourage them greatly!
I'm also glad that I had this past weekend to relax and just "be" so that I could let God minister to me after being so busy for the past 3 months.
All in all...I'm excited to be going to Tanzania tomorrow.

O Tannenbaum

The tree is up!

fire!

A story for your reading pleasure:

I was just about to down the rest of my 1% milk after finishing an oh-so-healthy dinner of mac n' cheese (extra cheesy) when the blaring sound of the fire alarm interupted me. I looked up at my husband and he looked at me and we both shrugged it off as a false alarm (after telling this to Kirsten she smiled and said "And that's why people die in fires." True enough). Then we heard the sound of footsteps and yelling so we peeked outside and saw people running out the back door. Jamie asked if there really was a fire and a man said "Yes, it's in my apartment!"
The moment of truth came upon us.
What would we take with us?
We both put on our jackets and shoes and Jamie mentionned that he wanted to take our tv with him. I said no dice.
So we walked out the back door and looked up to the third floor (our apartment is on the first/bottom floor). We could see a glow of amber from the blazes coming through the kitchen window. Black smoke was seeping out of the first window and one of our neighbours was standing in her pajamas holding a baby talking to a 911 operator.
And now I must say that I have the utmost respect and admiration for (as Jamie says) our city's finest (aka our firefighters). Within 5 minutes of that phone call there were 3 fire trucks, 2 ambulances, 1 pick up truck with flashing lights (I'm not entirely sure what it was) and a cop car! Mercy!
Those brave dudes tromped upstairs and put out that fire. By this time, all 4 windows of that apartment were black and even more smoke was seeping out. The firefighters opened the balconey door and windows of the bedrooms and black smoke just billowed out. It was quite amazing. For a moment...I felt a wave of fear and sorrow. I'm not sure why...I think it was because I felt compassion for the man and all his belongings
One little girl was scared - or so I thought. Turns out she was crying because she thought all her books would get burned up. Hoorah for education.
All in all, our apartment was fine (and so was our cat - we actually didn't go back in to get him...is that bad?) but I have no idea about the apartment with the fire. I assume it was pretty bad.
So that was my little bit of entertainment for the evening/week.
Some thoughts:
- I should definitely consider getting renters insurance
- I liked that I got to meet some of my neighbours. What a way to bring the community together.
- I think being a firefighter would be scary. Full of risks, the unknown and dangerous situations.
- Despit not taking any material possessions with me, I would have been really sad if my things had been damaged/destroyed.
- I like having a "story" to tell.

I tried to post pictures but blogger isn't co-operating, so I will try and update this post again maybe tomorrow with pictures.

Christmas

I'm not even going to lie; I love Christmas. And I have already pumped out the Christmas tunes. Shuster was over and asked me why I love Christmas. Good question, Shustey.
Here are just a few reasons why I love Christmas:

• the traditions eg. Christmas baking and all the delicasies I get to make, Christmas stockings!!!, Christmas morning brunch with my mom's amazing sticky buns
• seeing family and friends that I don't often get to see
• all the good food!
• Christmas tunes
• Christmas movies (oh yes...the Grinch!)
• taking time to think about and remember the Christmas story
• Christmas Eve services
• I used to like lounging around on Christmas day, but I now have to split up Christmas day between 2 sometimes 3 different gatherings (but that's ok too)

And there's many more things, but those are just a few.

lovely ladies

Can I just say how much I love both this picture and these girls!?!? What a great picture and what fantastic ladies!
It just gives me warm fuzzies looking at it.
Props to Becky for taking this picture of both herself and the 7 other people in this pic! I think that's gotta be some kind of record!

carnal

Bah! I tried to tape LOST last night and for some reason every time I try and tape programs on tv (and I do exactly the same thing Jamie does and it works for HIM) it doesn't tape!!!! Why!?!? I was anticipating watching LOST tonight with a nice hot mug of something nice, cuddling up in my beautiful bowl chair. But nope. Instead, I'm venting about it on blogger today.
Today has not been a very spirit-filled day for me. I have lived carnally and felt like cuddling up in bed and not getting out.
Do you ever have those kinds of days?
In the meantime, I dream of one day owning a PVR - which is like a Tivo. Which basically tapes all your programs without the hassle of tapes and silly buttons. But I am sure there are other hassles/electronic frustrations.

home & the future

Having a clean house is a good feeling.
Even just having a tidy house feels nice.
After being busy for the past couple months (like really busy!) and sick for a couple days this week I finally got around to scrubbing down the bathroom and even having a serious go at the kitchen sink.
A home is a place where you can rest.
It's a place where you can be at peace, no matter what's going on "out there".
It's a safe place. Somewhere to have friends over and entertain. Somewhere to relax on a Saturday afternoon with a good book.
I like my home.
Recently I've been thinking about next year and what my "home" will be like in Tanzania. I have mulled over the comforts I won't have there (like constant electricity, water, bug-free"ness", etc.) and I found myself facing all the same questions that I feel like I've been through many times before;
Will it be worth it?
Can I handle it?
Am I that shallow that mere "comforts" are causing me to hesitate?

And then there's the thoughts about whatever comes after Tanzania.
Where will we live? Will we be able to settle down? Who will we work with? What about starting a family?
But then, something Corrie Ten Boom said rushes into my mind like a flood: Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.
So true. So true.

pandora

I just have to post about this fabulous website since no one else has - but it seems like quite a few people know about it!
It's called Pandora and it's a website (www.pandora.com) and you type in the name of an artist or a song and then the program generates a music station based upon that artist or song and plays other songs and artists that it thinks you might like.
It's a really fun way of finding new bands that you might not think of!
I likes it. Yep. Yep I do.

commercials

I like commercials.
Well, good commercials.
Commercials make me laugh, chuckle and even sometimes cry.
One commercial recently brought me to tears. It's for the Sick Kids Hospital and it's different shots of kids in the hospital (with broken arms, getting an MRI, etc.) singing "Lean on me".
I bawled.
And then just now a commercial for tostitos came on. It was a group of people sitting in an airport lounge and upon hearing their flight is delayed they all start talking and sharing tostitos and salsa. Who just happens to carry around not only a large bag of tostitos, but also a jar of salsa?
Sometimes I just don't get commercials - or at least the people that write them.