Dyson Vacuum!

I got a Dyson, I got a Dyson, I got a Dyson, hey hey hey hey!

So I suckered myself and my husband to go out boxing day morning to go shopping. But it wasn't to an electronics store, or the mall. We went to Walmart which wasn't as busy as what I thought it was going to be. However we were there about 15 minutes before 6am (which is when it opened) and there was only about 10-15 people in front of us in the line. So I guess i should explain why we went out to Walmart for 6am in the first place. Well I am addicted enjoy looking through flyers when they come to our house, to look for sales to buy groceries or to just see what is new out there. Well in the Walmart flyer for their boxing day sale they had Dyson vacuums for sale! Yes for sale! If you know anything about Dyson vacuums is that they never go on sale, but they are amazing. I have wanted one ever since I worked at Linens n Things (which is over 4 yrs ago ish) Also we needed a new vacuum anyways because we do have central vac, however the one wall in the basement that it was running through is now torn out for the renovations, therefore leaving us with no vacuum. So this was the best chance for me to get a Dyson vacuum since we were in dyer need to vacuum our house. So once it was 6am they opened the doors and we all filed in. Everyone was heading for the electronics while Matt and I went straight to the house hold items. So we found the aisle with the vacuums and got all the way to the end where I saw that the Dysons displays were and look on the shelf below and......... it was filled with a different brand of vacuum. First thought was how can they be out of them already we are the first ones here. So I went to go look for someone on the floor to come and help me look up the vacuum. So so got one of those scanner guns to see if they had them in stock. She said the computer said ZERO. I thought ZERO, are you kidding me they are in the flyer, on sale, and I want one!!! So she told me to hold on for a minute (which of course is not one minute but several) while she went to go look for someone else to help her with this since it wasn't her usual department that she worked in. So then she came back with a guy and he tried looking it up with the gun then too, still no luck duh! So then they told me to hold on again while they went looking for some one else. So I kind of went and followed them and then they found a group of a few people and was asking them if they knew how to use the scan gun better because they thought maybe they were doing it wrong. In that group there was a manager of some department and she ask what they were looking for and once that happened then we were making some progress. She told them how they store these vacuums and where to look. So they got me to go back to the aisle where the vacuums were and then they brought me my vacuum!!!! YAYAYAY!! But I had to wait there now because Matt wanted to go and check out the electronics. So I sent him a text to let him know I have the vacuum and that I'm good to go (so he can come back now and carry it for me). He came over to where I was empty handed because he said that the line up was way too long. That didn't upset me one bit that he didn't buy any video games :). We got up to the tills and there was no line ups, yes I know no line ups at walmart that never happens. But everyone else that was in the store was all in the electronics department Bah ha suckers! Off we went back home with my new vacuum! We got home and while I was getting some food ready that we were going to bring to his older brother's home to have Christmas with Matt's family, Matt was taking the Dyson out of the box and putting it together (it was like it was his new toy) A few days later we tested it out and did a "spring" cleaning of our bed room and Matt was really impressed with how well it worked.

Boxing Day

This year for boxing day Matt's side of the family all went to Lethbridge where his older brother and his family live which is about a 2 hour drive for us. But luckily the weather was in really great condition for driving yay no snow storm, that always makes it hard to get to places around Christmas time. This year we didn't do a traditional dinner but instead we all brought different appetizers (i forgot to take a picture of all the food) there were so many different kinds of appetizers to choose from that I got full so fast! After we had our dinner that evening we all went downstairs and opened the gifts under the tree. This year was so much fun opening gifts because our niece and nephews and are getting bigger and getting more excited about presents. I only took a few pictures this year because it was just too much fun watching the kids and of course most of the pictures are just of the kids.

"A" was so excited with his gift that he was running towards Matt and I to give us a hug! It was so cute. (that's why the pic is a bit blurry and that it has my finger in it too, I was trying to get him running but he just runs too fast now)

This is Little "B" he is getting so big now and his older brother "A" kept taking his gifts from him (they both really like cars)

From Left to Right, Richard (Matt's older brother), Dad (Matt's dad), Karina (Kris's wife) and Kris (Matt's younger brother)

Little "B" and big sis "R" were getting right in there for opening "A" 's gift from us.



Little "B" found something more interesting the his next gift



The car the "A" is holding is Lightning McQueen from Cars, it was part of his gift from us.

He was talking to Uncle Matt

Oh this is the gift that I bought for Karina since the "siblings" do secret Santa even though every year we know who has bought for us when we open the gifts. But I got her a frame that says "mom + dad =me" cute right? I also put pics of them in it with an ultra sound pic of baby :)

There is "A" playing with his car. I'm glad he likes his gift from us.

Christmas Eve 2010

 So is it just me or did Christmas come really fast this year? I hope everyone had a really great Christmas with friends and family. So our Christmas started off in tradition in that Christmas Eve we would go to my parents house and have our Christmas dinner and gift opening. Our Christmas guest list this year included of course my mom and dad, my older brother, myself and my husband, John and Rachel, and Rachel's brother Josh and Stefan from Austria (he was here on a student exchange program). It was a lot of fun with this group of people.

Remember that post about the perogies? Well they served their purpose that night, they were sooooo good! They take so long to make but so little time to eat them. As a tradition for our Christmas Eve dinner, we start off with passing around a "wafer" and who ever is passing it around to everyone else, wishes them Merry Christmas as they break off a piece and eat it (its a polish tradition) Then we have mushroom soup as the "starter" and then comes out the rest of the food for the main course which includes perogies, cabbage rolls, chicken swiss, butter and onions, mushrooms and onions, a shrimp ring and this year my mom through in a zucchini dish to try to make it a bit healthier. Also something that is always at the table for this meal that I refuse to eat is pickled haring! Ewwww! No way am I eating that.

Once dinner is finished we are all usually so full so we don't really have dessert, we all go and try to find a place to sit  lay down so our food can digest. Then we all go into the family and start off with our stockings. But this year before we got into our stockings mom wanted to get a group picture of all of us.



Here is the first one (starting at the back left is my husband Matt, Me, Rachel, her husband John, my Dad, in front of my dad is my mom, then it is Stefan, Josh and then my brother Jonathan)



Then mom wanted to have a "funny" picture so she went and got all of these stuffed animals to join in on the picture. Also this time too my mom gave Josh (Rachel's brother) the remote for the camera to push the button to take the picture. Well he thought it was pretty cool and kept snapping pictures as you will see with the next few pictures that follow.

Starting to get a little silly (my brother)

A few more getting silly



We couldn't stop laughing so my mom was trying to get to the camera before Josh could snap anymore pictures.

Stocking time!
Stefan, Jonathan and Dad

Josh, John and Rachel



Myself, Matt and my Mom

Then once we are done opening our stockings we move into the living room and open the gifts under the tree. I have always been the one to hand out the gifts, I'm not sure how it started but it now happens every year. So this year my mom came up with an idea for all the guys for gifts this year. I'm not sure who of you have been to baby showers or wedding showers where they have the "dice game" where you have to pass around a bowl with a pair of dice in it and try to get a pair of doubles. If you get a pair of doubles then you get to choose from the pile of "game gifts". Well my mom did the same thing for the guys. So they were passing around the bowl with the dice in it and were able to get 3 gifts each (to make it fair) then they opened them and they were all ties. And this is what they decided to do with them.

Yes they all have had a few drinks by this point. But even if they weren't drinking they still would have done this.

Then one of them came up with the bright idea that every time mom took a picture they would all have to take a sip of their drink (or a shot)

This was a "gag" gift for Matt from my brother. Since we are doing renos in our basement my brother had extra insulation that he was going to give Matt but wanted to wrap it up for him. So he got me to help him wrap it (like he does every year with Christmas) and this is how it turned out.

Then getting to the end of the night we were all downstairs and the Karaoke machine got turned on and the guys broke out to some Christmas songs and a few others.

Christmas Day

Sorry that I didn't take this picture with
better lighting or with its lights on :)

So Christmas Day was a lot quieter then most in the past. This year Matt and I decided that we would just spend Christmas together, just the 2 of us. This was also decided to be this way since our families are growing, on his side of the family his older brother has 3 kids and his younger brother has one on the way due in February. We were all together earlier this year in the fall and talked it over (the sister in-laws) and thought that it would be a good idea that the "individual families" start their own traditions for Christmas Day. This way they can have their family Christmas opening gifts and breakfasts or whatever they choose to do, but still having it open that if grandparents / parents feel like going to the different houses they are more then welcome too. I know that some people may think that well Christmas Day you all need to be together, but really I feel that it doesn't matter which day you all get together for Christmas to celebrate because as long as your all together it shouldn't matter the day. Plus in a way I sometimes find Christmas time to be a bit stressful. Not sure if I'm the only one that feels this, but just to clarify its not that I don't still enjoy it. I really do Love this time of year. I love to watch people open their gifts that I give them and them being happy with it, I'd rather give gifts that I feel people would really like and enjoy then receive gifts (if that makes sense) Like when giving gifts to my niece and nephews, that is fun to watch because they get so excited about it!
But anyways back on track of what Matt and I did on Christmas Day. Well in the morning Matt and I opened our gifts to each other, we were first going to not exchange gifts but then I found a few things that he could use (just small stuff) and then getting closer to Christmas I was grouping the gifts together for the different places that we were going to be going to and then his gifts were left under the tree and he asked me who those were for. I told him that they were for him, so then on Christmas Eve on his way home from work he went out and got me something too even though he didn't have to because I told him it was just little stuff and it was all useful things. So it was kind of a funny situation, oh well it all worked out. So anyways after gifts then we went to Church that morning. On the way home from church we were trying to think of what we were going to eat for lunch, since we forgot to take left overs from my parent's house from Christmas Eve dinner. So we thought we would swing by this Vietnamese restaurant that we like to eat from to see if they might be open, and they were! So we ordered out some food and brought it home, it was soo good, and best part about it we didn't have to make it. As we were eating it we popped in my new movie that I got , Fantasia!

All time favorite movie, I loved watching it as a kid, I love the dancing mushroom part its so cute. Matt was laughing at me when I was watching it (I was kind of dancing on the couch to the music). How ever we didn't get through the whole movie that afternoon because we both fell asleep on the couch. I guess we were both just so tired. Oh well its nice to get a nap in when you can. Once we woke up it was a pretty uneventful evening, the only thing I really did was try to figure out where to put our new gifts that we got.
I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too!!

Weekend Recap

So this weekend was very busy! It was all related to one day but it took a while to get it all ready. On Saturday we had our annual Christmas youth service and dinner. So Friday night involved getting all the items that I would be needing to use to cook with on Saturday and the extra things that I needed to bring with me on Saturday to the church.
Saturday morning starting around 8:30-9:00am I started cooking. I had two turkeys in the sink that had been thawing since Tuesday in the fridge, getting their finally bit of thawing done while I was toasting the bread and sauteing onions for the stuffing and cutting and peeling vegetables to put in with the turkeys. I finally got the turkeys both in their roasters (one for the oven and one electric roaster its huge!) Once the birds were in I had to clean up from that, there was a lot of cleaning that day! A bit later I started the potatoes, my hubby helped me peel all 30 pounds of them! There was a lot of mashed potatoes made from that. So the birds were done around 3:20ish which gave me just over an hour to dissemble them and put the stuffing, vegetables, sliced up turkey and gravy all into different dishes. Ya, just over an hour is so not enough time to handle 2 birds! I was running so behind because it is not easy to cut up a turkey when it is super hot! It was about quarter to 5 (5pm is when the service started) so I had everything cut up and in their separate dishes changed out of my yoga pants as fast as I could I got clothes on for church (trying to put tights on fast is a challenge) got everything in my car and made it to the church about 5 after. I had some help from one of the youth leaders which was great, we managed to get everything done that needed to get done during the service so it would be ready for all of the youth and their parents when service was done.
So coming home last night and walking into my kitchen SUCKED!!!! Since I was in such a rush I had the mess from the birds left to clean up, ya I know it was gross of me to leave the bones and fat and left overs all over my counter but I had no time to clean up before. Oh well about an hour later I was basically done, the roasters just had water and soap in them to soak over night so it would be easier to clean them in the morning.
Here are some pictures of all the food. One of the youth leader couples made the salad, and the other couple brought the desserts and my mom made the ham.

Today (Sunday)

We had service in the morning which was good, my husband though had to travel to Crows Nest Pass in the morning for service. After service I had talked with one of the ministers because I am having some trouble with a friend of mine and just wanted to get some advice on the situation. I feel like I got what I needed and hopefully things will work out. Then my brother and I went to our parents house because it is my Dad's birthday today! We had a nice afternoon together and my hubby was able to stop by as well when he got back from Crows Nest Pass. He had some bad news about his truck though, there was something on the high way and he thought it was nothing maybe a chunk of ice or something but when he drove right up to it, it jump and broke the grill on the front of the truck and ended up puncturing the radiator. So this is what caused all this damage.

So this was not a very good start to the week.

Floral Fridays

So this is totally back tracking I should have posted these flowers first because they were the first flower arrangements that I did. I didn't do these arrangements by myself though I did them with my sister in law. We were asked to do the flowers for a big service and thought it would be good to do them together. So here is how it turned out.

Floral Fridays

Here are some more flowers, not sure if you can tell but these flowers a did a few months after the flowers I did on the last post. It saved a lot of time!

MEXICO Vacation!!!!

Ahhhh vacations! I wish I could go on vacation anytime I felt like it. We just got back from Mexico on December 1, to all the snow burrrr! How ever we did get to miss some of the cold weather which was great. We went to the Mayan Riviera and stayed at the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo Resort click here to view the site. We had great weather during our time there, it was around 28 to 30 degrees Celsius everyday. There were a couple of days where it was a little bit cloudy but still really nice. Also it did rain a little bit but it only rained in the evening and it would only be for 30 minutes or so. It was really great to just lie around by the pool and relax, why can't that be everyday?

                                      
                                             Here is the ocean from the beach

 These are some of theTulum ruins that we saw on our guided tour which was really cool to have a guide because he gave us some of the history. Like Since I was the youngest girl of our "tribe" I would be sent out for sacrifice. How great is that hey. The ruin above was used to determine when the 4 seasons would change. It would depend on which window the sun shone through (or something like that I can't really remember now) and that would tell them which season it was.

                                      At the El Rancho Resturant on the resort
                       Below is Matt's brother Richard and our sister in-law Kunthea

So this resort has a golf course attached to it, it is connected by a tunnel that goes under the high way since it is one the other side of the of the resort. So it was my first time golfing!!! I had a lot of fun. We signed up to do the full 18 holes, and a big bucket of golf balls at the driving rang shared between 2 people. So Matt and Richard were in a cart together and Kunthea and I were in a cart together, we had so much fun and we did awesome! We didn't finish all 18 holes because we are newer at golf and by the time we got to the 17th hole it was starting to get dark (we started to golf at their twilight time) and the bugs were coming out and we were getting eaten alive! I had 10 bite from my ankle to under my knee on only one leg!!! But it was still a really good experience and I defiantly think I will golf again.

This was from our Mayan Xtreme/ Snorkel Xtreme excursion. I was a bit nervous to do the repelling the first time because I wasn't too sure what to expect, but the second time I went do it was so fun I went down really fast!

                                                     Matt really liked it too

 

This was the underground "river" that you got to snorkel in, the water was ice cold and it was very dark but still a good experience non the less