girls are weird.

31 December 2006

cocoa overload

I never, ever thought I would say this, but I can't face any more chocolate. There really is such a thing as too much chocolate, and I've surpassed my limit. For some strange reason, everyone got me products made of cocoa this year. How did they know that I have a bit of a thing for this type of treat? Yeah, subtle I'm not. My husband purchased stock in Cadburys for me, so I am now officially part owner. My chocolate booty this year included: Hotel Chocolate products (truffles and a 500g slab of rocky road chocolate), lots of Green and Blacks goodies, delicious fair trade Divine dark chocolate (it's morally good for you so you can eat more), a Green and Blacks cookbook that came with a giant bar of chocolate, and a selection of Canadian chocs from Mom. To top it all off, I made a chocolate trifle for Christmas Day and I spent the week nibbling on Quality Street and anything else that happened to be placed in little glass dishes around the house.

Chocolate, I love you dearly but we need a bit of a break. You fill me with happiness but you also make my heart burn. You've been keeping me up all night and this has to stop. Please forgive me for putting you in the pantry until I can face you again.

Pass the salad, please.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

22 December 2006

and the bells were ringing out for christmas day

It's the last day of work before the holidays, my cards are finally in the post, my cookies were a hit (the nursery staff requested I bring in more soon), our little boy made us a Christmas pudding card and met Santa, one of Jack's presents arrived yesterday (better than nothing), I had a wonderful meal at my favourite Indian restaurant with my lovely girlies last night, and I drove into work singing along to "Fairytale of New York" really loudly. I think I'm ready for Christmas now.

My fellow ex-pat Canuck Vero tagged me on this one, so here is the last meme on this blog for 2006.

Five things you (probably) didn't know about me:

I've never had a cavity. In my teeth; don't be rude.
When I was 7, I met one of the dogs who played "The Littlest Hobo". He signed a picture for me and I got my picture in the local newspaper.
I sold a book to Bjork. She's 2 feet tall and looks 8 years old. I also sold petrol/gas to Brian Orser, Canadian figure skater. He's 2 feet tall and looks 18 years old.
I spilled a plate of hot french fries in the lap of a blind man when I had a very brief career as a waitress. At the same job, I dropped a tray full of ketchup bottles.
The first record I ever bought was a 45 of Blondie's "Heart of Glass".

To all of you, have a wonderful holiday - and try not to get stuck in the fog. I mean honestly, how stereotypical. Now everyone's going to think it's always foggy here. Tsk.

Much love and happiness to everyone!
Lisa, Paul, Jack, Jasper, and Beanie xxx

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

20 December 2006

desperate measures

I've had to resort to child labour to get my cards finished. I'm not proud.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

jingle all the way

My cards are still sitting on the dining room table; filled out, addressed, but just not posted. Yes, even my overseas cards. I get a tummy ache just thinking about it.

Jack's nursery is having a Christmas party tomorrow and we were asked to donate some food for the festivities. I decided to make gingerbread men, and Jack could help decorate (we used up all the silver balls on the tree ornaments, so his nostrils should be safe for the time being). As I've found with all the North American cookie recipes I have, the gingerbread men didn't turn out well at all. The dough spread so the men look like Mr. Blobby, and the cookies turned out thin and crispy instead of thick and chewy like they are supposed to. Fortunately, I have a backup cookie recipe that I will try out tonight (bless you, Nigella) and that I know turns out perfectly fine with British ingredients in a British oven. Why do my recipes from home turn out so badly here? The same thing happened with a batch of chocolate chip cookies I tried out a couple of years ago, and it just uses standard ingredients like flour, baking soda, brown sugar, butter, eggs, etc. Truly, I'm stumped.

To top it all, I just got an email today saying that Jack's Christmas presents have been dispatched and should be arriving on December 27th. Thankfully, he's too young to know (or care) that his presents will be late, but I'm so disappointed. I know he'll have plenty of presents from all the relatives to open on Christmas Day, but I so wanted to see his reaction to his new JCB ride-on digger with accompanying hard hat.

On the plus side, our tree looks very pretty, all my shopping is done, and I don't have to cook or clean next week. Deck them halls.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

14 December 2006

i need some reindeer and a really fast sled

Okay so if you live in North America or New Zealand and you would normally receive a Christmas card from me, I can only offer my sincere apologies. Said cards are currently sitting on our dining room table (some of them written) and haven't made it anywhere near a mailbox yet.

I know, I know. Think of it as the Christmas that keeps on going, well into 2007.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

07 December 2006

because it's there

Last night, Jack found a little silver ball on the floor that had escaped when we made some decorations on Monday. See Exhibit A:

After a few moments, he pointed to his face and said "Ball! Nose!" and upon closer inspection, I saw a little silver glint in his right nostril. For reasons only known to his toddler mind, he decided to shove the decoration up his nose. Paul held his head while I tried to remove the ball from his nose with a pair of tweezers like a life-sized game of "Operation". It finally dropped out on its own and Jack went off on his merry way.

Seriously, why do kids do stuff like that? Is it to give us heart attacks?

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

04 December 2006

and then there were four

Introducing Beanie Baby (thus nicknamed at the 8 week scan because s/he looked exactly like a kidney bean), due June 16, 2007.

We had the NT scan today (to look for markers for Downs and other abnormalities) and all is well. Apparently I have the same risk as a 28-year-old now, which means I can now claim to be almost 10 years younger on my next birthday. Or at least that's my interpretation of things.

Details of the first 12 weeks and associated paranoia will be found on the baby blog shortly. But for now, one huge massive sigh of relief. My god, I will finally sleep tonight.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --