Catch Up Fridays

(Cathy) Merry Christmas everyone!!!!
It is now 8:52pm and I am now sitting down for the first time this evening. I have to be in bed in thirty minutes. I think I am done; done with all my lists. I usually like to have a spotless home for Christmas, however, this year I decided to just clean the bathrooms and do a general tidy. Hopefully, tomorrow when I am at work in the chaos, someone at home will vacuum the floors.
We received a few early gifts for Christmas this year. First, our older son received his first early acceptance to university! Very exciting! Secondly, I was able to get Christmas Day off!!!!!! Christmas is all about family and friends and sharing and caring and now I will be able to participate!

Hey Ladies, are you all ready for Christmas? Who is hosting and who is cooking what? Is anyone trying anything new this year? Where is everyone going to be this year?

(Carolin) This home is all ready as well. Gifts are bought, wrapped and this new tradition you have started of letting Christmas come with a messy house 'Rocks'. As we too, also will not have a spotless clean house. We are NOT hosting Christmas this year. YEAH!!!! My Mom will come tonight and then tomorrow afternoon we will head to my Aunt's for Christmas festivities. I am to bring the turkey and dressing. I cooked the turkey yesterday while at work so I am ready to go.

Just in case anyone forgot:





Merry Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone!

Catch Up Fridays

(Sunshine) Hi everyone. Its been a busy week. Christmas is almost here and everywhere you look you can fell the hustle and bustle and sometimes the panic. Its kind of exciting. I am finally putting up our Christmas tree today. Have a wonderful week and try and remain calm amid all of the chaos. (Cathy) Putting up your Christmas tree means carrying it upstairs, right??? (already still decorated from years past, lol!)

(Carolin) Another week passes us by. I was feeling stressed this past week but after this weekend I feel much better. The teenager was able to get the little one's gifts all wrapped. I got all the laundry and house cleaned on Saturday. The little one and I even were able to get the basement cleaned! Today (Sunday) the husband, little one and I went to the new Loblaw's grocery store that open a few weeks ago. I had wanted to check it out and was very impressed. Loblaw's had bought the iconic Maple Leaf Gardens http://loblaws.ca/60carlton/ a few years ago and have turned the famous Hockey/Rock Concert Venue into a very impressive upscale grocery store. They did a good job and have kept the history of the Gardens with pictures on the walls and on tables. At first it felt weird walking into a building to pick up some coffee cream. The husband and I had our first date in that building back on May 7th 1982. We saw Brian Adams and Loverboy in concert it was very surreal being there. The first time I was there that I can remember was for one of those , "on ice" shows. I was very young. The next time was when I was in high school and my girlfriends and I took the bus after school and went to our first concert! The Village People!!! It was fun!

After our grocery shopping we then headed to the Lowe's Christmas Market at the Distillery District.http://torontochristmasmarket.com/. It was very enjoyable but like all things in Toronto the crowds take some of the enjoyment out of it. It was a nice afternoon and then to top it off we stopped by my Mom's for a little visit. So all and all it was a great weekend! We would love to go to the Christmas Market, especially at night. I'm surprised it doesn't stay open until after Christmas. The weeks that it is open are always busy and no one is able to go after work during the week. Maybe next year.

Oh Yeah I forgot to mention the little one and I went to see, "Arthur's Christmas" http://www.arthurchristmas.com/ Friday night. The movie was OK (a little dull) except the part where Toronto is featured. Of course they could not say Toronto but kept calling it Tor-On-Toe. I am not a big fan of 3D movies and that seems to be all they make now adays. If I had realized it was 3D I wouldn't have gone. This new fangled movie technology is not for me. I know I am old, the teenager keeps telling me that I am not 'old' , I am 'OLD'. Oh well that's me and I am learning to embrace my old.


Gosh, I am trying not to think "old". Hubby and I have noticed that there is finally a generation gap between us and the boys. I have no idea when it happened. The energy is just not there the same as it was years before. I even find myself listening to the classical music station at times because it is just so calm and peaceful!


Carolin, do you work up until Friday? I think you already told me but I forgot. And, hey Sunshine, what is happening with the job??????? Are you still working at the camera store in the group of stores up by where we all used to live??? (hint, hint)


Merry Christmas everyone!


p.s. I am just started to read Dicken's "A Christmas Carol". I have seen the movie but have never read the book. So far, it's great!

Catch Up Fridays

(Cathy) Hi all, it's Friday again! How was everyone's week? I have to work both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. My first time ever! Oh well. I still have to get the dinner thing sorted out. (Carolin)Why do YOU have to get dinner sorted out while you are at work? Your kids are not babies anymore they can figured it out on there own Cathy. We had pancakes and leftover stew for dinner the other night?? It was kinda good. (Sunshine) It was a challenging week. Mr Sunshine has been gone all week long and the girls have been taking turns being sick and I have been working and training and today I was feeling sick as well. I am ok with the flu and even the stomach flu but when out of the blue I fell like I am on a ship with big waves and I need to hold onto something it really freaks me out. Hopefully you feel better. Again where are you working?


Carolin, how did your week go? I hope you have a free day or night coming up soon so we can have a ladie's night out. Your comments last week hit home and I agree with you. We ladies are too wrapped up in our little lives and we need to physically see each other and have a good gab fest. Any news from the school front? I am up for getting together. I miss it all very much. I find it very sad that many of the things that we use to do routinely are now gone, ie. ladies night, Cookie exchange, etc. But I guess life has its twists and turns so although I feel that we try to keep past traditions going inevitably we have had to give in on letting things go. The next two weeks the husband is on afternoons so I don't have the freedom as much. I have next Friday night free but will have the little one with me more then likely. A evening during the week is to hard for me.

It has been a weird week with the principal. There has been NO mention of my email sent to him Sunday night. But he has come by to introduce me some IT guy and his son who are doing upgrades with the schools networks? Also I found a Christmas card in my work mailbox from him thanking me for all I do. Very strange indeed. Not sure if I am being set up for a slaughter or what.

I have a busy couple of weeks at work to get through and then I will very much enjoy my break. I have a Banquet to cater on the 19th for 80 people and hope to get alot of the prep done nex week so the Monday day and evening run smoothly. Also I am makeing and packaging up 600 cookies in 1 dozen bags for a Charity in the city to hand out to the needy. I would like to get them all baked next week and the Teenager will come in next Tuesday and bag them all. By the way she turns 20 in a few weeks so I guess I need to come up with another name for her.

Hey Sunshine, how did work go this week? Have you been given a schedule yet? Work was good. I am on a day to day schedule for now. The deliveries that are suppose to be scheduled to come in on a certain day at a certain time don't always get there so my schedule changes daily. When I left on Friday the assistant manager told me that the manager will call me this weekend to tell me when to come in next week. Are you enjoying this job so far and hopefully they will give you a schedule so you can plan around it. The Teenager is working in retail (seasonal) and also enjoys it on the most part but she doesn't deal to much with the customers. She has all this coming week off because of exams.


Ten days until Christmas!!!!! Yikes!!!


Merry Christmas everyone! And I do mean Christmas and not Season's Greetings!!

Catch Up Fridays... on Tuesday???

(Cathy) I go away for a week and no Friday blog! I feel so important!!! (ha, ha, ha) Hubby and I went away to the Riviera/Maya last week for the first time without our boys. I don't know how I did it. All the planning that takes place prior to leaving makes one wonder if it will be all worth it? A great big thanks to Sunshine and her family who took in our boys for the week. It was great knowing that we didn't have to worry about them. In fact, upon returning Hubby and I didn't think they even wanted to come home! They were spoiled!!! My sister took out puppy and he too was spoiled. Oh well, back to reality for one and all! The reality is.... there is snow on the ground!?! Oh where is my sandy beach, blue sky and cerveza???? (Sunshine) Welcome back Cathy. A sandy beach, sunshine and a blue ocean sounds really good. We enjoyed having the boys over, we will all miss them very much. Also, I am so sorry but I completely forgot about the blog this week. (Carolin) Well don't I feel sheepish, I didn't know Cathy was away or that Sunshine had the boys. Good thing we are a tight knit bunch of friends. I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable time Cathy.

Well I started my new job on Monday and I work the next three days in a row. Right now there has been a lot of on line training modules that I have finally finished. I must say that it is so different from what I am use to. A much calmer environment and a very normal pace and a clean work place. I am so use to the hustle and bustle of the school cafeteria's. Even dressing up to go to work seems a little strange. I realize that I have absolutely no dress clothes or shoes at all. Oh, well it is part time seasonal so I may only have this job until the end of December so I will have to make due with the wardrobe that I have. I only worked five hours at the location so far and about six hours on line but I am enjoying it so far. There is a lot to learn and I am up for the challenge of working on something new. I really hope that Miss Teen Sunshine gets her licence in January that would solve any issues with me working past the end of the school day. Once again out of the loop, where are you working?

Well I feel a little foolish blogging as it is obvious I don't know what is going on with my besties. My excuse is it was Bethlehem Breakfast last weekend, and you know the stress that causes me. Even more so this year as they decided to sell tickets at the door be neglected to tell the cook. I bought and cooked for 160 people as I was told the numbers were on Friday. Then they sold another 50 tickets at the door and the powers that be wondered why we ran out of food. O well it is done and I don't have to think about it anymore, till next year anyway.

I have been having some issues with the Principal this past week. Well lets say I have had enough and wrote a extensively long email answering a zillion questions and why I do what I do in reference to Food Services. I then decided to not just leave it at that and also expressed my feeling on how I have been treated this past two years and demanded respect or I was leaving (as well as my child). I have had no response but I did find a Christmas card from him in my work mailbox (first time). Also he came to the kitchen today to introduce some IT guy (again first time) . So don't know if all is good or if I am being set up for a slaughter.

Now if I can get the nerve to deal with Dragon Lady all will be good. I was given the evil eye yesterday because she screwed up and tried to blame it on me and I would have nothing to do with that. Maybe I am growing a back bone (just a little).


So I know what Sunshine was doing..... what has Carolin been up to last week???

Carolin, where are you?


Have a great weekend everyone!