christmas

well christmas in quebec certainly was interesting. to start with, it wasnt white, it was brown and green and cold.........but we had a very white boxing day :) so im happy with the -10 as long as it stays white. i made my self a snow family (and was quite proud) but the dog peed on them so i had to smash it up (that was fun too).

christmas eve: didnt really do much. I spent a lot of times playing with the presents under the tree trying to guess what things were. Thanks to mum and danielle i had 16 little presents there, one from my granma, one from my host parents here, and 2 from my host brother and host sister. Early afternoon Genvieve came with the two little boys. They werent there for long, just to say hi and bye passing through to where they would stay the night and return the next day. My host mum got an early christmas present, her daughter is pregnant with teh third child. She cried and I think my host dad had a little tear too. Very cute. We had takeaways for dinner (i found that very amusing) and stayed up late to go to midnight mass. My host mum went to the mass at 7:30 because midnight was too late for her. But I still went to the midnight mass with Bernard. It was interesting in french. The same kind of hyms and responses, but in french. There wasnt a reader from the congreation, the preist just talked a whole lot. Afterwards Bernard and I went to Tim Hortons for a hot chocolate and donut. It was a really nice way to star the first few hours of christmas.

Christmas Day: We didnt get up till about 9 o'clock, which is unusual for my normal 6 am christmas morning start. Had the normal breakfast and then started opening presents. I got an adorable fluffy blanket with deer on it from bernard and diane. It has a little pouch to put your feet in it lol. They liked their kiwi xmas presents (mini pavlova cakes for Bernard and paua earrings and the book 'why do dogs sniff bottoms') and a lil card thanking them for everything. The presents mum had sent me were awesome and i loved them all soooo much. At about 11oclock Genvieve and the boys came. It was so cute giving the presents. I love the way children get so excited about xmas. I got a very nice smelling body mist from them. Later on Nick came over with his wife and baby. It was so cute giving the baby the presents (he prefered the wrapping paper to the presents). After a while they all left and we headed off to our xmas dinner. It was about an hours drive away from where we live. It was a huge family gathering where we were to play games and eat...lots. There were a lot of the nieces there so I had people to talk to. Only one of them spoke english so I was proud of my conversations in french. THe games were fun adn teh food was good. We left there at about 1am.

Boxing Day was, as usual, the day of the sales. But here they really are sales. LIke 50-70% off. MOst clothing stores closed the changing rooms because there were just too many people lining up. Stores had to close their doors to monitor the number of people going in. An electronics store selling ps2 at half price had a cue outside the store going past atleast another 4 stores. So being me, I loved it all. I got tops for $5 or $10, jeans for $20, a hoody for $15 and just because i had to 5 novelty socks for $5. Managed to find the next issue of Cosmopolitan (except now I read them in French, much better fashion as its from france). After my shopping blast, I made my snow men and then read one of the best books ever- the five people you meet in heaven. Highly recomended for anyone that likes stories with a little more depth.

So that leaves me with today. My do nothing day. Diane was at work and Bernard went to the funeral of his cousins husband. I watched day time television such as the tyra banks show jerry springer and the price is right, ate xmas left overs, and entertained the dog by hiding all the bones. lol. Did manage to update my scrapbook and get a parcel to home ready.

Tomorrow Ill be spending the day with Bernard so it should be fun. Diane will be starting her first day at her new job.

Christmas photos will be up sonn when ever I get bored enough to do something productive :)