And the heavens opened wide...

Okay, so I just got home from work and before I left from work I had to scrape snow off my dear Tracker. This first somewhat significant snowfall of the season has done wonders to help me get my (Christmas) act together. In between waiting on tables I ducked out the patio door in order to catch snowflakes on my tongue. This seems to be the most snow I have seen, aside from the mountains, in quite awhile-if my memory serves me correctly. Jack frost is definately nipping!

It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas

I remember my first taste of Christmas this year. It happened at the 24-hour Starbucks in Abbotsford, the one near the Sumas boarder crossing. A friend and I sauntered in sometime around 3 or 4am and that's when I entered a zone of sensory overload. They were about half-way done their Christmas decorating. I grabbed the nearest piece of Christmas paraphenalia, an advent calendar, and proceeded to gleefully place it up to my ear and shake it. I could tell by the look on my friends face that what I had just done was, perhaps, not the most socially acceptable thing I had done that night. But I really feel that I could not be held accountable for my actions since I was in shock. It was mid-November!!! Last time I checked Santa didn't come to town until December 1st. So I ordered my reduced fat, extra hot, eggnog latte and my friend received his gingerbread latte. Shortly after we received our festive beverages, my friend thought it would be better to take the drinks back to his house and ushered me out the door. I attribute this to my socially awkward actions with the advent calendar and my state of gleeful shock at Christmas in mid-November. Thank you Starbucks.

Since last week, every 5th or so song on the radio at work is a Christmas song. Some I love and can't get enough of. John Lennon, Happy Christmas (War is Over). Or the ever popular Do They Know It's Christmas Band Aid song. Some annoy me to the point that I can barely function anymore. Yeah, Frosty can just go thumpity-thump-thump it somewhere else, thank you very much. I guess it could be (and will get) worse...we have a holiday station at work. All Christmas, all the time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Scrooge. I have a special place in my heart for Christmas filled with the likes of the Stanley Park Christmas Train, Away In a Manger and Oh Holy Night, eggnog and spiced rum, snow, ice-skating at Grouse, mittens on strings, apple cider, lights and various other novelties. It's just that this year Christmas, considering it came right after Halloween, has sort of blind-sided me. I have a couple days to get my (Christmas) act together and I think I can pull it off. Someone pass me another non-fat, extra hot, no whip, gingerbread latte please.

And this I know for sure

• Sometimes chicken smells like things that aren't chicken but people will eat it anyways.
• If you put your tongue on a metal pole at a ski hill it won't always stick but it will be gross.
• Coffee is a good idea no matter the time or the place or the company you are keeping.
• Viewing a person through the lense that they are just a broken human creation like myself helps me to tolerate them more...and sometimes even like them a little.
• I'm bound to eat at least a little slice of humble pie each day.
• I'm bound to say something each day that makes me wish the filter on my brain worked better.
• I'm bound to do something each day that some others would probably find mortifying but that I've grown accustomed to laughing off.
• The only thing worry does is steal precious time from me and gives me a physical pain in my chest.
• It all works out in the end and that's never in thanks to any efforts I might have made.
• When you wake up the morning after your first trip to the mountain during the snow season you're going to be at least a little sore.
• Ibuprofen covers multitudes of adventure that you've put your body through.
• A broken-in pair of flip-flops and jeans, coupled with a comfie hoodie, can make a bad day a little brighter.
• I'd like to receive flowers more often...heck, I'd like to get them at all.
• I can never not think of nothing (a.k.a. something is always on my mind).
• I count my family and friends as my most precious possesions. They are purveyors of unique, each contributing something special. Each one fearfully and wonderfully made.
• I will never fully know-not even close-the extent of God's faithfulness to me, nor can I ever understand it.
• Sometimes bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people and there's no reason for it, it just sucks.
• Nothing compares to fresh pineapple.
• I love the wind.
• Life stops for no one so we've got to keep moving. Got to keep picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, and moving.
• There's always more to come.

And then there were three

Sometimes the truth is hard to believe and this is one of those times: I have 3 jobs. You read right. I just felt that having 2 jobs was not nearly challenging enough. I am, of course, being facitious. There are good reasons why I took this job and, although it all happened in a whirlwind, I'm confident-though a little scared-of the decision I've made.

I started working with another little boy on Tuesday and I've, already, fallen in love with the entire family. So 10ish hours a week with the first child, 16 hours and week with this new child, and anywhere from 20-30 hours a week at BP. Add in the fact that I have a near impossible time saying no to fun and, I too, wonder when I will be sleeping:) Well, it's a short post but you're now in the know and I need to head off to work. Adios amigos and amigas.