Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas cheer for all

Christmas is an interesting time. Fascinating really. You have people rushing around, doing this, getting that, wondering if they have everything, and those are the people who do their shopping online! As for the malls, that can get to be a bit more of a zoo. I went out to the mall today to get some last minute Christmas shopping done, and the crowd wasn't quite what I imagined it would be. Then again, I went to Millwoods Town Center, not West Edmonton Mall or Kingsway. I'm not that crazy. I found what I needed and then some. I was rather proud of myself that I found a gift all by myself. Now, I'm just wondering how this gift will be received, and if it proves that I really don't know people as well as I thought. I've done some pretty bad gifts in the past, but this one I gave it a bit more thought, and it felt right.

I was listening to The Bear and I caught the end of the song. The song was actually over, but the announcer was talking about the song, and the album it was from. I was a little surprised when he said that it was a Christmas song, and further surprised when he said it was from We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year. Not exactly music that stirs the soul and makes you dream about sugarplums, but it's still a pretty good disc if you're into the harder music scene. I happened to know that Duff is into that kind of thing, or at least he used to be, and I thought that he would enjoy it. Not exactly the best music to play around kids, but the music was not recorded with that in mind. That or people who let their kids listen to Metal, they have different ideas about what's good for a child to listen to. I have heard of some kids who play Rock Band, and know all the words to Nirvana songs. That's a little freaky, but that's just me.

Turns out my fear about getting ousted was unfounded. People were just getting a little flustered with the amount of work that has piled up on ourselves, and it was starting to show on everyone. Plus taking meds made things a little bit easier to deal with.

We had a wonderful gift exchange, and also received some good news about one of the salesperson's newest addition to his family! Olivia Noella. Cute little girl, eight lbs, 22". I guessed wrong, and therefore did not win the baby pool. Doesn't really matter though, because the money from the pool went to the new daddy, because the person who won thought that he could use the money more than anyone else. AND IT'S TRUE. When you first start off, it's good to have some extra cash to cover costs like diapers and formula (unless she breastfeeds, unlike Rini), but after the first couple months, or weeks, the thing you need more than anything is SLEEP. That's hard to wrap.

But the presents I got in the gift exchange at work were quite easy to wrap, except for one. The metal sign which reads, "NO TRESPASSING: Violators will be shot, and survivors will be shot again;" easy to wrap. The magnet attached to it reading, "Come over to the Dark Side... we have cookies!" Easy to wrap. The little plastic trash can with the blinking lights and three pads of note paper and the stress ball. Easy to wrap. The bookmark with the Chinese (Japanese) character for faith and the beautiful pen set, both were easy to wrap. Even the wine set, that was easy to wrap too. But the one gift that I was really looking forward to, that I'm not even sure if you can call a gift, was very hard to wrap. In fact, it's a gift you get all year long. I got a raise! I was hoping for a bonus, but I'll take a raise just as steadily!

Merry Christmas, and the best of the season to everyone! Double for anyone who read this!

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