Last year I got Uggs, well, fake Uggs. Soft Moc ones but I love them. In 2009 I got my red boots. This year I got these gems (apparently new boots is a November tradition :D)
My friends Kinsey (left) and Heather (left) joined me. Kinsey had invited us over for a Christmas dinner that she was hosting on Thursday night but I had to work so I suggested dinner on Friday and then invited them both to this concert. It was held in a church in Acton which, with traffic, is well over an hour away (although it was a lot less getting home) so we had dinner and then just visited in the car. They both said that they really enjoyed the show, but for different reasons. Kinsey posted on Facebook: "Had a great time tonight at a Celtic Christmas Concert with Heidi and Heather! All those jigs and reels really made me miss PEI!" Heather said she enjoyed it because she used to be in band and was familiar with some of the music. In any case it was a fun relatively inexpensive night out and we all said we'd be game to do something like that again!
Because what is Christmas without a cookie exchange? I certainly don't NEED a bunch of cookies but they sure taste good! I made Cinnamon Sugar Crispies which have pecans on top. 
They were kind of small but tasty. I hope everyone liked them! These are the ladies I exchanged with. Sandy, Bev (in front), Ruth and Brenda. 
In the first picture Ruth was looking at Bev for some reason. In the second we were all tickling each other hence the huge grins LOL I love these ladies, and not only because they make great cookies!!!
Heidi's Tips for Enjoying Books that are Turned into Movies
For the past few years I have participated in an ornament exchange on ScrapShare. I received this year's ornaments on Thursday after a very long day. I left that morning at 9am and didn't get back until almost 11:30pm. It was wonderful to be greeted by a lovely package like this. 
So apparently my new tradition is to wait until the second year that I'm at a place before I get a tree. That's what happened in my last apartment and that's what has happened here. I can't even really remember why I didn't get a tree last year. No time I think, or ornaments (because I think bulk ones are boring). This year I knew I wanted a small tree so I started shopping in early November. I ended up finding one (for twelve dollars!!!) at Zellars. It's pre-lit with white lights and I added a string of another 200 coloured lights. 
I still don't have many ornaments because most of them are still packed away in BC but I have collected a few. I have the ones I picked up this summer while travelling and the Starbucks ones from this year and last year. At the top is the one I received in last year's ScrapShare Ornament Swap.
Saturday, November 19th my friends Grace, Esther and I went over to our friend Jess's place for a sleep over and cheeeeeeese party (and yes, that many e's are necessary :D) We didn't really have any parameters. Just "bring cheese" and look how much we had for four people!!! Esther put together the tray with pickles and sausage and Grace made a spinach dip. 
I didn't get any pictures of US. I was too focused on the food :) 
You may remember last year how annoyed I was that I couldn't attend a proper Remembrance Day ceremony because I had class. This year I figured out where the one on campus was held (it helps to be friends with the History Students Association now) and I just skipped my French tutorial in order to attend. It was very nice. Totally student run and quite simple. Barry (top left) the president of the HSA spoke about the student's role in remembering, 
the president of the Student's Union spoke, a girl who had done a battle fields tour shared a bit about her experience and the Dean of Students not only read "In Flanders Fields" but also gave a bit of the story around when John McCrae wrote it and what it was like for him. Brendan (right) was the MC. He was really nervous but he did a really good job. 
I am thankful for libraries. These are some of the books I used for the paper I wrote for my Russian History class called "The Expansion of the Russian Empire into the South Under Catherine the Great". For my other papers I have used a lot of online articles and even some online books which are a neat option. I can access them all through my school library, even when I am off campus which is nice. 
I originally uploaded these pictures at the end of August but somehow never got around to finishing the entry. The drinks on the left are old news now. They are the Salted Caramel Mocha and Pumpkin Spice Latte. I opened one morning and made them as test beverages. They were so cute and little (they're in short cups) that I had to take a picture. It was around that time that I got this MUG award from our assistant manager. He has since transferred to another store but it was nice to be recognized.
It has been just over a year since my original hire date at Starbucks. Because of my two month hiatus to go to Quebec in May/June, I am considered a "re-hire" but I can still tell people that I've been around for a year. There have been changes, in addition to the ASM moving we also had the manager who hired me move to another store and the original ASM was promoted to manager. It's been a good change. Jon is young, as are most of the partners at this store. In fact, I am actually the oldest! It's a weird feeling. I'm used to being the youngest! Jon does a good job of managing though and, most important for me, he listens. We're kind of understaffed right now, so it makes scheduling difficult. From the day he took on scheduling duties he has been fantastic about not scheduling me at all on Sunday's or Wednesday's (both days I have church or classes and church so there's just no time to work). Recently he's been putting me down for four shifts a week amounting to 24 hours a week. I don't mind working over 20 hours but I need it to be only three shifts a week. I know it doesn't sound like much of a difference but mentally, having two days were I don't have to go in to work at all (not to mention Sunday and Wednesday) does a huge amount for my mental well being. 
Today is November first, again, already. I'd like to try and do the "Attitude of Gratitude" thing again this year (for the fourth time!) I've noticed that people are doing something similar on Facebook but I'm going to keep my posts here because it gives me room to expand on my thoughts if I need/want to.
I figured out a fabulous new way to study French. Actually, I came up with it a few months back but lately I've actually been putting it into practice. It's even better than watching Disney movies in French, which I still do, frequently. So what is it? Reading the bible in French! When I was in Quebec I bought a little New Testament for two bucks from a church that we passed every day (pictured at right). I am now at a point where I am comfortable enough with the language, and with my existing knowledge of how the verses read in English, to muddle my way through. I'm focusing on individual verses right now, although I have passively read full passages. Passively meaning I haven't focused on identifying each word, just the big ones - aka nouns - so I get the general gist of what it's saying. I'm finding that, not only am I practicing my new language and reinforcing both vocabulary and verb tenses but it's also making the words in the bible come alive because I'm examining them so closely. I think if I had, had the option to do this in Latin I would have enjoyed it more. 
A few weeks ago I came out of an evening church service and saw that I had missed calls from both my brother Seth. Not totally weird but I don't talk to either of them all that often so it did make me wonder what was up. I even had the conscious thought that Seth may be calling to give me some good news and wondered if I should wait to speak with him before calling Dad. In the end I got a hold of Dad first and he was calling out about something totally different. I spoke with Seth the next day and while he didn't have any "news", he did talk an awful lot about his long time girlfriend Brittany. Like more than usual. I was suspicious but it was really unfounded. Just a gut feeling.
My friend Jerusha was teaching in London for the first half of the year. She got back at the beginning of August so our friend Jess hosted Sunday lunch in her honour as a "welcome home". At the table L-R is me, Jerusha, our friend Sharlaine who is also from BC and Jerusha's sister Keren.
Jess outdid herself with the meal. We had an incredible fresh salad with a mango/almond puree dressing, baked brie with garlic and focaccia bread with two different dipping options for our first course. The second course was new potatoes, salmon with rosemary and other spices and corn on the cob (which was a little slow to cook so we dug into the salmon and potatoes first).
Sunday was also the day before Sharlaine's 25th birthday so the trifle dessert was in her honour. 
I closed last Friday and we decided to leave a little "surprise" for our boss who was opening. Brian took every garbage in the store and put them by the espresso machine. Not a big deal and really an easy fix in the morning but it made us giggle. 
To "make up" for our minor prank we made sure to make sure the rest of the store was in tip top shape. We even left out aprons for the openers complete with till tags and sharpies.
My friend Mike took a baseball tour this summer. They hit eight cities in twelve days and saw eight baseball games in that time as well as touring the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. The second last stop took them to Detroit and since that was the closest to me, and it was an afternoon game, I decided to book Thursday off and join him. 
Mike is a way bigger baseball fan than I am but this was his seventh game in a row so while we did watch the game, neither of us really needed to concentrate that much. He showed me the pictures of the cities he had visited already (Boston, Cooperstown, New York for the Yankees and the Mets, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh.) 
After the game we met up with his parents and all went for dinner in "Greektown" (did you know that there's a Greektown in Detroit?) The restaurant we picked was pretty authentic Greek but not what we're used to so it was a bit disappointing (that's what you get for randomly picking a restaurant though). The servers were awesome though. They were RUNNING through the restaurant and flambeing (Is that a word? There's no red line under it.) saganaki, the Greek cheese that is doused with alcohol and then lit on fire. It was HOT and I'm pretty sure I lost some arm hairs. :P It made for a fun "show" though :)
I headed out about 7pm. The line at the border only took about a half an hour but because you're snaking through downtown and because I didn't actually know where the line went, it felt longer. The border guards each way were pretty good. Going down he was a bit suspicious that I drove so far (it's about three hours) just for a ball game so he did check my trunk but on the way back the guy hardly blinked and I was on my way in no time.
Monday was a Civic Holiday in Ontario. Meaning lots of people get the day off but it's not actually a statutory holiday (it is in some provinces, BC being one). I only had to work from 8am to 1pm so when Jess mentioned that she was planning on heading to Pinery Provincial Park on Lake Huron I convinced her to wait around and take me with her. Actually I had volunteered to just drive out and meet her but it's about 1.5 hours from my place and she realized how dumb it would be to take two cars so she waited. 
Jess and Chili played Frisbee in the water some but I mostly just sat and read my book. The sun was warm but there was a strong breeze so it wasn't too bad. I wore a cap and sunglasses for most of the day and Jess wore the big floppy hat that you can see in my picture.
Sunday was my birthday. My thirtieth birthday. I'm officially in a new decade. I remember turning ten. I was so excited to be in the double digits. Turning thirty hasn't been all that bad. Not nearly as exciting as ten but nothing to dread. I had a harder time with 23 for sure. Anyway, I think the fact that I had such a wonderful day helped make it easier. My phone was going off constantly all day with Facebook messages, texts and emails. I went to church in the morning and for our weekly potluck afterwards where everyone sang Happy Birthday. In the late afternoon six of my closest friends joined me for a trip into Toronto. We parked at a shopping centre and took the subway into the downtown core. Our destination was the CN Tower which I haven't been to since my visit to Ontario in 2000. I figure once every ten years is good :)
The day was a bit smoggy and slightly overcast so we couldn't see super far but it was decent. They've expanded the glass floor since I was there last. Some people still have a lot of problems with it but I like it :)
