Christmas has continued. Last night I went to my parents' for stockings and remaining Christmas prezzies. Despite stern instructions to the contrary, my dad had got LOTS of stocking stuff (as usual). So I have a tin of Vienna sausage and a tin of water chestnuts and two extremely goofy-looking anthropomorphic pens with koosh hair. And soap and stuff. In non-stocking presents, they gave me many tools (as mine were lost in the move from Montreal, grr) and some kitchen stuff and a... thing from Lee Valley that was promptly dubbed < Ah-nold > The Propagatah < /Ah-nold >. I don't think I'll be keeping that one, although I do appreciate my mother's confidence that I might be able to use such a thing.

And today there was a package from jenlev -- most exciting! Thank you so much! Actually, for all I know it's been waiting at the post office for ages, as Canada Post didn't see fit to tell me about it until they dropped a scary red Final Notice in the mailbox.

Christmas chez nous went very well -- we had brunch in Jen's dining room and presents in my living room, which nine people could actually get into thanks to the efforts of (1) my mother who came and helped me unpack four boxes of my grandmother's stuff on Saturday and (2) life_on_queen who came over and was a wrapping machine on Sunday. Both things were a little scary. The four boxes were, of course, professionally packed, so we ended up with more paper and bubble wrap than seemed altogether reasonable. But we also found all sorts of things that I'd forgotten I'd claimed from Granny's stuff. Some were things that I've been having nagging feelings that I need, or at least would really like, recently -- including a slotted spoon (which has vanished again for some reason), a nutmeg grater, and a set of Copco casserole dishes. Most exciting. Some are things that are just nice to have, like a little silver-plated jug that Granny used for hot water when serving tea, and that used to belong to my great-grandmother. I've been having quite the rush of memories. One of these days I'll start hanging pictures and then the nostalgia will really start.

And now, the resolution. I refreshed until I got one I liked (and that was grammatical):

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Learn how to dismantle land mines. Get your resolution here.

Given that I'm meant to be working from home, I should probably start.

My aunt reports:

Today for lunch, Calypso, Dan, John and I had buns, ham and cheese.

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I also saw evidence of progress on the small wardrobe that's going into my living room. The possibility of actual permanent storage space in there brings tears to my eyes. (There's also the sideboard from Granny, which is actually an extremely awesome desk, but (a) I think it's going to move along that wall once I get the desk moved and (b) I haven't decided what to put in it yet -- used to be the home of the tea service, which I also inherited, but I'm just not sure. Do you think my action figures would look nice in a 19th-century glassfront cabinet?)

In other news, here's the panicked list of things I must get done by the end of the week, generated yesterday:
Finish shopping.
Wrap presents.
Finish writing and sending Christmas cards. (In progress; I need to make more copies of the Christmas letter. The last people will be getting Amnesty's freebie cards, which I notice have greatly improved their design over the last few years.)
Change sheets.
Laundry.
Buy groceries. (Urgent.)
Bake. (Optional.)
Tidy apartment. (Ha.)
Help decorate house. (In progress; Jen put up the Christmas lights and wreath yesterday)
Dermatologist appointment (Thursday).
Party with old choir (Monday night).
Kensington Market solstice celebration (Thursday night).
Various other parties.
Pick up January Metropass. (Needs to be done some time this week as we've all been instructed to work from home next week -- boss is awesome.)
Get some work done.

Oh dear.

I have been forced to revise my earlier opinion of Staples' current marketing campaign. I did not believe it was possible to buy Great Unexpected Gifts from Staples. Great gifts, possibly.* Unexpected gifts, certainly. Great unexpected gifts? Not so much. Except Cousin Jen yesterday referred to her labelmaker (which I got her from Staples as a birthday gift last year) as the Best Gift Ever. Making it both great and unexpected. I suppose they can't really put that in the ads, though, as the number of people whose hearts go pitter-pat over a labelmaker is probably vanishingly small.

Weekend: got nothing done on the house, again. Finished some penguins. Went to the Sing-Along Messiah and had a fantabulous time (my mum and I shared a score, and managed to stay on track even during the Amen, always a problem for me -- next time maybe I should actually practice ahead of time or something). Read. Christmas exploded all over my living room (making it an excellent companion piece to the dining room), but I did manage to wrap and mail parcels for friends out West (they may get there a bit late, but they'll get there).

Lots to do this week, ohboy.

*ETA: In the commercial I saw, the gift they used to illustrate the concept of Great Unexpected Gifts was A Laptop. Which: bwuh? In my family, that counts as a major purchase. I don't think I know anyone who'd be in Staples browsing for ideas and would think "Hey! A laptop! What a great idea for a stocking stuffer!"

So last night I did not go to the gym (again), but I got a lot more Christmas shopping done! I'm chugging along really very nicely. I kept showing up at stores just after they'd closed (Bakka and Ten Thousand Villages and Lush and Midoco, specifically) but I made it to Staples and MEC and Steve's Music and Pages and Book City. I rock. There are two specific things I need to get and perhaps two gifts I haven't thought of yet. I also need to make a pair of earrings and a necklace and an unspecified number of disco penguins (unspecified because everyone who sees one asks if they can have one, so the number keeps expanding -- which is nice, but sort of hard to keep up with. Luckily they're easy to make). Overall, this seems like an excellent ratio. Next up: wrapping and mailing for the out-of-town gifts (I know, I am late). And some baking.

Staples was amusing (I was there partly for things for me and partly for one particular gift). I love how stores that aren't particularly holiday-focused try to be all "Hey! You can get Christmas presents here too! Wait! Hey, don't just walk past! We have file folders! And scissors caddies!" Staples' holiday slogan is "Great Unexpected Gifts". Which... well, gifts from Staples certainly would be unexpected, but I don't know about great.

Except the ones I'm getting, that is. Those are awesome.

Friday's house report from my aunt:

Today for lunch, Gill, John, Robin, Dan and I had tuna fish casserole with salad, and bread and cheese. At The House. Cooked in Jen's kitchen. Why would anyone keep the salt and pepper in a cupboard six feet from the ground?

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Friday evening we had our choir recital -- went pretty well, except we were horribly off-key on one of the songs (that one is a problem for us). And it was LONG. There were more kids than last year, I think, mainly piano but some violin; they were all incredibly adorable, but it's a bit of a marathon even when they're doing really short pieces.

Saturday I had a civilized morning lolling about on my pariah_ink's sofa drinking coffee and doing Sudoku and ignoring the piles of boxes scattered all around. Then went and did some Christmas shopping. Then went to my parents' neighbourhood open house -- wasn't really in the party spirit, unfortunately, because I was later than I said I'd be and felt guilty, but it was still fun to catch up with a few people. Wandered home and made another penguin while life_on_queen attempted to make sense of Jen's tax homework.

Around quarter to 10 we all headed west (gotta love taxis) to the TUIAS show at Cameron House, which I've passed but never been into. Fantastic, fantastic show. I would say this even if Panthea wasn't raithen's little sister. ;) Note to self, however: do not drink oatmeal stout, it gives you a crappy hangover.

Sunday I lay in bed and read for ages, then went for brunch, then a marathon of shopping on Queen Street -- it's surprising how much you can get done if you put your mind to it. I am now mostly done. Weird. Also bought groceries and made chicken tikka out of a bottle for dinner.

Did not make it to the gym.

Did not do any work on the house, aside from unpacking the odd box.

A good weekend, though.