And I've already eaten all the chocolates in my advent calendar

I was looking over my past "status updates" on Facebook (yes, I was bored) and I realized that I have somewhat of an unnatural obsession with food. A lot of those status updates were food related. I mean... a lot.

And then I realized that a lot of my blogs are about food, too. And you know what? This one's no different.

A very thorough list of the mass quantities of food I have consumed thus far this holiday season:

• Mom's raisin cookies
• My own raisin cookies (they pale in comparison)
• Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
• Rice salad (the only slightly healthy thing eaten this season)
• Sausage rolls
• Festive Special from Swiss Chalet (not once... not twice... but thrice!)
• Turkey and stuffing (an early dinner at the hubby's grandfather's house)
• A selection of Spanish tapas
• Butter tarts
• Beer and wine

In addition to this, I've wisely eaten until it hurts each time we've had any type of a holiday gathering. So yeah... the fat pants? Even THEY'RE getting tight now.

These are a few of my favourite things

I have to admit, I haven't had too much to say this week. Which is why there's a lack of new blogs each day.

However, I also know that I'm sorta disappointed when I go to the few blogs I read every day and find they haven't been updated, either.

So, I will not let you down, dear readers. Here is the latest installment of my blog. A schmultzy tribute to Christmas (as if I haven't done that enough already!)

Hez's favourite things about Christmas:

• Mom's raisin cookies
• The smell of my REAL tree
• The Swiss Chalet Festive Special
• Dozens of gatherings with friends and family
• Whiskers on kittens and red wollen mittens (okay... not really... but I do like that song)
• Boney M Christmas CD
• Those little clementines (must be seedless though)
• Christmas morning: with orange juice and coffee as we open gifts and then eat a delicious brekkies of eggs, bacon, toast, etc. etc. before we play with all our new "toys"
• Endless games with the fam
• Movies on Boxing Day

I love this time of year. Love it. Love it. Love it.

So what are a few of your favourite things?

Oh no they didn't!

My parents have gone over to the dark side. And I'm very frightened.

My Mom called me yesterday to tell me that they couldn't get their (real) Christmas tree to stand up straight after trying for 2 days to set it up. So what did they do? Well, they did what anyone would do in this situation.

They threw out their beautiful real tree and went to the store to buy a fake one.

A FAKE ONE.

This, from my Dad who SHAMED my mother and father-in-law into getting a real tree when they bought a fake one for the first time.

From my Dad who LOVES the whole tree-selection process.

From my Mom who whole-heartedly agreed with me when I claimed that a perfect Christmas tree just could not come in a box.

I feel like I must mourn now. Christmas just isn't the same now that my parents have a tree that they can open up like an umbrella and switch on (because it comes with the Christmas lights ALREADY ON IT!)

Sigh.

Mom and Dad - I love you... but I'm worried about you.

Sleep. How I miss you so.

Good lord, am I tired.

And this is despite the fact that last night's work party was quite tame. We had a nice meal, a few drinks, chatted and then everyone went home. Of course, since I live in the burbs (and my cab ride took FOREVER), I didn't get home and in bed until 2am.

When hubby got up at 5:30 this morning, I also woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. Which means, I got a grand total of 3 and a half hours of sleep.

And thusly, I feel like a badger's arse.

Now I've got to sit through a day at work, trying my hardest not to look like I don't want to be here AT ALL (even though this most certainly is the case), and pretending to focus, when really - I just want to take a nap.

Hi. Complain much?

All things holiday, all the time

I guess I truly have gotten out of my non-Christmas funk. All my blogs of late have been Christmas-focused. And this one is no different.

This blog is the one in which I talk about one of my favourite things about the holidays: the food.

Tomorrow night is our work holiday party. We're going to a fancy restaurant in the Yonge and Eglinton area of Toronto for a sampling of delectable goodies: Grilled pear with arugula, asiago and walnuts in a vinaigrette. Porcini mushroom ravioli in a brandy-chive cream sauce. Rib-eye steak with frites. You name it.

Are you drooling yet?

But wait! That's not all. On Saturday, I'll be heading to my Mom-in-law's house with my Mumsie for our annual Christmas baking. Raisin cookies, peanut butter chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip, butter cookies... droooooooooooooooll... It just don't get much better than that.

And then, THEN - I'll be heading to hubby's grandfather's house where his grandfather and his grandfather's wife will be serving up an early hot turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Score.

So, yes. It's safe to say that a big part of the holidays for me is all about the eatin'.

I'm getting my fat pants out now.

***Editor's note***
All this talk of food was making me hungry. So, I just devoured my "lunch". Somehow I thought black beans and salsa on rye crackers would suffice as my lunch-time meal.

To that I say, "Ha ha ha!" and also "How silly I am!"

Verdict on said lunch: Filling? Yes. Satisfying? Oh, no, no, no...

This ain't no Charlie Brown tree

Just in case you were all wondering...

We did it. We found the perfect Christmas tree. It's the perfect height. Perfect width. (Or, perfect bulbous-ness, as I've been saying). And it's all decorated up and shining in our living room.

Christmas may commence now.

PS: Charlie - come over to our house. You'll be in awe.

O Christmas tree

I don't normally blog on the weekends (why would I when I can do it on company time??) But here I am, on Saturday, just back from a run with Mom, all high on endorphins and junk. Thought I would blog. 

Today is sure to get me out of my non-Christmas funk. And that's because today, hubby and I are on the hunt for: The Perfect Christmas Tree. 

Growing up, it was always my "job" to go and find the tree with Dad. I say "job" because I took this role seriously. And so did Dad. (We are very much alike). We would never settle for an "okay" tree. Oh, no, no... We had to find the most perfectly shaped and sized tree that would sit in the corner of our living room in all its tree glory.

And, of course, bigger is always better. 

I would follow Dad around as he eyeballed the trees, until we both came across one we considered worthy of our household. Next, Dad would hold the tree upright so that I could take several steps back and scrutinize it from a respectable distance, getting an idea of how it would look in our home from a variety of angles. (When I got a bit older and could actually hold the tree up myself, we would reverse so Dad could also do some serious scrutinizing).

As I said, this was serious. And it always paid off. Because we always, always had an awesome tree. (So awesome one year, that we actually had to tie it to our wall. Its giant, bulbous shape and height made it a bit too much for our little tree stand. It was wicked.)

So, after moving out of my parents' home and moving in with hubby, I've realized that my Dad has continued to find amazing trees every year. Ours, on the other hand, have been merely satisfactory.

Until this year.

Christmas 2008 marks the year that Hez's tree no longer pales in comparison to Dad's tree. It's a total tree-off this year. I'm taking this as seriously as I did when I was a little girl. 

That's right. Bring it, Dad. I'm so ready for you.

You're a mean one...

Hello all. A few housekeeping issues that need to be taken care of:

• I've been playing around with the settings on my blog and you can now leave a comment without having to sign in or have an account. Yay!
• I've recently learned how to include links in my posts - but I don't know how to get those links to open up into another window. So... if you click on the link, just click "back" when you're done to go back to reading my lovely post. (I'll hopefully figure that one out soon).

Now. Onto my daily rambling.

I have something to admit that my Mom isn't going to like to hear. (Well, technically, she'll be reading it. Whateves. Semantics). Anyway, here it is:

I have no Christmas spirit as of yet.

(Pause for collective gasp).

It's true. I'm finding it very hard to get excited about the holidays. I don't know if it's because I'm feeling kind of tired and run down lately. Or maybe it's because our house isn't decorated yet. Or maybe it's simply because I haven't watched "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" as of yet. Whatever it is, I'm feeling quite blasé about it all.

Even the Festive Special didn't get me in the mood. Now, that just ain't right.

Anyway... in an attempt to not be the total scrooge that ruins Christmas, I'll be working on growing my heart by 3 sizes. Wish me luck.

Blah blah blah blog

Sometimes, I write a whole 2-3 paragraphs of my blog, read it over and then completely delete it all. Like I did just 2 seconds ago.

You see, there's a fine line between updating my readers on my life and the inner workings of my mind, and pure boredom. This is the effect my deleted post was going to have on you, I'm sure of it.

I have to admit though, there are often times when I just don't know what to write about. But I love writing something just to say that I wrote for myself. And, much to my chagrin, it's during these moments that I enter into a Woody Allen state of neurosis... Do I write something so that I don't lose my loyal readership? Or do I not write anything because there's nothing to say? I don't know. What do I do? Should I? Yes. But maybe no. But then again...

You get the picture.

Anyway. So, to avoid boring the pants off of you anymore, I'm going to end it right here. There's not much to say today. I'm kinda tired (which makes it hard to be witty). So, I'll just try and find some other way to entertain you this morning.

Chicken and stuffing and chocolates... oh my!

I'm off my soapbox and ready for another insallment of "Fun Hezzie" blogs.

Last night, I kicked off the holiday season with my family in one of our favourite Christmas traditions of all time. Yes, that's right. I'm talking about the Festive Special at Swiss Chalet.

It happens but once a year. This fine dining establishment comes out with its delightful meal in November, but my family waits. Oh, we wait. Until December 1st (or the closest date to it in which we can all make it), to truly celebrate the holiday season.

Last night, we indulged in the perfectly formed ice-cream scoop shape of stuffing. And the jiggly, gelatin-like cranberry sauce. With the chicken and fries. And then topped it off with a whole house-full of chocolates. (I'm still bitter that they took away the toblerone bar, mind you).

So now, it's official. The holiday season has started. And I couldn't be more excited. It's the most wonderful time of the year, after all.

Woman... Whoa - man!

I was all prepared to write about my trip to the nutritionist last night (to help me with my digestion issues - another sign of getting old). But now I'm all fired up and need to vent.

The topic: Women. (One that I'm well-versed in, having a vagina myself).

Anyway. As I said... women. Now, I consider myself an indpendent woman. I'm intelligent, have a good job, make good money, know how to support myself. And at the same time, I'm married and would like to have children one day. And - yes, I'm admitting it - I'm an emotional being. I cry at sappy movies. I get irrational sometimes. It happens.

In my opinion, there's no conflict between these two things. I'm independent. And I may also one day be a stay-at-home mom. (Who knows? This is all speculative... but if it were financially possible, I would).

I'm sure many of you are nodding your head right now, thinking "Yes? And your point is??"

My point is this. There are many women out there who feel like you are no longer an independent, strong woman if you take your husband's last name. If you want to have children and want to stay home. If you get emotional and irrational at times and can't seem to help it. If one of the most important things in the world to you is the love of your husband.

Somehow, you would be a much "better" woman if you didn't act this way. If you were, quite simply - more like a man.

Do you see the problem with this? I do.

I consider myself a feminist because I am a woman and I don't feel I need to be like a man to be seen as a strong, independent woman. I want that corner office one day - but I won't sacrifice raising children and family to get it. We shouldn't have to. Fathers don't. We should be women, who we are, in all our emotional glory and still be considered equals. We should be taken seriously and treated properly and loved - in the words of Mark from Bridget Jones' Diary - just the way we are.

So - the point? (I realize I'm rambling). The point is - as long as women put each other down, as long as we stand divided (between those that think the only way to be a more evolved woman is to be like a man and those that are okay with their roles as women), we will have a long, long way to go to being equal.

Yes, we're close. But we're not there yet.

Please know - this is not a rant against the evils of men. It's actually the opposite. I'm trying to express that I feel I can have my life involved with a man and live the role of a woman and still be a woman: Strong. Smart. Independent. And completely at peace with who I am.

Let's do this together, ladies. Not apart. We need each other.

Back to work for a rest

Things that happened over the weekend (in order from start to finish):

• I began consuming wine at 3pm on Friday afternoon
• A piece of work that my co-worker and I created won a gold award at the Canadian Marketing Awards (and a bronze!)
• More celebratory wine was consumed
• "Dancing" (if it can be called that) occured for several, several hours
• I left the awards show in a cab. My purse did not.
• Woke up feeling less than stellar
• Went back to the scene of the awards to find said purse (met a kind man named Attila who had it for me)
• Ate a greasy breakfast at my favourite diner at 2 in the afternoon
• Went to an engagement party and avoided the wine at all costs
• Was in bed at 10:30 on Saturday night
• Slept until 10:45 Sunday morning
• Saw a movie
• Did the "good little wife" thing and made a baked penne dish for dinner
• Ate 14 chocolate balls
• Went to bed

I think it's safe to say that I had a very productive, responsible, mature weekend.