Shopping till I dropped.....

Well, I came to visit my sister and I have had the best time so far. Second, I had started shopping but I only brought one big luggage and it is now full and I no space left for anymore. Next time, if there is a next time, I will have one luggage just for shoes/boots.

I hope I can still be able to lift my luggage but that will be only when I take it off the carousel. It had been fun and I will now enjoy the rest of the time visiting.

Sad to hear that we have relatives who spent Christmas day in the hospital. I hope they will be out to spend the New Year home with their families. 

Thanks to my BIL, as my sister would say, who took me shopping and even found a very nice pair of boots while we were at Kohl's. He also found a pair of jeggings we thought were priced ok but got a lecture from my sister that we paid too much.

Also, I have a new method of buying boots. I don't look around for the type or design I like, I first look for my size and then open the box and hope it is the pair I am looking for. My sister's MIL found me the other pair of boots. 

Next time I will take pics of my stash and I know I have had a good deal. Now my New Year's resolution is to finally lose the last few pounds and hopefully my doctor will take me off the medication. Another, would be to stop shopping....I know, I know, how many pairs of shoes does a person need?

If I don't get another chance to blog....I wish all of you a Happy New Year.....and may it be a start of something good. 

Merry Christmas......

I would like to greet everyone a very Merry Christmas!!! And since there are people from different parts of the world who read my blog whether it was intentionally or by accident, it would be nice to wish you all in your languages.

Joyeaux Noel                                                              Feliz Navidad

                                         Maligayang Pasko                                                  Mele Kalikimaka

               Buone Feste Natalizie                  Pace Salute                 Froliche Weinacht

            Meri Kerihimete          Feliz Natal                Nadolig Llawen             Sawadee Pee Mei

                   Kala Christouyenna               Milad Majid               Geseende Kersfees

 Glaedelig Jul                            Selamat Hari Natal                                       Chuc Mung Giang Sinh      

                        Felices Pasquas                                    Heristos Se Rodi

            Shub Naya Baras               Kurisumasu Omedeto                    Vesele Vianoce

                                                                  Happy Christmas



Sunny but cold San Jose!!!!

Well, I thought I would be in warm San Jose but at night it feels colder than Edmonton with the humidity and dampness. I arrived here Thursday night and we went to a Filipino restaurant close to the airport. 

Jeff and Luckie's home is really cute and today we were really busy. We started shopping for groceries for the 3 meals we have to get ready for the next three days. But of course we had our side trips to shop for clothes and shoes. Yes, I have started shopping and will tell you more about it later. We actually went two times for shoes and clothes. 


Tomorrow will be celebrated with a few relatives of Jeff's and Christmas, our cousin with her friend will be celebrating with us. I have not seen her for a long time.


We have been busy cooking and baking. We just finished making potato and macaroni salad, magic and lemon bars and filling for empanadas and chicken pot pies.


I still have not finished wrapping the presents I brought with me so I will be doing that later which would be early morning.


So here is my Christmas wish to everyone....that you will spend it with family and friends and just enjoy and give thanks that there are presents under the Christmas tree.

I hope everyone will have a great Christmas Eve.  

I hope  don't gain weight with all the eating and celebrating. I have to watch it seriously. I have a doctor's appointment a few days after I get back home.

I am enjoying my time visiting my sister and her hubby. I hope my niece and her hubby are having fun in New York.

What's baking/cooking......

Usually during the holidays, I do a lot of baking and give them away as presents. This year I did not do as much since I will be away. I have made shortbread because it does not feel like Christmas at all without it. I also made steamed rice cakes for our cookie exchange.

Here are some baked goodies I have done in the years past.

Classic spritz

Pineapple filled bars

Kisses thumb print cookies

Chocolate crinkles

Steamed rice cakes

It is fun when you see them all baked and wrapped ready to give as presents. But I must admit it is hard work.



Gifts, presents and cookie exchange....

It is nice to get something we don't expect. It is sign of thanks, appreciation and just plain spirit of giving.

At our office, I do a lot of the contracts and so I deal with a lot of trades and when I find that they do a good job and the price is right, I tend to give them a lot of business. And during this time, they show their thanks and appreciation.

So in the past few days, we were discussing in the office that it seems like the trades have been affected by the world's economic problem. We did not get any baskets or boxes of chocolates and it is almost the middle of December. But then the trades have started to come and it is nice to be thought of at Christmas.

This is the first basket I got and it is from our snow removal company.

This trio is from our eaves trough company

These two ginger bread houses from our real estate guy. He also gave each of us a bottle of wine.

This trio, that's Tim Horton's card from our flooring guys.

This is one of the cookie exchange, home made biscotti which is yummy and I don't know the name of the cookies, but very tasty as well.

This is made with dark and white chocolate, something different, from one of my resident managers.

I am sure there will be more this week but I will be away from the office starting Thursday and will also miss our Secret Santa but will open mine when I get back after the New Year.





Shopping and packing done....

It feels good to finally achieve a mission. I got up early today to finish these two jobs. And I did it!!! Not only have I done it, but I saved quite a bit because I got most of it on sale. There was only one present I had such a hard time buying but when I found it, it was such a relief.

I also manage to get something to add to my own little collection. And I only get them at this particular store.

Then I met a friend as we wanted to go out for our Christmas dinner and we decided to go to Moxie's.

But before we went there we passed by Target Canada. Yes, we have Target and what a disappointment.. It was a crappy store and I have heard or read that Michelle Obama sometimes buy at Target, I am glad she is not Canadian because there is nothing she can buy at the Target here. It is an insult to us Canadians. To prove my point, when we got to the store, there were 4 other shoppers there and it is close to Christmas. Gosh, do they send what they don't sell in the US here?  That was my first and last time at Target. Now, I have a mission when I get to San Jose....I will see what their Target store is like over there.

Yes, I have a small collection of margarita glasses. I got this pair at Pier One for $2.98 each. What a deal!!!



Freebies..........

I did not realize I have not posted in a while. It had been very busy at work since we will be closed from Dec 23 to Jan 3.

I can't think of anything interesting to post for now so I decided to show a few things I have received from friends and office mates.

My office mate was brought this to wear at our open house and when she put it on, she did not like it, it was not comfortable. So we exchaned shoes for the night. At the end of the open house, I got my shoes back and this one as well.

A pair of boots given by the same office mate. I think she buys shoes and does not try them or for whatever reason, it seems like she buys them because she likes it and realizes she does not like it.

One more week and I am still finishing my shopping and packing. I hope everyone gets it done soon and just enjoy the rest of the week.