Post Holidays

Christmas and the holidays for 2007 are now behind us and we're swept into 2008 with the gusto of an Alberta Chinook. It all flew by so fast and now it seems that in the midst of it, I didn't even realize all the newness that this Christmas brought and how beautiful the season was.

This was a new experience of Christmas for me, as I'm sure it was for Quinn and my family and his family. I can tell you that it was memorable, fun, exciting, but new experiences aren't always easy. Changes can be abrupt and sometimes unexpected, but that is life, so we adapt and move on, right?

Highlights:

- Christmas at Quinn's house, with his parents and grandparents

(Ukranian food, Nalysnyka - cottage cheese filled mini crepes baked with 1.5 L of pure whipping cream...ahhh...goodness!)

- My whole family was home

- Jesus was born

- Quinn and I managed to be sick free for 4 days - Christmas day to the Friday -

- I discovered Trans Siberian Orchestra

- Quinn's lemon juice drink, or should we say - choke...i might elaborate on that.

- Chocolate, more chocolate and Christmas baking

- First Christmas with Conner, my nephew

- Although I appreciate all my gifts, the one I appreciate a lot was the one I picked (outfitting 25 kids in winter clothes for $30.00, thanks Mom & Dad)

- That's right, 25 kids for 30 bucks!

This Christmas and the holidays were such a great time. My life was, what I thought, so rich before...it still is, now even more so. I'm thankful I was able to spend it with Quinn, my family and his family...I loved it.

Quinn has enriched my life, showed me its okay to have some fun, makes me laugh and that is just one thing I love about him.

Now onto a good story...

One day we decided to go out to eat a little bit, Quinn decided to have Ceaser salad. It is one of his favorites and normally he orders it without incident. This outing was a little weird from the get go. We order our food and drinks, one thing I ordered was pineapple juice. She brings our drinks and I took a sip to realize that the straw appeared used. It looked as tho it had been chewed. Quinn suggested I get a new drink, I agreed. She came back to our table and I kindly pointed out that it appeared my straw had been used. She quickly stated, alright I'll get you a new straw and turned to leave. I slightly elevated my voice, I would like a new drink. I did get a new drink. Strange!

Anyway, the food came, Quinn and I ate and left, decided to catch a cheap movie. I noticed a garlic scent from time to time, in the car, in the line at the movie theatre...I hadn't been feeling well, the last few days, so in the theatre I mentioned to Quinn, that the smell was nauseating me, he said what's that? I said: the popcorn and the garlic. Before going into the theatre I mentioned to Quinn I wanted to buy some gum, but after seeing the lines, he hinted that would be a long wait. I smiled and figured: I have to say this. We need to buy some gum I told him. After a short conversation, Quinn realized what my garlic comment had really meant and obliged. He waited in line only to find they had no gum, so he settled for candy. Garlic lingered. The next day the garlic was still in our relationship. I had heard and someone else mentioned; lemon juice might work. Alright, we needed to go to Safeway anyway to grab some stuff. We're in Safeway in the fruit section, no lemons. Yep, they were out. So, I noticed a small bottle of lemon juice...figured this should work. We get back to the car, Quinn decides to try this out. I wasn't really watching him, I was playing with the stereo and didn't notice he just took a big swallow of lemon juice or lemon concentrate. AHHHHH, car door flies open, Quinn's choking, I simultaneously figure out what just happened and am laughing my butt off. Quinn choked for sometime and I explained that this was concentrate and what I wanted him to do was simply rinse with the lemon juice, not chug! Anyway, it did seem to work, so, lesson learned = lemon juice to kill garlic, but don't swallow lemon concentrate.

Happy New Year!