Hot Chocolate in a Christmas Cup Anyone?

What a day today has been! It kind of started last night when my mum asked if I was up for being her fasion consultant - she needed to buy a few suits. It's kind of funny that she's taken up a like, well maybe not a like for shopping - maybe more of an appreciation for it now. (She lost a lot of weight, and had kept it off for over a year now). I'm there to make sure she doesn't buy anything that she doesn't like, and that she doesn't look amazing in. I feel kind of like a drill sargent when we're out shopping. I know what I have in mind for her most of the time, and immediately tell her "no" when it doesn't work the minute she puts it on. Then, of course there are the times when I'm a bit wishy-washy on an item; but generally we end up deciding not to gete the item: if you don't love it, there's no point in having it in your closet taking up space and wasting money!

These next two are my favorites, the first one especially, and the two that she purchased. It was the first one she tried on, and the jacket fit her so perfectly - I really compared all the other ones against it.

When I saw this one on the rack, I knew she'd be liking it. It reminds me of something else that she has worn. Apparently Grandma had something that was similar, but "misplaced" it during a move - I said that she must have thought it didn't look good, and decided to not let you have it anymore. I couldn't figure out exactly what I didn't like about it, but I knew it did nothing for her (we then realized the "slimming" diagonal rotation band of fabric didn't fall at the right place). I had to convince her that it wasn't right, and I noticed she tried really hard with this picture (notice the big smile) to make it look good! If I hadn't finally made her understand why it didn't work, she said she'd have come back and bought it when I wasn't with her. Hrmmmm... clearly I need to keep this in mind for our next shopping trips! I made her put it back.

We then went to a couple stores to get a few more Christmas presents bought, and we stopped at Tim Hortons and I had lunch. Seriously, the turkey wild rice soup was so yummy, and I love the Christmas cups! I used all the change I had in my wallet for my $4.21 lunch purchase, paying eleven cents in pennies. After, when we were walking around Walmart, I felt my good-luck quarter in my right shoe, and thought it would have been funny to pull it out.

Got home, and started wrapping presents in Santa's workshop. I wrapped presents one, six, seven, eight, eleven and the part of five that I have (I forgot to take a picture of them). And I need to buy a different three since the one I have works better for five!

And seriously, Lowie is really the most handsome cat in the world! He was lounging on the foot stool and I couldn't resist snapping some pics of his cuteness!

Justin decided to make some jerky out of the deer tenderloin that we had in the freezer. And with my coaxing, he made his own recipe and wrote it down in case we really like it. This is just the marinating stage.

Justin cooked a chicken, made mashed potatoes with gravy, and "filth" carrots. At the Christmas party last night, when a co-worker asked what was on the carrots they heard filth when I answered dill. Now, they will forever be re-named to me!

I then decided I wanted the tree up - tomorrow is twelve days 'til Christmas after all! And I want it set up really badly, so I hauled the decoration boxes and tree upstairs from the way basement. I set up the tree, then decided it might be a smarter idea to get the cards completed, and left the box in the family room. Justin was telling me to come downstairs and see what was happening, but I was too engrossed in what I was making to leave; he got a few (about ten - who says he doesn't love our baby) pictures of Lowie in the empty tree box.

I completed the last three cards. Then took some photos of the stack of them on my desk (notice another Timmy's cup in the background!). I got them filled out and addressed. Tomorrow I'll mail them, then be able to check that off my December goal list!