Happy Holidays!

I hope you all have an amazing holiday season. I hope the New Year brings you happiness and dreams that come true. I'm so glad that you are all a part of my life.
Love Mel

December, Really?

I just published the last blog and realized that everything I wrote is from a month ago. Crazy! I need to keep these shorter so that I actually get them out in a timely fashion :)

Let's start off with the awesome book I'm reading: 'The Time Traveler's Wife'. I am loving this book and can not put it down. I'm so excited when I find a book like that. Lisa leant it to me after I saw it on Chapter's top 100 list. I'm about half way done and I just started.

I have been on quite the book, tv and movie kick lately. I finished book four of the Ender series by Orson Scott Card this week. Every time I read one of his books it amazes me how excellent his ideas are. I also read 'The Wizard of Oz' for the first time. Hey, why aren't her shoes red in the book (they're silver)?

I joined zip.ca awhile ago and I am loving it. They send you DVDs in the mail. I have over 400 dvd's on my list so far. It's great, I get to watch TV shows and movies that I wouldn't necessarily buy or rent. They just show up in my mailbox. Mostly I have been getting tv shows lately, but I have quite a few documentaries on my list that I can't wait to see (thanks Jason for all the ideas). I just finished watching Charlie Chaplins' 'The Gold Rush'. I now only have 11 movies of the AFI top 100 movies of all time to see. I am really enjoying having DVDs delivered to my house at random.

Lisa has me addicted to the TV show Veronica Mars and I am not entering into my first foray of downloading tv shows off the internet. It takes about 3 hours for each episode, but I just can't wait a year for season 2 to be on DVD. I need to know if she will pick Logan over Duncan!

A couple of weeks ago Michelle and Liz hosted a Murder Mystery dinner. How fun! I'm hoping to host one myself in the future. The discussions of who the murderer was were great.

Only a couple more weeks until I head to the Caribbean for my sailing adventure. The crew (7 of us) met to go over our shopping list (the grocery store delivers our food to the boat). I can't wait. I just joined a gym to get myself in shape for my new bikini. Christi has me all excited about diving in the ocean. Of course, I am still really freaked out, but not freaked out enough that I won't at least attempt to dive while I'm there.

Lisa and I met Dorie for a drink this week to congratulate her on her engagement to Alec. Congrats guys! Can't wait to see the pics from South Africa and Europe. (Many of you think I travel alot, well, I get alot of my ideas for Dorie.) Oh the craziness of transit, it took me over two hours to get to the restaurant. Due to the rain, both buses were 15 mins late and then I was on a subway line with two broken down trains ahead of me.

I finally made it to London to see Dad and Sue's new place. It's beautiful (of course). We had a really good weekend and I can't wait to go back up to visit. Of course, it is really close to Huron County so I can't see me getting back there that often ;) But, they did just get a hot tub, so I suspect I will try to visit as often as possible.

This past weekend I headed to Kitchener to finally see Teresa and Greg's new place. It's really nice and Tree is so happy (which is great to see) with it. The gang (Tree, Heidi, Cara and I) normally try to get the families together for the holidays and in the summer. Unfortunately, it hasn't happened for awhile. Luckily, most of us were able to make it to Tree's place on Saturday night. Only two no shows: Mackenzie had a hockey game so Jeff and Mac were not able to join us (you guys were missed!). It is always so great to get together. We have known each other since at least 1986 - that will be 20 years next September (when we met Cara), which means I have known Tree and Heidi for over 21 years (Dorie, I am now afraid to calculate how long we have known each other). It was great to see all the kids and also reminisce about when we were kids in Goderich (Jen, Greg and Jeff normally feel a little left out when we get started). Everyone appears to be doing well.

As for hockey, it has been a pretty great couple of weeks. We haven't lost in 4 or 5 games. This past weekend we played the 1st place team (they are 6 points ahead of the 2nd place team and 2nd, 3rd and 4th are within a point of each other). The first time we played them, they beat us 7-0 and laughed whenever they scored. They were not so happy this week. We tied 0-0. Big difference. Our team is definitely coming together. I am recovering from the game, though. I got in the way of two shots on net within one shift. The one bruise is pretty sore, but definitely worth the stopped shot!

Last night (Friday), Tim and I went out with Lisa for her birthday. I missed her party last week :( and luckily was able to get together with her this week. It was really nice, we played Trivial Pursuit and the Chapters board game. I won at Trivial Pursuit and Lisa, of course, won at the Chapters game. I could have given her a run for her money. I answered about 4 questions in a row, but I kept landing on the same spot that sent me back to the Library. Damn the dice! I actually received a question on the book I'm reading today (Farley Mowat's 'The Dog Who Wouldn't Be'). Crazy.

I finished off the Time Traveler's Wife this week and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (what's with all the traveling books?). I highly recommend the Time Traveler's Wife (I believe I said that above, but it is worth repeating).

Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful snow. Have a happy holiday!