Mid-Week Randoms

It's a rainy, dreary Wednesday around here. I thought I'd do some quick random bullet points about how the week is going so far and what is coming up!

• It is slowwwwwly coming around to the time when I can officially go "Christmas Crazy"!!  I usually peg our company Christmas party as "go time", and that is this Friday, so... it's almost time!!
• Last Saturday was our annual girls Christmas get-together, and I had a wonderful evening.  I was super-prepared, and had all the snacks made the night before, so that day was quite relaxing.  Some last minute tidy up and such, but then an afternoon of painting nails, watching Hallmark Christmas movies, and napping.  
• The ladies started arriving around 6, and we just had a great time chatting and visiting.  I especially loved it when we did the gift exchange and got everyone into one room.  It was a fun, festive night, and while it might have seemed early for a Christmas party, we all had a blast anyways.
  
• I was up way later Saturday night than usual, so even though I only had a few drinks, I felt totally hungover Sunday.  I was thankful I had no plans after church.  Mom and I had lunch, and then I hit the couch. I slept hard.  I went down around 1:30 and didn't even stir until 4:30.  It was kind of a waste of a day, but man, I must have needed it.  And then I went to bed around 8:30 and fell asleep almost immediately.  It was a good catch-up on sleep!
• Now this week is the push to get ready for the Christmas House Tour, coming up on Monday!  Mom and I got the poinsettias and door prizes delivered last night, and my mom has her ladies helping her to decorate and set up at the church today.  This will hopefully eliminate too much of a last-minute scramble over the weekend.
• I also pegged this week as the beginning of my Christmas baking, but so far, that is NOT going well. LOL!  Monday night I was tired and not in the mood.  Last night, I got the refrigerator shortbread dough made and it was crumbly and dry.  I have no idea if the cookies will even stay together when I slice the dough tonight.  Hopefully tonight's creations turn out better!
• I had slotted Saturday as a full-on baking day, but I think there might be plans in the works to go see Frozen 2 in the afternoon.  So baking can still happen, but it will have to be in and around the movie.  
• I have an appointment for my flu shot today.  bleh.  I'll be glad when it's done, but I'm not looking forward to it.
• I got lazy this year and ordered snowflake window clings to go on the door in my living room, instead of cutting out my own snowflakes.  I know my niece Danica is disappointed in me for not cutting out my own, but I love the look!!
  
• Things have been a little hectic lately, and that's going to continue for a few more days, but once the House Tour is over, my life will calm down quite a bit.  I'm really looking forward to the slower pace, snuggling up to watch Christmas movies and sip hot chocolate, really enjoying the season.  It is my very favourite time of year, I don't want it all to fly by without pausing to really enjoy it.
• I usually have a busy morning planned for Black Friday with lots of Christmas shopping to do, but somehow, this year, I really jumped the gun on the shopping.  LOL! I only have stocking stuffers left to pick up. I am not sure why I got in such a rush on that front this year, and I likely will regret it when I see the deals, but right now, I feel really good about that part being almost finished.
• Tomorrow is American Thanksgiving, which I call my Day of Jealousy. hahaha!!  Our Thanksgiving feels like it was so long ago... A holiday weekend would be lovely right about now, wouldn't it, Canadian friends?  Oh well... Christmas vacation is in sight... one more month to go!

Happy Wednesday, friends!! :)

I drank the Disney+ kool-aid.

So, today, since it is still ONLY November 20th, I shall try to write a blog post that does not mention the word CHRISTMAS.  Because, sheesh  Seriously.  Get a grip, Jill.

But today, I did buy myself a little present.  And that present was a monthly subscription for the recently released streaming service, Disney+.

I of course heard about this streaming service being released.  I mean, I work for Jared and Lindsay Hamilton.  They are Disney fanatics.  They have been talking about this coming for months.  And since the service was released, I have heard them talking about how amazing the content is.  All those Disney classics, out of the vault.  Old shows.  New movies.  Superhero stuff. (That was from Jared.)  Even aside from the Hamiltons, I've seen many friends on Facebook sharing their thoughts and opinions on it (all positive, from what I've seen).

Still, I was holding out.  Because, A) I have racked up my credit card with shopping for that holiday that I shall not speak of (yet) , and B) I have been paying for Crave all year and hardly using it, and I didn't want to do the same with Disney+.  My plan was to wait until January, when the Crave subscription will run out, and I will hopefully be all caught up on holiday debt.  Besides, as I've mentioned several times, I have a million movies and specials to watch over the next six weeks.  Plus Netflix.  Plus Amazon Prime.  I didn't need Plus Disney+.

But something in me snapped this morning.  I'm not entirely sure what.  I think I saw something on FB again about how amazing the service is.  And before I could give my head a shake, I had gone on and subscribed.  Here, Disney.  Take my 8.99 a month!  Just take it!!

I am at work, so I haven't actually had time to watch anything, but as I continue to scroll through the categories, my heart keeps jumping with excitement.  There is so MUCH!!!  So many movies I haven't seen since I was a kid, or movies I've never seen.  And this is coming from a girl who has worked hard to build a pretty solid Disney DVD collection!!

That part, though... that part sucks.  I have spent so much money on DVD's over the years.  Some very recently.  In the past 6 months, I have bought The Lion King, The Sandlot, Rookie of the Year, and Hocus Pocus, all titles that I saw while quickly scanning through on Disney+.  And all I could think was, what a waste.  Because I don't know about anyone else, but I seem to have gotten insanely lazy and I find it a pain in the ass to put a DVD in the player now.  I much prefer if I can find it on a streaming service instead.

I admit that I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the take-over of streaming services.  I now have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crave, and Disney +.  There are others that I've contemplated, like AppleTV+.  And I hear there are only more coming.  As so many others have brought to attention, soon the combination of costs for all of these services might as well equal the price of cable.  So much for saving money.

But I can already tell you, I don't regret Disney+.  If I'm going to whittle them down, Crave will absolutely be the first to go (terrible service, and my Internet speed doesn't support it very well).  I'll see what Prime and Netflix continue to offer.  (So far, so good for both them of them).

So, what am I excited to watch on Disney+?  Like... EVERYTHING!!!  Here are some of the titles that jumped out at me as movies or shows that I want to watch:

- Babes in Toyland
- The Sword in the Stone (I don't think I've ever even seen that movie)
- Swiss Family Robinson

- The Sound of Music
- Duck Tales (my god, Saturday mornings of my childhood!)
- A Goofy Movie (haven't seen it in a million years)
- the new Lady & The Tramp

- Noelle
- The Adventures of Huck Finn (I had the movie as a kid, and one day it disappeared...never did find it)
- Old Yeller (I remember seeing this many times in French in school, but I don't think I've ever seen it in English!!)
- the old Pete's Dragon movie

- Muppet Babies
- old Mickey cartoons
- Cinderella (I can't remember the last time I watched Cinderella!)
- Finding Dory

- Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas & Twice Upon a Christmas (oh, shit, I said Christmas.  Dammit.)
- Up! (I only saw it once, and I fell asleep lol)

My gosh, guys, there is SO much.  I'm so excited about it!

There's even a movie from my youth that used to scare me.  I was really young when I saw it, and I don't know if the movie is actually scary, but I remember it terrifying me.  And that movie was called Fuzzbucket.  It's on there!  I can't wait to check it out to see if it is even remotely scary. lol!

Watching the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights are some of my favourite memories from childhood.  The fact that I could put any of those old classics on and re-visit that any night I want?  It makes me so happy.  So very, very happy.

How about you?  Did you drink the Disney+ kool-aid? Have you signed up?  If so, what do you recommend I watch first?

Random Tuesday Ramblings

• Jill's Holiday Train continues to chug along, and I'm feeling so much more calm about things this week.  Most of the gifts have been bought, the house is decorated, Christmas cards are on their way... Christmas Prep Month was stressing me out last week, but I've got it all under control now and I feel 10 times lighter.
• I realize that my over-preparedness is ridiculous.  Absolutely.  I'm a nut job.  I recognize it.  I apologize for it.  But its all for my own mental sanity, and my way of laying the path for a stress-free December.  (or as stress-free as possible). It's just the way my nutty brain works.  *shrug*
• This coming Saturday is our girls Christmas get-together, and I'm very much looking forward to it!  We have moved it to an early date in November because, let's face it, everyone has SO much going on as the holiday season comes into full effect, it's almost impossible to find a date that works.  So I call this party the "kick-off", and I'm so excited to have everyone over!!
• Christmas decorating this past weekend was mainly to get ready for this party. The house got a thorough cleaning too, so I don't actually feel like I have much to do to prepare now!  I decided to just make the snacks myself this year - we always have so much when we do it potluck style, and I have the time between Friday night and Saturday to get stuff ready, so it's not a big deal.  I'm keeping it simple, and I've had fun thinking up my munchie menu!
• Last weekend, my niece Danica came to help me decorate.  On Friday evening, we assembled the tree and put up as much of the wall-hanging stuff as we could.  Saturday morning, we decorated the tree, then put out everything else, all while I vacuumed and dusted in between.  It was a long and tiring day, but I was so grateful to have her helping me. She does a lot of the running up and down the stairs with stuff, and then I just have to place things.  We were all done by 3 in the afternoon, and I mean ALL done.  Aside from my little shrub of outdoor lights, we got EVERYTHING up.  I was exhausted and aching from head to toe, and almost wondered if it's worth it to put up so much stuff.  But now that it's done and I get to sit down and enjoy it each day, I'm glad we did.
  
• You can't tell from this picture, but I have a crooked Christmas tree this year.  No matter what I did, I could not get the damn thing to stand up straight.  So I finally got it turned in such a way that it leans forward.  Sitting on the couch looking at it, it looks fine, but if you were at the side, you would see that it's canting forward.  It's solid, though - not going to topple - but just looks precarious.  Frigging Christmas trees. There's always something!
• I'm planning to run to the city after work on Thursday, to hit up Bulk Barn and Walmart for my holiday baking supplies and party supplies.  The baking seems to be the one area that I am behind in, but I just don't have any of the Christmas baking essentials:  candied cherries, chopped pecans, chocolate, mixed nuts...Any time I think of a cookie to make, I'm missing one of these key ingredients.  Next week/weekend will be all about the baking!
• Funnily enough, as I've been diving head-first into all things Christmas, our church is still running it's Harvest Draw, with the lucky winners to be chosen this coming Sunday.  So while every ounce of my being is immersed in Christmas, I'm now back-tracking to crochet dish clothes this week for the Harvest Basket.  I'm dying to try out a new Christmas pattern for ornaments, but I have to hold off.  Harvest stuff first, Jill!!
• There are shows coming out on Netflix that I want to watch, but I'm saving them.  I know the coming weeks will be filled with Christmas movies and specials, so I don't want to start into anything that I can't really commit to for a while.  So for now, I'm working towards finishing The Ranch (I'm into Part 7), but I'm holding off on watching The Crown Season 3, which came out recently, and Dolly Parton's Heart Strings, coming out this weekend.  I can already envision myself cozied up over Christmas break watching them!
• Of course, now that the busiest time of year is descending upon us, I have SO many movies I want to see in theatres!!  I'm really hoping to find time to get to see Doctor Sleep - it's been out for a while, but I'm almost done the book, so I've been holding off until I do.  Also, I want to see Last Christmas - it looks so good, and, I mean... it's a Christmas movie, how could I resist?!  And of course, there's Frozen 2, coming out this weekend.  I HAVE to see it.  Absoultely HAVE to.

Well, I think that's all the rambling I have time for today.  Hope you are all enjoying your week so far! :)

What a Difference a Few Days Makes...

In my last post a few days ago, I lamented being behind the 8-ball when it comes to Christmas Prep Month (aka, November).  My goal this week was to get some of the big check marks off the list so that I could breathe easier.  And for the most part, I have been successful!!

I know.  It is only November 15th.  There is no need to panic yet, Christmas is still well over a month away.  But for some reason (maybe the gently falling snow that has been coming down off and on all week?  The cold that has settled in and made it feel like winter already?) - I felt compelled - absolutely compelled - to get some serious Christmas stuff done this week.

The biggest of all is the shopping.  As of yesterday, I have completed almost all of my gift shopping.  My credit card doesn't like it, but... I'll deal with that in the weeks to come.  One of my biggest stresses this time of year is trying to think up unique and useful gifts for my family, so I just feel like I can breathe now that almost everyone is taken care of.  Perhaps biggest of all are the photo gifts I order for family members every year.  After spending a great deal of time uploading the photos and creating the gifts through Shutterfly, it was a huge relief to hit the button the other day to submit the order.  It's a job, but I love giving meaningful gifts and making good use of my photos.

Next up this weekend is the decorating, which will be another big relief to have done.  My niece Danica is coming to help me tonight and throughout the day Saturday, so hopefully we'll get most of it done.  I'm hosting an early Christmas Party for friends next Saturday, so the goal is to have all of that done in time!

Next week will be devoted to getting ready for the party, which I'm really looking forward to.  I love having my house decked out and being able to share it with friends!  I can't wait!!

The following weekend is our company Christmas party, and it will also be likely last minute prep for the Christmas House Tour which I help organize as a fundraiser for our church.  The big night is December 2nd, and it is always such a wonderful, festive event.  I'm very much looking forward to it.

So aside from the gift buying, decorating, and party prep, here's what I still have to work on in the coming weeks:

- Christmas cards (a plan is already in motion, just not executed yet)
- Stocking stuffers & gift wrap supplies - I usually take a day off in early December to shop and tie up loose ends, so I'm not worrying about this yet.
- Baking.  Gah!  I need to get supplies and start the baking!!  Hopefully in the evenings next week I'll get a little done, and the following weekend I should be able to do a full-on baking day.  I'm kind of eyeing next Thursday evening to run to the city to buy party snack  supplies and maybe I'll hit up the Bulk Barn then to get my baking stuff too.
- Gift Wrapping - I"m certainly not worrying about this one yet.  I usually do this about a week before Christmas, so I still have lots of time.  I love wrapping, so I like to leave it til the last minute!
- Outdoor lights - This one I kinda made a whoopsie.  We have way more snow than I expected at this stage of the game, and I didn't put them up yet.  But I only throw a few on the little shrub at my door, so it won't take long, I just need it to warm up a wee bit to get er done.
- Watching Christmas movies... LOL!  Easily my favourite job. ;)  I can't wait to have the tree lit up & settle in to watch all of my favourites.  I have a Christmas Movie Marathon plan in place as well.  LOVE!!!
- Crocheting - I have a little Christmas gift idea in mind that I want to try out, but just haven't had the time to attempt it yet.  This might get shelved until after the House Tour, when my life will settle down a little and I'll have more time.

I think that's about it!!  The stressful stuff is almost all behind me, and then I can REALLY start enjoying my favourite time of year.  And I can't tell you how excited I am to decorate this weekend.  Dan seems very excited and I just can't wait to get at it!

Happy Friday friends! :)

Christmas Prep Month is in FULL SWING!!!

Well, how the heck did that happen... one minute it's Halloween, the next November is practically half over!! Eeeep!!

• When I went to bed last night, it was snowing.  And I awoke this morning to a gleaming white blanket covering everything.  Those who know me know this was my favourite kind of morning.  When I'm awakened by the snow plow, I grin from ear to ear.  The first snow just makes my heart sing!!!  
• November in my head is "Christmas Prep Month".  I feel like I'm a little behind compared to last year, but I've got some check marks on the list, so that's good.  A few gifts have been purchased, and a few more are in the works.  This weekend I will be decorating, and once that is done, I think I will feel much better.  (I had it done this past weekend a year ago, but it just wasn't possible this past weekend due to other things going on.)
• I'm also feeling behind the 8-ball when it comes to baking.  I haven't done any yet, but, like I said... just haven't had time yet.  I'm prioritizing jobs, and this week, uploading pictures and getting calendar gifts ordered are more important than the baking.  Maybe next week I'll get some done before the party.
• I'm DYING to watch Christmas movies.  But for some reason, it just doesn't feel right until the tree is up.  LOL.  I know, weirdo, right?  So I'm VERY much looking forward to having most of the halls decked by Saturday night so I can put on a Christmas movie.  My niece Danica is coming to stay with me, to help with the decking, and I think we'll both be super excited to settle in with snacks and a Christmas movie once we're done!
• Everyone knows I love Scary Movie Marathon, but can you believe I've never had an official Christmas Movie Marathon?  This year, that is going to change!  Plans are in motion for a Christmas Movie Marathon Day and I am SO excited about this.  While it seems most people have very busy Decembers, mine is actually usually kind of low-key (once the Christmas House Tour is over, anyways).  So I'm taking a Saturday before Christmas to watch movies allll day long.  Heavenly.
• Last night when I left work, my plan was to go home, take spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and thaw it, and have a cozy night in enjoying my favourite meal, editing and uploading photos, and hunkering during the first snowfall.  I arrived home only to discover I had NO sauce in the freezer.  I don't even know how that happened.  I ALWAYS have sauce in the freezer.  I didn't want to go through the painstaking process of defrosting hamburger, so I instead took it out to do tonight. I had a "clean out the fridge" night instead.  Kind of disappointing.
• The good news is, I did get the photos edited that I needed to get done, and I started the uploading process for my calendars.  I always forget what a pain in the ass it is to do that with Shutterfly, it takes forever.  I'm hoping to get the rest uploaded tonight so that I can start working on the calendars.  Shutterfly has the nicest calendars I've seen, but their shipping to Canada is TERRIBLE.  I like to get them done as early as I can to make sure they are in before Christmas.
• While I may not be 100% on top of things Christmas-wise, I AM almost 100% on top of things Winter-wise.  I bought a new coat online that I love, and a few weeks ago I washed my Mountainview coat so it looks ship-shape again.  I got a pair of new winter boots online as well that I'm very happy with, and I picked up a new toque at the craft sale at Onslow this past Saturday.  The only thing I'm not up to snuff on is winter tires, and I sure noticed it this morning when I came to the end of my mom's road, braked, and instead almost slid into the Highway traffic.  Whoops.

Well, I have a lot running through my mind today so I could probably keep rambling, but let's cap it there, shall we.  Happy Tuesday, friends! :)