Seasonal letdown

December 29/11.

Now that the Christmas crunch is over, I'm feelin' the letdown, bigtime.
Weird or what?

All the work, rushing around, adrenaline pumping, lack of sleep, fun,

laughs, excitement, visiting, prezzies, Henkell with cousin Kevio,

hot chocolate with sister Carrie, - and then, suddenly BAM! It's over.
Back to reality.

My daughter, Kate, commissioned her friend, Kathleen, to paint a watercolour portrait of her and boyfriend, Damian, as his Christmas gift. It turned out beautifully. Here, they are trying to recreate the pose! So cute.

My son, Max, got lots of cool t-shirts for Christmas, including this gear fab one, from my sister Carrie.

Lee got a new bathrobe from his Mum (my sister, Carrie). Very nice!

This was Auntie Ray's reaction to the robe.

Sam made a poignant toast to those we were missing this Christmas - Mum and Uncle Ev. It was still a fun day, but so sad without them.

The Hannukah bash at Mum and Dad B's condo was also SO much fun. We did something different, with this wild gift exchange. Too tough to explain!

My sister-in-law, Debbie, tried her best to outline the details of this exchange. I didn't understand a word, but in the end, it turned out to be very funny.

My adorable nephew, Adam, ended up with his fave - PEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My bro-in-law, Arlen, had the honour of lighting the first Hannukah candle. Well done Arlen!!

My beautiful niece, Robin, received a gift card, cleverly disguised (by my husband, Sam), in a glasses case! Sneaky.

As for me, (here with my amazing Dad-in-law, Ben), I received a perfect gift for me!

LIFE, The Year in Pictures, plus an Indigo gift card, which I used to buy my new wall calendar for 2012. (Which I'm hoping will be a banner year)!!!

All in all, Hannukah was a blast. Thanks, Deb, for all your work on pulling it together, and to my parents-in-law who hosted the event.

After a much needed day off on the 27th, (which was pretty much spent sleeping and cleaning up the mess of Christmas), I was ready to rock & roll on the 28th with my good pal, Pam Pickard.

She was working that day at her RBC job across from the Eaton Centre, so we met up,

At good old greenjeans for lunch! She had a glass of wine (since she was travelling home by TTC) and I had a Diet Coke (since I was driving). We had a fab gab, catching up on everything. She is an amazing woman and was pretty much on fire as a standup comic during this lunch hour. Wish I'd recorded the conversation so I could play it back again. SOOOOOOOOOOOO funny.

After lunch, she took me to see her office for the first time. Little did I know, she shares her cubicle with Gumby!

Pam has a pretty great view of Old City Hall from her office window!

Took a walk over to the Eaton Centre to get my new wall calendar plus some more vanilla scented body cream from The Body Shop (buy 2, get one free deal - LOVE it!) And we couldn't resist,

one more stop at La Senza for their fabulous 50 percent off sale! I mean, come ONNNNNNNNNNNN!

Nine pairs of sexy panties for 30 bucks??? Can't be beat! And the teddies? Out of this world! Did we buy anything? I'll just let you GUESS!

On the way home, did some more GPS practice, driving like a maniac on highways and biways, not getting lost once, due to the threats from Bossy GPS Broad. She STILL tried to steer me into a cement wall at one point, but I'm on to her tricks now and made it home in one piece,

only to find Max, using his new Christmas gift - some kind of drink hat, where you sip pop out of straws attached to a construction worker's cap. Why? I don't know. But made for a great pic. Never a dull moment, as usual. Maybe Christmas letdown isn't so bad. - Afterall - it's FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAYYYYYY!!!
BRING it ON!!!!