The Christmas Haul

Okay obviously Christmas isn't about the gifts you get. For the more religious amongst us it's about the birth of Jesus. For me it's about getting my family all together in one place. This year that place was my parent's farm. Everyone gathered there on the 27th except OB1's girlfriend who was supposed to have the day off but ended up being scheduled to work. We had a lovely turkey and ham dinner. It was really great to see my family.

But there were also gifts. I got pretty much everything I wanted this year. My brother's all went together to purchase me a sony ebook reader. It's the touch screen one. It's pretty sweet. My parents bought me a Tassimo, just like I asked for. I also got some socks and some jewelry from my folks. OB2's girlfriend bought me a pack of 3 DVD games, "family feud", "who wants to be a millionaire" and "deal or no deal". And my younger brother bought me a wireless router for when I get my internet hooked up in Guelph. Oh and I got a book from my parents and a little book with quotes about courage from my dad's cousin.

There is still one mystery gift to be had. It's coming by post, it was supposed to be at my parent's waiting for me when I got home but alas it did not arrive. So now they're going to have to ship it too me in Guelph when it does get out to the farm.

Living on coffee and carbs

Since I've moved I've not been eating healthy at all. Part of this is that I'm lazy and I don't want to pack a proper lunch for myself in the morning and part of it is that I'm not living in my own place so I don't feel comfortable making a mess of the kitchen. I'm not one for particularly healthy eating to begin with. I LOVE fast food. These factors taken together present a bit of a challenge for my overall nutritional health.

Lets start with lunch. I like to sleep for as long as I can in the mornings. Particularly when I've stayed up late making phone calls to people 2 times zones away (you know who you are!).Not that I'm complaining about the phone schedule. I manage to survive that but it does mean that I don't want to have to deal with making something for lunch everyday. So usually I just grab something out of the cupboard, which usually means I'm eating a cup of noodles for lunch. Today I went with Uncle Ben's Bistro Express rice.

And supper is usually a matter of trying to eat something quickly so that the lady I'm living with doesn't try to tell me her life story. She's about 75 so she's had a long time to come up with these stories. So usually that doesn't leave a lot of time for proper balanced meal making. Usually it's whatever I pull out of the freezer and heat up.

And then there's the coffee.  My work place offers free coffee, so I've gone from my usual pre-work double tall caramel machiatto to about 4 cups of regular joe throughout the day. Some days I feel like it's the only things that gets me through the day.

Want of the Week

I don't know if you guys know this but I love Starbucks. When I was working a double tall caramel machiatto was sometimes the only reason I made it to work in the morning. Now I've moved on to more soothing drinks since I'm trying to mellow out and deal with the things that have been happening so I'm drinking far more Chai Lattes and Cinnamon Dolce Lattes. If you've never had one with soy milk then you really must try it!

The problem with making coffee for myself if that I only really need one cup. And while there are a number of one cup coffee makers out there I'm also not a huge fan of drip coffee (although I'll drink it). So with that in mind I present this week's want of the week, a Tassimo Coffee maker.

This is the one with the discs, where you put in the disc, you put in the water and BOOM!, a perfectly brewed cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate or a latte. Definitely a gift for the Christmas list.