Blogging Again

I took a little time off. I stopped blogging about the same time I started Christmas Carol again. When you only have 8 days of rehearsal before you are onstage (usually you have three weeks) things are busy.

I finished on Carol two weeks early. They moved me over to another show at Theatre Calgary Beyond Eden. We put in a week of rehearsal before Christmas.

Christmas was great. My parents came to Calgary and we spend Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing day with the Glass Family. It was great. It was one of the shorter holidays I have had. I was back to work on the 27th.

Christmas Exchange

On the 15th we hosted our 2nd annual Christmas exchange. It was also the warm up to Christmas as we hosted 12 people for dinner.

Jason, (Charlie), Stef, Craig

Tyler, Jen, Logan

Jason, Megan, Jonathan

Raveigh

Cris

And myself

We did pot luck, I supplied the roast and everyone else brought the fixings. The food was delicious, the mood was festive and Charlie wore his Santa Hat.

We had a gift auction that was very tame this time around. Logan, the game hater, picked the only game in the pile.

And I walked away with a gift that we put in. A fun geometric, wall mounted candle holder. It was a coveted item as it was stolen three times. It stayed here and is now hung in our newly renovated bathroom.

One of the gifts (the other that we put in) was Twister. We had a rousing game.

A house upside down

As the days tick away toward Christmas we add more decorations and more cheer. I know that I haven't posted pictures of the newly painted living room. But that may not happen for a few more days. Everything is a bit upside down and a mess and we continue to spruce up the house.

We couldn't put up the Christmas Tree until we had painted. Now that that is done we moved onto Christmas in the living room. Tree first.

I picked up a barrel of ornaments from Michael's of red, green and silver. I love my cylinder vases and the ways it can change for the season.

We have had the outside Christmas lights up since Nov 1. We thought that with the weather still being nice we should take advantage.

You may have noticed the amount of snow in this picture. Sunday we had a bit of a blizzard. I believe we racked up somewhere between 5 and 10 cm of snow. It was quite the day.

Charlie enjoyed the snow. We let him out onto the untouched blanket on the deck.
He seems to like the snow. You may not be able to tell.

Christmas Party

Tonight was Logan's work Christmas Party. It was held at Aussie Rules, a great dueling piano bar. I was pretty sad 'cause it was a two show day for me and I was not able to join until after the evening show (10pm ish). The little time I was there was a hoot.

To add to the fun:

There were door prizes. Each of our tickets won.

First a Sony Blu-Ray Player!

And then Guitar Hero III for the Wii.
How Fun. Especially since we only paid for one ticket. The ticket included dinner. As I was not going to be joining till almost the very end of the night they just gave him my ticket for free. So a $40 ticket, good fun, and a couple hundred dollars worth of electronics.
And because we haven`t had a picture of Charlie in a while:

We have hardly any snow at all. This photo is a couple of weeks old. But he loved discovering snow! He really had a good time eating as much as he could. He was locked in the kitchen for many hours that week we had snow. He would stay out there till he was shaking from the wet snow and come in with his skin matted with snow.

A Christmas Carol

There are some very fun Video Links on the Theatre Calgary website that you should check out. Mainly the time lapse video of the set up of Christmas Carol. If you don't get a chance to get to Calgary to see the show it will give you an idea of the size of the show.

The show is huge. I know I have said it before. It is really causing me some back pain, and shin pain and forearm pain.

We painted the living room over the past few days. Behr Mother Nature Green. I will post photos once we are done. It is still a bit upside down. I wanted to paint so we could start decorating. You can't put up a Christmas tree in a room you want to paint before Christmas. So it is still being put together. Very soon.

Christmas Pictures

First, to give some closure to A Christmas Carol. I had a great time working on that show despite all of the drama that accompanied it. And believe me that show had more than its fair share. The two ladies that I worked most closely with were Susan (the Stage Manager) and Kelly (the Assistant Stage Manager). For our last Christmas Party the three of us planned a Secret Santa Party - but with a twist. Secret Santa Goes to Hawaii.

Susan on the left, Kelly in the centre and me on the right.

Next, Christmas Eve. The highlight here was pulling out all of the Christmas baking that Janet and I had made - and realizing, as many do, that we had made way to much. This picture is to illustrate the enormous pile it was.

On Christmas Eve the Kotlar family tradition is to open one present, and it is something to do with sleep wear. We changed into our pj's and played the new game Outburst Remix.

Christmas morning came early enough (but not to early - thank you Kotlars!). We opened present and then ate breakfast. This is a shot of me opening the beautiful necklace Logan gave me.

For Christmas Dinner we prepared a "Pre-stuffed, Cook from Frozen, Butterball Turkey". It was great. It took almost no work at all and tasted fantastic. This is a picture of the bird right out of the oven. Even the stuffing was great!

We had a great time! And my first time ever Boxing day shopping. There are some good deals. But you have to learn the tricks. Assess the store before you enter. If they have the doors half closed and are only letting in a few people at a time - keep moving. If that is okay - check the sale. Not all stores are giving things away. If it will be that price next week -keep moving. Lastly check the line to the till. If it is too long how fast is it moving. Us three ladies were very successful and in and out in 2 hours!

January 2nd

The tree is still up but it doesn't feel like it should be. Christmas was only a week ago yesterday. A week ago today was just Boxing Day. And yet it feels like a million years ago. Or even that it didn't quite happen. I have been back to work for a week now. The first week of rehearsals for my next show "The Retreat from Moscow" is complete and today we start week two. Time is sure flying. I imagine that we will take down all the Christmas gak in the next couple of days. It is always sort of depressing. December is such a great month, just writing December on something is sort of exciting. Writing January has no thrill. But there is a sort of neatness that comes with taking down Christmas decorations. Everything feels neat and clean and uncluttered.

Here is to all of you as you take down your own Christmas Decorations! Have that last cup of Egg Nog (or throw the bad stuff down the sink) and some left over Christmas baking.

Christmas!

I hope that everyone had the happiest of Christmases. We certainly had a good time. It was the first Christmas I spent away from my own family so it was a little sad. But we had a good time here in our little one bedroom Christmas Wonderland. If I knew where the camera was in this mess of a place I would post some pictures. But there are gifts and decorations and candies of all varieties in different vessels strewn about making the search near impossible. I hope that Logan took it with him to Regina. My hubby joined the convoy and drove home today with his parents and Andrea. (Let's try this again, they have all asked for their names to come up in the blog: Janet Kotlar, Lorne Kotlar, Andrea Kotlar.)

We had a fantastic time! I hope you all did too! I can't wait to hear all of your tales of Christmas!

The day that we have waited and planned for is upon us.

It's a very busy time of year.

Well, we have set up the tree. We were actually setting it up when we got the call from the police. So it went from us setting up the tree, to me setting up the tree. That is okay, he was busy talking to everyone we know on the phone.

I like our tree. It is live. It smells great. Sitting right beside it makes me feel Christmas-y.

On our first Christmas, just last year, we decided that we would start our very first Christmas tradition. And that would be that every year we would buy ourselves a new ornament. Something nice, something special. So last year, we bought ourselves one and each of our parents bought us one. I like this tradition. We will be able to have a tree of beautiful ornaments later on that all mean a little something.

And when our kids get older they can look at the ornaments and say "2006, you guys are old. That was sooooooo many years ago!"

This is the ornament we bought for ourselves.

This is the ornament from my parent's for our 1st.

And from the Kotlar's.

And the one that we bought for this year. The little sleighs each say our names.

A much better review in the Fast Forward

There is a paper here very similar to the Prairie Dog back home called the Fast Forward (which has a much wider distribution). They had a very pleasant review of our little ditty. I will search for it and add the link once I find it. It was very positive about the story telling and all around a good review. The link to the review is Fast Forward Review

The show is going well. Now that we are opened and we don't have to rehearse before or after shows I have a little time. I even got a chance to ice the sugar cookies I made the other day. But I made way to much icing (not really my fault, the food colouring exploded as I tried to open it and instead of adding a few drop of blue to deepen the hot pink into something closer to red I got screaming purple. Who needs purple icing for Christmas cookies.)

My brother Matt is in town this weekend. He turned 18 on the 21st. He is here to celebrate at the legal drinking age. We went to the pub Limerick's last night. I'm not sure where tonight. But I have two shows, so I will have to catch up.

Christmas shopping success!

Yesterday I only had a matinee and rehearsal was canceled. That meant I was done work by 4:00pm. So Stef and I went Christmas shopping. After rush hour traffic we made it to Chinook Centre by 5:00. We finished everyone on our lists (except my little brother as he is not the easiest person to buy for) and my mom. But Stef will finish mom today, we found what we wanted but it was not at the mall we were at. We were home by 8:30 having cranberry juice, plain chips and homemade dip. It was a good night!

That leaves Matt, Lorne and the purchase of Lindsay and Dan's gift (but you have already heard the story behind that). I even got most of Logan done. Woo Hoo!

I hope that you are all doing well with your Christmas shopping. I know that it may still seem for some of you. But I have been in a Christmas environment, with a Christmas tree and other such decorations since the middle of October.

Christmas shopping at The Bay

With my day off today we decided to do a little Christmas Shopping. First to Costco. We thought that it was a crazy idea. But it is so freaking cold here that there was no one there. We had a very pleasant experience at Costco. We took a leisurely stroll, looked at everything, and got in line behind one person. A great way to start the day - even though we did not end up with a gift.

Then to Market Mall to really shop. First to the Bay. Logan has a discount, so why not. Well, that store never ceases to amaze me in how it will iritate, (without giving away what we were shopping for). Lindsay and Dan are registered for their wedding - so we thought that would be a great place to start their shopping. We decided to purchase but have it available for pick up at their home store in Edmonton. The registry lady said "no problem but you don't pay us you pay that store."
"How?"
"We just send your Credit Card number and they ring it through."
"Can't we pay with Debit?"
"No"
Logan said to me "Well, can't use a third party credit card (visa or mastercard) and get a discount and we don't have a Bay card."
Lady "You can use your discount and your credit card."
Logan "Actually no you can't"
Lady "Sure I'll do it right now"
Logan "That is against store policy. I used to be internal."

So we decide to buy it right there and just wrap it up under the tree.
Lady "Ah, we don't have the one you are looking for in the quantity you want."
Us "Great"
Lady "Would you like something different, or perhaps one of what you want?"

Stupid Bay.

Feeling the spirit of the season

Tonight I feel as though Christmas is very soon. I am on the net searching for meal ideas for Christmas eve. We have Christmas lights up. I have plenty of Christmas baking. And we did another run of A Christmas Carol today. Only one more day in the rehearsal hall and then on to the stage for 12 hour days of tech. I have a feeling that I won't be feeling Christmas-y after tomorrow for at least a week. So while I was "giddy with the season" I thought I'd add a little flavor to my blog. (By the way there are so many quotes from the play that I am fighting the urge to add - as you all don't know the play).

Here is a picture of us last year

- our first Christmas Married -

in front of our first Christmas tree.

A day off

Nothing is new here. Just work, work, work. Logan and I had a successful day off yesterday. We hit up one store to do some Christmas shopping and had two great gifts for two people within minutes! Logan felt that because we had done so well we were done! I felt that because we had accomplished our Christmas shopping goal in an eighth of the time we should move forward and use the allotted time to get ahead. He disagreed. And as the driver felt that he got an extra vote as he was taking us to our next destination. We hit up the grocery store for the few things we needed for this week (namely meal to have away from home) and then back home!

At home of coarse there was plenty to do. (Maybe that is why I wanted to continue shopping). I did 7 load of laundry, a weeks worth of dishes and made supper while Logan napped on the couch. (I would have been a little more vocal about this injustice if he hadn't worked an overnight shift at the Bay downtown last night - where they pay him cash for this services.)

And then after supper we were feeling festive and hung Christmas lights. We now have a hue of blue through the entire place!

I am sick of being sick

Some days ago I wrote a little bit about the cold I was experiencing. Well, this thing is still kicking around. And better yet, it keeps morphing into bigger and better things. What started as a head cold, quickly turned into a check cold. And then to my delight - became the flu yesterday. Oh well.

My mom was in town and she took good care of me. She came to frigid little Calgary to take in the Dixie Chicks! We had a blast at the concert. I would have enjoyed myself a little more if I didn't feel sick to my stomach - but I did some lovely chair dancing.

And mom and I had the opportunity to do a little Christmas baking. I would have liked to do a little more - but when you are sick to your stomach - baking is not very appealing. So Sunday night mom and I had made batch of scuffles to rise and work on the next day. Being up all night - mom had to finish them herself.

Christmas Plans

So last year, I work A Christmas Carol with Theatre Calgary. They have a matinee on Christmas eve - so you work till supper. That does not leave alot of time to get home for the fun. So last year my family came to Calgary so we could all celebrate together. It is very difficult to expect your family to do this two years in a row. This year the situation is even tighter. Yes, I am doing Christmas Carol again, but this time I start the next show on Boxing day (if I'm lucky the next day). So we couldn't even drive to Regina Christmas Eve and then be there after. Nope. So I pitched the idea of the Kotlar's coming to Calgary. It will be a little different as we (and our one bedroom apartment) and the only family they have here. But with the help of a hotel room or two - I am hosting! Should be interesting. Work till 5 and then HOLIDAY. But I am excited to give it a go. See what happens.

Christmas Started Oct 17

Yesterday was my first day back to work in my chosen career! Prep for Christmas Carol started. I think that it will be great fun. And as a huge bonus - the people, kids and adults that I didn't like very much from last year - are not in it this year!
There will definitely be more on this later!