HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Well, it's exactly 4 hours away till 2009.

While I'm waiting for the new year to begin, here's some photos of Christmas Day 2008 with my older sister, brother, and parents:



Here's another look at the Christmas tree before we put it away on January 2nd.



This is the traditional Christmas Day morning before the present unwrapping event. Notice all the coffee shop take-out cups? Mine's the steeped tea double double.



The 14-karat gold pearl earrings is what I gave my mother this year (plus the L.A.M.B. watch). Actually, she picked it out and I paid for it. Hey, at least I know she would like it. ;p



My mother gave me this jewelry box. I needed this since all my bracelets, necklaces, and pendants are always tangled in a jumbled mess. I wasn't expecting this so I was pleasantly surprised. Thanks, Mom!!



See the watch in the photo? That's what I was talking about earlier. My older sister, brother, and I combined together for this gift. Again, it's what she wanted but forgot she inquired about it during the summer. It looks really nice!



I love this Winter coat! I spotted it in a store during early Fall and liked the pattern and the feel of it when I tried it on. The price tag for it was too steep for me but my older sister bought it as my present. It's so comfy!



The Christmas Day dinner on the 25th. Turkey, shrimp, potatoes, bacon, garlic bread, et cetera. I was so stuffed and must have gained five more pounds during the holiday. It was delicious!

It is now 8:30pm... time is ticking towards 2009.

I'm going to stop blogging and head towards the family room. Sounds like a mahjong game is underway.

See everyone in the New Years!

Cheers!!!!!!

Boxing Day Sales

On Friday, Boxing Day, I went shopping with my family. I ended up purchasing a few items. It was a Juicy Couture day for me: 2 shoes (which were kids sizes), handbag, and H-lock wallet.



My new handbag. It's really adorable. All black with a pretty rose on the front. It has a full zipper from one side to the other side. It is very soft.



Here is my H-lock wallet. It is black as well and very soft. The leather is amazing, but Juicy always have very soft leather. The clasp in front is H-lock. I'm in the process of moving my things over to that wallet. I want to place my Burberry clutch away so it doesn't get damaged.

Both shoes are kid sizes: 2 and 3. My feet are actually 1-1/2 to 2 so the tennis shoes style which is a 3, is loose on me. But that's okay because I wear thick socks anyways. They are both very cute, with the logos on the shoes themselves. And they're pink! My favourite colour!!

My brother got himself a new camera lens, 2 pairs of jeans, and a hat. This Sunday, he bought a 21-inch monitor for his laptop so he can work on designs.

My older sister, at the Juicy Couture boutique, got herself a new pair of skinny jeans. (oh the horror!!) ha ha ha! This Sunday she bought new shoes at the Hugo Boss store.

Both of my parents didn't make any purchases this Boxing Day weekend, but we did end up eating out a lot.

Last night, our family went to a Chinese restaurant which served gluten-free food. My older sister was excited to say the least because she hasn't eaten out to Chinese food in our city for a long time now since she was diagnosed with wheat allergy. Needless to say, the food was excellent and very tasty. Thumbs up!! Way up!!!

This Sunday night, since my oldest sister and her husband came back from the Bahamas on late Friday night, we had the turkey dinner again. It was delicious, the second time around. I didn't drink any alcohol since I have to work on Monday. I hate waking up to a headache.

Then afterwards, my brother, oldest sister, and me played with the Wii while the others played mahjong.

Overall, it was a good weekend. I am bushed... the holidays always wear me out.

(sleepy... zzzzz...)

Early Christmas Presents

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Here's a couple of pictures of how our tree looked this year with the gifts under it:






My oldest sister and her husband left for the Bahamas on Monday so we opened up the presents early this year, just the gifts between us only (we left the other gifts alone till Christmas Day). Here are the photos of some of the gifts:



My oldest sister gave my mother the home phone set. Our phone has been static and we were looking for one. This comes in handy!



My older sister & I got this L.A.M.B. link watch for our oldest sister through eBay for a great deal. We also got our mother the same one but in silver tone. This one is in gold tone.



My older sister and I got our brother-in-law this Starbucks Cream Liquor. I want to taste this!!



I received this gift from my oldest sister. It's a label maker! It's awesome and I can't wait to start creating labels for all my DVD cases and binders. Sweet!!

When my oldest sister and her husband comes back from the Bahamas, we're going to be having a late Christmas dinner (actually, a second one). They are enjoying the nice warm weather whilst we freeze here! Not fair!

(hee hee...)

Christmas Dinner & Bonus

The past Friday night, there was a staff Christmas party. It was dinner at a local Italian restaurant. I liked the shrimp and pasta. I didn't care for the salmon though because I thought it was hard and chewy. Overall, it was a good gathering even though I only knew one-third of the people present.

I'm glad I went to the party. It was fun but exhausting.

Today, late afternoon, my boss came by the store and handed out the holiday bonus. I was shocked to receive one since in all my seven years of working (basically fulltime shifts), I never received a bonus. It is very nice of my employer to do this for the employees. I'm touched and happy!

Tomorrow is my last full shift at work this week due to the holiday. I get Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning, and Boxing Day off work, then I go back to work on Saturday for a half day.

It'll be crazy busy tomorrow but I'm going to enjoy my time off!

(Yippee!)

Snow! Please go away!!

Well I did end up going to work on Friday. I arrived to work at 11am, 2 hours after my actual start time. My street wasn't plowed or anything. I just followed the tracks some SUVs and trucks made. The roads were horrendous as my car skidded on the expressway so I ended up taking the city streets. Then it began to rain ice hail as I was driving on the road.

The parking lot wasn't plowed so my car ended up stuck and the manager and coworker had to push my car out of the parking space.

The drive home was okay, tolerable but not the best. It was my street that was still horrendous and actually, I think it was worse than the morning. I nearly collided with a truck but still managed to get into my driveway.

All in all, it was an awful day and next time there is a snowstorm, I am definitely staying home.

(Ugh...)

Snowed In...

Wow... the snowfall overnight was huge and it's still snowing.

Fortunately, my father purchased a snowblower in the summer so it was quick to rid the driveway of snow. But, when I tried to reverse out of the driveway, I got stuck on the street and the only direction I could move was back up onto the driveway.

I have to wait till the city's snowplow goes through my street or else I can't get out of my street to get to work. I notified my workplace and alerted them that I'll be late. I want to go to work but I can't! I need the money! :(

Well, it's now quarter-past nine and hopefully the street will be plowed soon.

And, the news say ice-rain tonight and more snow all weekend with up to 50cm by Sunday.

Oh joyous!!

(Bah...)

Dusting and Gift receiving

It is so nice to finally have my computer back from the tech shop on Saturday. It was so dusty inside my tower that everything was covered in dust, including the cpu and cables. It has been about five years since I've had this computer. This was the reason why my computer's fans never turned off. It is now very very quiet. I can barely hear it running now. I have to remember to purchase an air duster can to spray the inside when I see dust accumulating, as per the tech who helped me. This way, I can save twenty-something dollars and the longevity of my computer.

Today I had lunch with a couple of friends. The lunch was really yummy. I had beef fried rice which had lots of leftover so I'm bringing that to work tomorrow. I received some nice gifts such as Belgian chocolate pastries, variety of teas, a pre-paid coffee card, caramel popcorn, et cetera. I wish I could post the pictures of them here but I don't know where my sister placed the camera.

Oh well, even without the pictures, you can tell I had a really nice day. Overall, it was a good weekend.

Christmas Cheer & Good News

Yesterday the two managers at my workplace bought lunch for the staff to celebrate the Christmas holiday. It was really nice of them and a great lunch! Woo hoo!!

Today when I came back home from work, there was an envelope waiting for me. It was the notice from the college about my examination I wrote nearly two months ago. I passed!! In the envelope was my certification that I passed. I need to get a frame for that, which I'm really lazy since I haven't done so with my college diploma yet (from 2007).

And tomorrow is Friday! One more day then I can vegetate all weekend long! YES!!

I'm a happy otaku...

My Bratty Turtles

I am turtle-obsessed. I love everything about turtles since I was young.

I have two aquatic turtles. I got them from a local pet store in July 2007 when they were just tiny hatchlings.

Their names are: Win & Guu.

My older sister named the smaller of the two, Guu. The name came from an anime character in "Hare + Guu". The character was bratty, mischievous, but cute in appearance.

I chose the name for the bigger turtle, Win. One of my favourite rock bands "Potato" from Thailand has a great guitarist. I named him Win, after the guitarist's name. It wasn't anything special, it was just at that time I was really into listening to a lot of Potato songs.

Win is now twice the size of Guu and quite a horrible tank mate. He has a habit of trying to bite Guu now but fortunately, Guu is a feisty turtle so he doesn't back down easily.

They have a couple of nicknames: winny & gooey and the green boogers (my sister made that up).

Both of them have these crazy personalities that one wouldn't expect from a turtle. And their behaviour are so different from the "normal" turtles you'd read about in "How to raise turtles" books. I know... I have a couple of how to raise a healthy turtle books and nothing is accurate about my turtles. How odd...

Later on, I will post up some photos of them from hatchlings to present day. Please wait till then!

Bah! Merry Humbug!!

'Tis the season to be angry at the world...

... or at least direct the anger towards the nasty person who stole my auto windshield washer fluid.

It only costs $2.48 but a mean individual decided to make off with my item which I had purchased this past Sunday at a local grocery store.

Fortunately, the cashier let me grab a replacement after I explained the situation.
I hope lightning rains down on the culprit or, at the very least, receive manure in their stocking this year.

Hot Pot, Chai, & Christmas!

Last Saturday I had hot pot with my family. The Chai Cream Liquor that I was saving was delicious. It went down really smooth with no sting or aftertaste. It was a lot better than Baileys. As you can tell from the pictures below, the Chai bottle was opened in front of the hot pot. The gifts I received from the dinner party were awesome!! Two thumbs up, way up!

Today my sister and I put up the Christmas tree. We didn't bother with lights though since our "little" incident last year (the story about that was posted in my LiveJournal account). Here are some pictures of the tree with no gifts yet placed under it.