listening to How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

today was my last day of shopping. never have i waited so long to finish the gift buying. so my brother and i decided to go downtown toronto to the eaton centre to get some of our last gifts. the mall was quite festive with all the decorations, lights and hustle and bustle of our fellow last minute shoppers. we walked and walked and walked - finally getting all of our things. sitting on a bench in the mall, we just observed the passersbys - and there were numerous! i'm a people watcher, i won't even deny it. it's fascinating!

hey - so matt and i were at clarkson station today and i saw this dude that looked like Laz, and i thought "hey, that guys looks like Laz" then he turned my way and i realized, it WAS Laz.

me: what was he doing there?! at clarkson!?
Laz: 'oh, i'm here with kaelyn and her family.'
me: kaelyn?!? she's HERE?!
Laz: yep, she's right over there

he points to the little covered bench area on the train platform, so i head right on over and see her.

me: HEY!!
kaelyn: ABBY?! HEY! what are you doing here?!
me: what are YOU doing here?!

and a lot of questioning, answering and just general excitement ensued within the two minutes i saw her and the arrival of the train in the station. what a coincidence! kaelyn, in mississauga. who knew?!

so, that was an exciting part to my day. we rode down on the train together with her uncle and cousin. good times :)

hm - so this snow, i'm wondering. is it here for good? i hope it lasts until at least saturday! please? tomorrow is christmas eve, and i'm excited. we've got our church service at 6 in the evening, then we're heading over to a family friend's house after for some good old fellowship and christmas joyousness. then saturday - oh saturday, when the family will arrive, and we will enjoy each other's company, scrumptious food, fun games and we'll remember and reflect on the amazing gift that Christmas is to us: the fact that God sent his son to earth for us, sinners! so that He could give us salvation. how amazing is that?!? i can't get over it!!

sleep is so sweet.

i made it back to mississauga safe and sound. i love being at home - after such a fun three weeks of exams. we went shopping yesterday afternoon after i dropped off my baggage and had lunch with the fam - the mall was craaazy! i forgot that it was the last saturday before christmas. good times. i got a few things...unfortunately nothing for my fam though, so i'll be back at the mall sometime this week. we got home and i was even more exhausted than i was when i arrived at union station. how tired was i you ask? well, i fell asleep on my bed at 5:50ish pm and didn't wake up until the following morning at 9am. that's a good 14 hours or so. i was passed out - i vaguely remember hearing my dad this morning at about 7ish calling to my mom "she's still asleep honey!" ha, good times. i feel like tonight will be similar. well maybe not 14 hours, but some deep sleep will be happening. i can't wait. :)

mornings

i seem to have a problem getting out of my bed anytime before 9am. i went to bed at 11:30 last night with the intention of getting up at 7, doing my laundry, then getting my study on. 7am rolled around - i'm still in bed. 8o'clock...still in bed. i finally (literally) pulled myself out of bed to begin my day. three hours late. now it's laundry time. and i need quarters.

nadia and i  

the cousins - missing mark (taking the picture), melissa and daryl 

melinda, mich and i 

peardrax, sorrel, parang..*sigh*

you've gotta love parang at christmas time! of course folks, you know we gotta do a little trini-styles, it won't be christmas without it! a little parang, christmas soca (soca santa!), peardrax, sorrel and christmas cake. the music will have to suffice this year...last year we were in the land of steelpan and roti celebrating with our entire family. probably one of the best christmases EVER! i kind of wish we were going back this year too...but i guess we've just gotta take what we can. although i do enjoy christmas up here with my mom's cousins and families. that's the kind of christmas i am most accustomed to - our usual canadian christmas. i do love it. i'm quite excited for it this year...it will be our first christmas at inverhouse! hopefully everyone can fit into our new place. we wouldn't want to have to put people on the balcony in this weather - haha..no, we wouldn't do that :)

anyways, above are some pics from last year's christmas in trinidad.

OH!

i forgot to mention - i saw ocean's twelve on saturday night. amazing. i LOVED it. i was also definitely impressed that such a high calibur movie could actually be made without any scandalous scenes and very limited expletives. there was just one scene - in their defense, they were bleeped out! all in all, a great movie. although i was kind of expecting that. glad i wasn't disappointed! it was surprisingly funny also. the characters had more dimension in this one - you got to see more sides of them, which was neat.

i've seen the first one, honestly, about 6 times, and i have not yet gotten tired of it. i think this one is gonna be just like that one. definitely a keeper. and really: brad, george, and matt in a movie again? it's like moths to a flame.

okay back to work.

almost done, almost done!!!!!

okay, guys, it is december 13th, and i wore my jean jacket to my exam this afternoon. is something wrong with that picture? december? jean jacket? bizarre. i'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

so - just two more exams and four days standing between me and HOME! i can do it..just put my back into it.. haha :) after tomorrow, it will be one exam and three days . i'm counting down.

note to self: i just need to remember to mail out christmas cards and to send back my faulty motherboard before i leave this place.

okay i'm gonna get back to studying - effective writing II exam in the morning. i will conquer! muah haha :)

i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13

fantastic!

really, it has been a fantastic weekend! kicked off with the last day of classes on friday, and our informal dance recital, i knew things were looking up. the dance recital was great - although iris and i ended up being on the side of the stage, we still rocked it out. it was awesome. sunday was a wrap up of navs and praise and power for the semester. we had our navs christmas party- good times :) we played charades! i hadn't played that game in AGES. praise and power was really good as usual. because it was the last one of the semester, and the christmas service, the team put on their second annual christmas movie. i must say it was very well done. brenda - you were hilarious. l-o-l. hahaha i enjoyed every minute of your scenes (and of course the rest of the movie!!) and today - sigh - today was simply splendid. mom and dad came up to help me celebrate my 21st birthday. they took me out to lunch with some friends - it was sooo nice to celebrate my birthday with family again. it had been two years since i last spent my birthday with the fam. i missed the bros, but half of the fam is still pretty good. we enjoyed wonderful food and fellowship, lots of laughter and memorable times. i was even suprised with a few unexpected phone calls from friends and family. really, just an amazing day. God has truly blessed me in SO many ways!! the trouble of all with all of this wonderfulness is that it's hard to buckle down and study now! it's a trick that's for sure... oh! and to finish off a great week, i'm going to see jaci velasquez in concert on friday!! i'm quite excited. until then however i must contain further glee and bury myself in these books.