A Christmas letter from A Jill Story

Hey there!

Here it is, Christmas Day already and I'm just now writing you this letter. Well, it's been a busy season as usual so better late than never.

I took some vacation time this year around the holidays so I could travel with my parents to Edmonton for my cousin Briley's wedding. Unfortunately, it meant that I had to miss all but one of the Good Wooden Leg Christmas Choir performances but I'm sure they did a fine job without me. I also missed the department Christmas party at Triple B's. I'm looking forward to hearing all about the good times when I get back to the office on Thursday.

As I said, I traveled to Edmonton with Mom and Dad last week. We left just before 6am last Tuesday and drove straight through, arriving in record time about 13 1/2 hours later. We gave Dad his Christmas present early, a GPS unit for the car, so he could use it on the trip. It sure helped a lot! We also were highly amused when the thing got confused because it didn't have the updated maps for some areas in SK where they recently completed twinning the Trans Canada highway. It showed us driving through farmers' fields!

Once in Edmonton we did a lot of helping out with wedding stuff. One night I helped to make a tray of deviled eggs. Dad was bored and in the way so I told him to go buy us some red wine. Lets just say the eggs were sufficiently deviled.

I did a bit of shopping out there, including some Ikea stuff and an indulgence in Abercrombie. I also picked up a DVD recorder which I later wrapped up and gave to myself with love from Mac and Truck.

We got home on Sunday with a few hours to sleep and relax before the hustle and bustle of Christmas Eve. It's our tradition to host Christmas Eve dinner, complete with 12 meatless dishes. This year, because my sister was working Christmas day and Boxing day we had to forgo Mass and open gifts that night. It was a bit strange and I honestly missed the tradition. Maybe next year things will work out.

I got a Mighty Mouse for Mac from Mom and Dad. I love it, except I keep forgetting it's there so I end up using the track pad anyway. The funniest moment last night was when I went to open my gift from my sister. I looked at the box and said with a long face, "I don't think this is The Little Mermaid", which I had been asking for every year they released it from the Disney vault. I opened the box and lo and behold, it was The Little Mermaid Special Edition DVD! How magical.

I better wrap things up for now. I have to go get ready to head to my aunt's place for dinner. It should be interesting as we will have a few new faces at the table. Perhaps I will add an update tomorrow.

I hope everyone out there is having a merry Christmas.

Love and stuff,

Jill, Mac and Truck