Video of Non-Traditional Christmas

Here's the animated version of the post about our Christmas celebration. Enjoy!

The quality of the video is not the best, the file was so large that I was having trouble uploading it... so I had to save the video in a lower quality in order to make the file smaller... learning as we go. learning as we go.

Closed due to Inactivity

I just tried to make an online purchase on a credit card (that I don't use often). I entered the card number and all information on the website, clicked "process order" and got a message that said card information was invalid.

So I called the credit card and listened to the recorded lady that gives account information: amount due zero, balance zero, available credit zero.

I immediately press zero and speak to the operator to find out why my available credit was zero. She casually says "my records show this card was closed due to inactivity". I paused, collected myself and said "was I notified of this?" She calmly says "No, Citi did not notify customers of card closures due to inactivity". So I politely gave her my two cents and asked her to pass the information along to the appropriate people. She said she would.

What if this was my one and only card that I had for emergencies? What if I were to find myself stranded somewhere and this card is the only way to get help, so I try to use it and can't because I was not notified of it's closure and therefore was not able to make alternate back up plans? No consideration. No consideration at all.

A Non-Traditional Christmas

This year we had an awesome 4-day Christmas weekend! Most of our celebrating was non-traditional. Although it involved a lot of cooking (which is traditional):

And of course going to Mass for Baby Jesus's birthday. Christmas Eve we all packed up the car (with the food) and our spending the night gear (which involved inflatable mattress and sheets) and drove to Pablo's parish. 

 

We had "Christmas Eve" dinner at Pablo's house (a.k.a. rectory). Non-traditional Christmas Eve dinner - we had Butifarra. Those of you currently reading who have had this sandwich that is never disliked by anyone who eats it, know what I'm talking about. For those of you who are reading this who have not had the privilege to eat what I'm talking about, I guess you could click here and read about it. That will have to do until you actually get to eat a butifarra.

 P.S. if you clicked on the link, the "Salsa Criolla" looks something like this:

After waiting until midnight, toasting, sleeping, waking up, having breakfast on Christmas morning and driving back to our house, we got home and were greeted by Pellet & Cali!

 Then we moved on to our non-traditional Christmas meal which was: "Pasta Fest"! It involved three sauces below: pesto, meat sauce and walnut sauce.Yes, walnut sauce. Just like I said to the butifarra people, if you haven't had walnut sauce, click here and read about it. Your life will be changed if you ever get to have this sauce. My personal favorite.

 We ate and we were merry.

 

Then - around 4:00pm on Christmas Day - we finally opened our presents. Our dilemma was that we all needed to be together to open presents... Pablo was not able to get to the house until about 2:30pm (he had to celebrate Christmas Day Mass), once he got home, we were all hungry, so we decided to eat, then open presents (while the pasta rested before going to Dessert Fest at our friends Kerrie & Eric's house to eat desserts and drink hot buttered rum).

 

 

 The next morning we woke up to snow (non-traditional)

I hope everybody had an enjoyable Christmas Weekend and were able to celebrate it and enjoy it to the fullest like we did in this neck of the woods!

Note: We got a flip video camera for Christmas (thank you Melissa!)... I'm working on a Christmas Weekend Video Montage... stay tuned.

Cookies Anyone?

 Anyone up for Christmas cookies?

 Better stay off Pellet & Cali's Christmas cookies!

The cookies actually do look great and smell good. It's taking me every effort possible to keep Pablo away from eating them himself...

Days of Eighteen Feet

This past week Melissa and cousin Nick came to visit (Pellet and Cali's cousin Nick). We enjoyed their visit - Pellet and Cali were very interested by Nick. You see, Nick is a tiny poodle, he is an old man too (I think he's going on 10 years old, which is in the 70s in dog years).

After the initial greeting, which apparently involved Pellet about to eat Nick, we found out that Cali was actually the one that would not leave the poor old man alone. Typical scenes involved this activity:

 

As well as this activity:

So Nick, in his wise years figured out a spot where he was safe from the beasts:








Believe it or not, one of the nights we all went out to dinner and Pellet and Nick stayed loose in the house and both survived!

Here's one picture that never fails. No matter what citrus fruit is being peeled in the kitchen, Pellet and Cali can smell it no matter what their whereabouts are. The harassment doesn't stop until they get some of whatever the citrus fruit being peeled is.

It's Almost Comical

Today I had to go to my local Super Center to pick up an online order that was shipped to store. I got there with my piece of paper in hand and went to the Customer Service desk (because this is the first time I've gone through this process and didn't know where else to go, the instructions on my piece of paper where not quite clear either). I get there and there is one person applying and one staff person behind the counter. As the staff person is typing things in the computer, she keeps glancing up at me. I smile a couple of times and then I get tired of the lack of acknowledgment. I ask casually:

Fern: Excuse me, is this where I need to be to pick up an order that was shipped to the store from online?
Staff [in Eatonton accent]: na, that in back of sto
Fern: Ok! Where about?
Staff: in back of sto!
Fern: sure, but to the left, or to the right, the back of the store is big.
Staff: strai ba!

So I go straight back and find the "Site to Store" counter - which was employee-less. So I walk a little into the back area and find a manager-looking person and I ask for help. He says nods and walks away. Confused and with no-one out to help me, I chase him back to Electronics.

Fern: Excuse me sir, is someone coming out to help me?
Manager-looking person: yes

I go back to the counter area and wait. A friendly and happy girl comes to help me. I smile back at her and try to get the two previous experiences not affect my interactions.

Happy girl: wha name on order
Fern: Fernanda Aldredge (spelled out)
Happy girl: tha not pullin
I give her the second name (spelled out)
Happy girl: tha not pullin nothin eithe
I give her the third possible name (spelled out)
Happy girl: no su why tha not pullin up
Fern: how about trying pulling it up by the order number?
Happy girl: ahight, that work!

She goes and gets a helper to assist with the retrieval of the boxes (which are a 42" and a 32" televisions). They get them out, I sign the paper and happy girl asks.

Happy girl: you go this or yo need help taken them to yo ca
Fern [after a several second pause, in a calm and collected voice I reply]: I am going to need help getting them to my car. Thanks.
Happy girl: calls for a 99 with a cart

Finally the 99s get the huge boxes into my car, I drive away and on my way home I pass the "Western Motel" that is advertising "Truck Parkin and Rooms with Interent"

I love this town.

Everybody and Their Mother

Except Eric’s mother because she’s on the other coast.

Last night we had Mom Dinner at the house. We took advantage of Melissa’s [Norm’s mom] visit and Nora [my mom] being on her way back to Augusta and invited Kerrie and Eric and Pam [Kerrie’s mom].

My mom and Norm’s mom obviously know each other. And Norm’s mom and Kerrie’s mom had met earlier in the summer. The last that needed to meet were my mom and Kerrie’s mom. So now finally all the moms are acquainted with each other [except for Eric’s because she’s on the other coast, but hopefully one day soon she’ll get to meet the others].

I have no pictures of Mom Dinner – we got to eating (lots) and chatting and laughing (loudly) and drinking wine and rum and I totally forgot about the camera. We had a great time indeed.

I know I can speak for the other 3 friends when I say: we are thankful for having our moms and each other’s moms around and therefore, Mom Dinner!

I Find it Funny

My friend Marti shared this blog that I find absolutely hilarious. In particularly two posts (the posts are long, so I need some time to sit and read them) that I have read so far. One. Two. I laughed borderline tears with both. I think the fact that I can clearly relate with Pellet and Cali might have something to do with it.

From what I've gathered in the last 24 hours, the writer doesn't only write about dogs, she write about all sorts of other things. I can't wait to start following it!

P.S. - Marti shout out: Norm has kindly brought to my attention that I always refer to you as "my friend Marti".