I'm still here...I think....

Wow, what a hectic couple of weeks! I cannot believe that I am still standing! Well, technically, I am sitting, finally, while I type, but you get the drift...

It began with the Loonie Sale on November 30th. It was a busy week just getting ready for that, as I always make sticky buns and pineapple upside-down cakes and things. (I'm getting a reputation here, and the first thing people ask now when there's a sale is if there will be sticky buns, LOL!) Anyhow, we had a very successful night followed by a Music Night for the kids, so a long and late day for me. I went from that straight into Christmas goodie bake mode for the Table sale. Stayed late after running practice every night to bake something yummy.

Meanwhile, I had scheduled baking with a purpose for my grade 10 class for their metric and imperial measure conversion test. They were not quite finished their work on Friday the 30th so I scheduled their test not on the Monday but the Tuesday. Woke up on Tuesday to a raging blizzard. No school. The kitchen was booked already for Wednesday so we rescheduled for Thursday. And woke up on Thursday to a raging blizzard. No school again. We did try to have school on Friday, we really, really did, but by 10:15 we gave up and closed again. Blizzard-level winds and white-outs from blowing snow. Reschedule. The kitchen was booked Monday and Tuesday, so I booked Wednesday. In the interim, I'm baking until 8:00 or 9:00 pm, doing Christmas cookies, sticky buns, gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, butter-tart squares, and so on. Tuesday, Tim comes up and asks if I really need the kitchen for Wednesday as he has turkeys to cook for the Daycare staff Christmas Party, and how long do turkeys take to cook? I figured about 4-1/2 hours for the average 5-6 kg bird and told Tim likely he could put the birds in at noon. That meant the grade 10's were good to go.

I went into the kitchen for my usual spate of after-school baking and there sat two 24-lb glorious birds. Not a hope in you-know-where that 4-1/2 hours would do it...So, I got up early Wednesday morning so I could prep the birds, and popped them into the oven at 8:15 am. Tim looks in, pleased that he didn't need to prep them,  and asks if he needs to check on them at all. I said that as the grade 10's would be still in the kitchen (we decorated the gingerbread cookies) I would keep an eye on them. Then he says he also has some roasts and what would I suggest? They were not such good cuts of meat, so I suggested pot roast. He looked at me a bit blankly and I said, Would you like me to pop them on at noon for you? Natch, he replied. I offered to make some gravy to go with, once they were done, which led to a conversation about what else was on the menu, and by 4:00 I realized that in effect I was cooking Christmas dinner for 60! It was delicious, the turkeys were perfect, I stayed for the party, wrapped up a tray of cookies for the gift exchange, and was complimented endlessly on how much everyone enjoyed the dinner. I got paid handsomely for the effort, YAY!!!, and I won a lovely box of chocolates at the gift exchange. Yummmmmm!

Thursday was a gift-wrapping opportunity at the Northern until 8:00 pm and Friday saw me packing multiple trays of cookies, bars, houses, men and marshmallow rice krispy "Christmas Trees" (thanks to my cool new 10-star set of cutters/moulds for such a purpose. The kids helped me set up tables, I turned on Christmas carols and we were set for the table sale aka Christmas Bazaar. We sold pretty much everything! Margaret (one of the teachers) had a guest at her place so she bought two trays of cookies as she had no time to bake. Her guests promptly ran over and bought some because they liked them so much. That was good advertising, LOL! And, with my happy earnings from the impromptu chef day, I bought  beautiful parka filled with local eider duck down made by my friend and VP Mina Rumbolt's aunt. It is very Inuk in style and the kids all said that I look just like them now. It is very slender (I was initially very hesitant to try it on as I thought it was too small!) and it fits like it was custom-made. A beautiful deep slate green-grey colour with silver grey fox trim. I must take a photo and post it.

So, yet another very late night. I don't think I left the school before 9:00 pm once in almost three weeks!

And my busy-ness isn't done yet. We (my room-mate and I) were offered the chance to earn some money for our sports teams by cooking a community dinner through a Health and Nutrition program. So today, we prepped and cooked all day getting ready to feed 500 people tomorrow...I baked and sliced 250 lb of ham, baked the first 500 tea biscuits and put about 800 cookies onto trays and wrapped them up and then still had my usual Movie Night...I am EXHAUSTED! Tomorrow we have 200 lbs of potatoes to peel, I have the last of about 800 tea biscuits to bake, and about 80 kg of vegetables to cook...

On the plus side, the past two weeks have seen us raise about $7000 for the Running Club, which is INCREDIBLE!!!. I have to check with Leah Meeko to see if the funding request for our sport shirts for the team has been approved. If not, then I think we will just go ahead and get them for the team from our account. I can't wait to see the "Paatsaali Running Club" in the school colours at the next race!

And just for fun, we have a Music Night next Friday, a Christmas Movie marathon on Saturday, and a Midnight Movie Marathon on the 28th. Just so I don't get bored with putting my feet up over the holidays...

So if I don't have time to write until after the big day, Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year for 2013!

TTFN!

Terri

Oh, my, what HAVE I done now? LOL!

The Running Club and I are always on the hunt for something new and challenging. As a result, I haunt the Running Room race website. I have been looking for our spring race. The past few days I have looked at the website for the Goodlife Fitness race on May 5th, 2013, in Toronto. It features a 5K , half marathon and marathon. The half goes down Yonge St from around Finch all the way to Ontario Place...very cool, even though I know AAAAALLLLLLLLL about that monster hill at Hoggs Hollow (Yonge and York Mills)...

...so I have officially REGISTERED for the half-marathon! Hurray and YIKES! all at the same time! The senior boys in the Running Club are very excited about it, and are too thrilled to know they will get a personalized race bib with their names as well as a Karbon technical wicking shirt and a medallion. (I'm registering them on Monday.) I'm going to buy the four of us a T-shirt that says, "At mile 10, I thought I was dead...at mile 11, I hoped I was dead...at mile 12, I HAD to be dead...at mile 13.1, I realized I was too tough to kill!" I LOVE it! The juniors are looking forward to their first 5K which will start at our finish line about a half-hour after we cross. I'll be bringing a chaperone who will occupy them while the seniors and I race our share, and we will cheer them on as they run their share. And perhaps a Jays game to follow up? Or a day at Ontario Place...I'll have to find out from Michael when Canada's Wonderland will open next spring...

So another chapter in the book, and an item off of my personal Bucket List at the same time. My life may be painful most days (in the hip, of course!) but it is endlessly exciting and challenging! I am so darned THRILLED!!!!

Me