Category: Blog

Tis the season to be jolly!: Part 2 (Legit Christmas dinner)

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So my friends decided that we needed to have a ‘legit’ Christmas dinner as we have not had one throughout the years. Yesterday was when it happened! To begin, my part in the preparations were really small, so many thanks to those who went a day early to prepare! And thank you Edna for letting us do it at your house! Everything was delicious and overall and it was really fun!

Neil carving the turkey 🙂

Legit dinner right there

The main part of the dinner consisted of all the regular Christmas food: Turkey, peas, corn, mashed potatoes…you know, traditional Christmas stuff. I do not think I have had such a ‘legit’ Christmas dinner for either a very long time, or never at all! Being asian, Christmas dinner always consisted of somehow incorporating rice or some other asian touch to the dinner! 😛 After dinner came dessert– and this is where I wished I saved more room in my stomach. There was three times as much desserts as there were for the main course! Butter tarts, pumpkin tarts, cupcakes, cookies, cheesecake, apple pie..the list goes on! But I was so full by the time dessert was out that I could only sample a bit of the overall selection!

Dessert!

After dinner we all headed out the the living room to watch Christmas movies and play some games. We had a gingerbread making contest! It was super fun and to make it more challenging, we had a 20 minute time limit. We were also only allowed to use one hand per person. Of course, these were pre-made gingerbread and we just had to assemble and decorate it. Connie and I reunited thebomb.com and David and William joined us. Although we did not win, it was still fun to build a gingerbread house (well, train really)! I haven’t built one in ages! I think the last time I did was almost six years ago!

You know I got serious when I tie up my hair and am not sitting down, being my usual lazy self.

Our gingerbread train!

After gingerbread house making, a majority of us decided to watch SAW. I could never stand gory films so I volunteered to leave the living room. 😛 Josh and I went to Edna’s room and we played our Game of Thrones card game. Eventually we heard our friends screaming and exclaiming as they watched people die on screen…and then some other friends started to trickle into the room as well. Yeah, talk about having a Christmasy atmosphere. Josh and I decided to block out the scary sounds and reactions and we turned up Christmas music on Josh’s MacBook. Safe and sound in Edna’s room ❤

It felt like the party ended too soon, but by the time we left, it was around 2:30 at night! I was not at all tired…until I got back home and the fatigue kicked in. It was awesome to get to see everyone again. After university started, it felt like all I was doing was no-lifing school! But, it finally felt like the old times when I could just go out whenever I wanted without having to worry about an upcoming midterm or project! In other words, it felt wonderful! Hope everyone else’s winter holiday is going swell as well! 🙂

Until my next post,

Karen

Tis the season to be jolly!: Part 1 (And I am! :))

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The 20th of December marked my last day of final exams! I am free!! And survived my first university finals/term one!

Right after my exams, I met up with Carmen! We went downtown to eat lunch at Hon’s…

Us and our noodles ❤

And then we walked around downtown. We wanted to watch Sherlock Holmes 2 so we continued shopping around until 4-ish. However, Carmen suddenly came up with a great idea: to hunt down a takoyaki food cart! Apparently the cart can be found at Howe and West Pender and we rushed there. At first we were slightly disappointed because it seemed like there was no cart…but then when we turned the corner, there it was!

This takoyaki food cart is the cutest thing ever! It was called Osa Tako Hero Takoyaki! The menu featured their food in a game-like theme. First you chose your ‘heroes’ a.k.a how many takoyaki you want. Then you can choose power-ups to upgrade your heroes’ abilities, a.k.a what sauce/toppings you want on your takoyaki! I was really hesitant to try the maple syrup one, but Carmen wanted to. In the end, the guy making the takoyakis allowed us to have a bit of each topping! 🙂 Surprisingly, the maple ones did not taste sweet!

Hero scroll! Choose how many heroes you want :3 And then their abilities on the side!

Carmen at the stall ^^

Our ten heroes with mixed abilities! Ahaha sorry for the blur!

Waiting for the takoyakis took pretty long and since our movie starts at 4:45, it seemed like we were going to be late. We had to walk bad to Scotiabank theatre and then buy our tickets! We were running towards Scotiabank, but then we saw a bus, so we jumped on. We go to the theatre with minutes to spare and bought our tickets. That’s when Carmen and I realized that it was Tuesday and the tickets were half price!!!! AHHH lucky us! ^.^ And we basically got into our seats just in time as well!

Sherlock Holmes 2 was very good in my opinion. Filled with wit and humour, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law’s amazing screen chemistry will never cease to amaze me. Oh, and why must I fall in love with Robert every. single. time. I. see. him. in. a. movie?

So, thank you Carmen for the perfect after-exams day! And LOL to us falling asleep at random times of the day because we were both lacking sleep! I missed you Carmacorn and I am so glad we got to catch up!

Oh and here are my nails for Christmas! 

I wonder what else is in store this winter holiday…

-Karen

So close I can almost taste it! Gimmie the Gingerbread!

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I am all for early signs of Christmas. The stores are decorated, along with the malls, and then there’s the houses too. The cinemas are brining out new Christmas movies and schools choirs are learning their Christmas carols (this I know cause I hear my sister practicing random Christmas jingles around the house).

I know, a lot of people are like “IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS YET!”

But I really don’t mind. 🙂 I’ve always loved the fact that there are so many signs reminding you that Christmas is right around the corner! I think it is the one holiday I really look forward to, because everyone is in such good spirits.

I remember when I was young, my parents and I would walk around malls, and I always knew when Christmas was coming. The decorations are SO pretty! And then there’s also the random guy dressed up as Santa Clause in malls, and that’s fun too. And his elves sprinkled around the mall. Okay, yeah, people dressing up as Santa Clause and elves scare me a little…actually people dressed up as characters scare me. Except for the Disney Princesses at Disneyland!

Every year at Metrotown ❤

I really do not mind the early discounts from shops. I remember working at Stitches around Christmastime and happily helping old ladies choose presents for their granddaughters. It always amused me when they would look at me and proclaim I am shaped like their granddaughter, and promptly usher me to try on a certain jacket/sweater/shirt. It seemed like that they have been looking forward to shopping for their grandkids for the whole year! You should see all the time and effort they put into choosing the perfect gift!

Then there is also the people who rush in, grabbing last minute presents or just wanting to check ‘present buying’ off their list of things to do. And that is fine too. :3 I have often waited so long pondering what to get who I end up becoming one of those frantic gift shoppers.

But as a backtrack, after taking all these business courses, the festive mall environment has dimmed a bit for me. The early decorations are not put up because everyone is excited for Christmas, like myself. Boosting Christmas sales being the main objective here, the stores start their promoting extra early! Ahh, the loss of childhood innocence just keeps getting to me.

However, I want this to be a happy post, so back to the land of sugarplums and happiness! I am seeing loads of Christmas themed food! Here’s some Lindt chocolate that I bought after suffering from mild depression after my Economics Final. The white chocolate ones have tiny snowmen on them!!

Lindt Chocolate Balls :3

I still have yet to have a gingerbread cookie this year! I think out of everyone around me, I am the only one who actually likes gingerbread baked goods. All the more for me!

Then we got a package from our aunt in Hong Kong in the mail! She sent us a bunch of scarves that my sister, mom and I quickly claimed! Yay for overseas relatives!

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Bath and Body Works Candles!

So moving on to harmless weekend shopping? Firstly, this I have been meaning to do for quite a while, I bought Christmas candles from Bath & Body Works! I haveBath and Body Works Candles!wanted to buy their Evergreen candle for a long time, but I did not think I would be able to finish using their 3-wick candles. So I was at Richmond Center the other day when I saw that their smaller candles were buy one get on free!! Christmas savings 🙂

I grabbed a Cranberry Woods for the second one because the tangy, fresh smell of cranberries wakes me up.I also bought earmuffs. Okay, I guess I do not really need earmuffs, but I do live in Vancouver and it gets cold out. Very cold, for those of you who do not know.

And of course, my first picture beside a Christmas tree this year!

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At Richmond Center Mall!

I have my mom’s gift ready and just need to wrap it. I am not going to mention what it is here in case she reads this… I still have no idea what to get my Dad—a dilemma that occurs every year. My sister is also a tough one this because her birthday is always before Christmas, so I have already racked my brains for her and got her things I know she would have wanted… AND! I also have my secret Santa gift to consider, and since I drew a guy, it is going to make everything just that much harder. I never know what to get guys, whether it is for their birthday or Christmas. This paragraph shouts Corporate Santa everywhere. *cough*

But for now, as I go back to studying for my finals exams, let the 24 hour Christmas radio stations accompany me in my task…

 It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!… 

-Karen

Contingent Contemplation: Karen’s Notebook Graveyard

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I recently bought a Moleskine notebook because I’ve been meaning to try them out,  and when I saw them on sale at Chapters, I decided to just get one. I originally wanted to get a Moleskine agenda, so I can finally keep my life in check… but then I realized what happens to all my notebooks/agendas. The end up somewhere I like to call Karen’s Graveyard for Notebooks. Seriously, sooner or later, they end up there.

I guess I am what you would call a pack rat. I usually keep stuff for sentimental reasons such as old ticket stubs, pictures and random assortments of menus, maps, etc. that I have collected (maybe I will share them here with you one day?). Countless times, I have tried to start a diary/journal, but they always end up being left off at some random point of time in the past. I think my best record for a diary was around three years? And throughout those three years, there has been only around twelve entries. A lot of the times, I still bring my journal with me on trips but I never find time to write in them so I usually decide to fill it in when I return home. However, I find that it does not capture what I wanted it to and I often forget mentioning some important points that I would have wanted to remember.

My Notebook Graveyard consists of not only different diaries that I have started, but an assortment of art notebooks, scrapbooks and ones where I just pasted inspirational things I found in magazines that I liked. The list goes on, and you would wonder how I still have the strength and energy to start so many new ones. But, what I’ve realized is that when I flip through them every now and then, it makes me happy to see that I at least took out some time to document certain parts of my life. I enjoy reading my diary and reminiscing back to fun times (and occasionally re-living sad times). It amuses me to see how I reacted or felt about events or things around me, and since time blurs old memories, my scrapbooks and notebooks sharpen them up again.

Some notebooks of mine...

So why all the different notebooks? What usually happens is I fall in love with a notebook, and cannot wait to find some use for it. Then I get tired of it, or it loses its appeal and I move on. Or I get lazy and decide to stop writing in it for a while, but then as time passes, I feel hesitant to rekindle my relationship with that notebook. I end up starting a new notebook, with wild dreams and fierce determination that this will be the one that I will use forever. But I guess you can guess where the story ends.

By now, I am pretty sure I will not be able to faithfully stick to one notebook. My Notebook Graveyard will continue to grow, but now worries, I pay them a visit every once in a while, and even drop off some extra words as my way of saying I still remember them. Plus, I will start new ones, so although it is going to be a pain having to read different ones to refer back to different times, it is a system that still works. I guess.

When I first started this blog, I had the foresight to see where it may be heading. I think for now, my record has been okay. Although there’s only a few posts so far, I actually have had some more saved as drafts on my computer or on wordpress itself. It is just that I sometimes leave them off somewhere and have not finished them yet, but then I realize that they are no longer relevant. It is now winter, and I have written a very long blog post while on my summer roadtrip to California, which I felt was not appropriate to post. The same can be said for several other neglected posts!

So, after recognizing all this through this post, it brings me back to the original problem that led me here in the first place: what should I do with my new notebook? :3 Hehe, yeah I know, we all know where it most probably is going to end up. BUT! I’m still very excited to actually start using it! Got any suggestions anyone? It’s a lined notebook, so definitely for writing? =)

My new notebook :3

Karen