faster pussycat.. type! type!

And so that was Christmas. How was yours? Mine was AWESOME! Home for the first xmas since 2006. It was a thing of wonder. I admit to being a bit worried about Wil. He's not much for holidays. In my family, we are VERY MUCH for holidays. Especially Christmas. I think I've been warning him and preparing him for years for his first Christmas Eve get-together, aka: Stocking Madness. He did great! I think he really enjoyed it. Beer probably helped. And the fact that, for us, it was a smaller group. No orphans or close family friends, only people in the family.

I got some great Christmas presents, but for me the best present was just being there. No, really, I'm serious. Shut up. The biggest surprise present was a Wii from my mom and Bob. We were not expecting that! I also got the Biggest Loser game for the Wii. Now I am going to take advantage of the Boxing Week sales to pick up a Wii fit with board.

Additionally I got a Sony E-reader, all 6 Harry Potter movies in a box set of blu-ray and my "And then Buffy staked Edward. The End" t-shirt.

But Christmas is not about how much loot you got, it's about how much sugary goodness you stuffed in your belly. It was a very Merry Christmas indeed. My pants are tight.

I can only take his picture if he doesn't know I am doing it.

Well that was a lovely Thanksgiving Holiday, don't you think?

We left Thursday morning, at 8, because I was paranoid about the border. In fact, I did not sleep a wink that night. I tried and tried, but at 5 am, I gave up and took a shower. From then on, I paid close attention to the border cams. My goal was to avoid any holiday traffic. We had one car in front of us, that's it. I don't know if it got worse later. I do know it probably sucked on Black Friday. I read somewhere that Canadian shoppers start hitting the border about 3 am to make it to the stores down in Seattle that open at 5 am. I bet the border is a mess.

Came home Sunday night. It's bitter-sweet for me. I am a person who really does not like to spend too much time away from home. I can't think of a time I was not happy to arrive home from a trip. I like to be surrounded by my stuff. My tv, my couch, my kittens, my bed. But I like the way I feel when I am down there.

I like being close to my family, especially right now. And I love that every day I had something I wanted to do or somewhere I wanted to go. There were people there who wanted to spend time with me. I am surrounded by familiar things that I've known for the past 21 years. Things work the way I expect. Like Dr Pepper at am/pm and hulu.com. (I think Wil would like to live in the States simply for hulu.com.)

I feel more alive and vibrant down there. More, for lack of a better word, liked. I guess 19 years in one city will do that for you.

Nonetheless, the kittens were ecstatic to see us. (Pru has been following me every where I go, since we got home.) My bed is the most comfortable bed in the world and it's good to be home.

American Things, besides our Thanksgiving, that Wil got to see:

1. Downtown Seattle at night, decorated for Christmas.
2. West Seattle
3. Bellevue Square Mall, especially Macy's.
4. PF Chang's for lunch.
5. Ruby's Diner for lunch.
6. Beer for sale at the grocery store.
7. "The Road" at a matinée price of $8.
8. My family and friends, although technically Louise is Scottish.
9. Restoration Hardware
10. My uncle singing Christmas carols in the fake snow at Pacific Place with his Barbershop Quartet.

He did not go to Target with me.

I specify because I have two now.

It's a little early here. I didn't sleep at all last night, I figured if I made until 5, and I was still awake, I'd get up. We are heading down to my mom's this morning. I was hoping to leave by 8. I think I'll have no problem making that goal. As long as I can get Wil up and going in time.

Here is a list of just some of the things I am grateful for:

• I'm able to go home for Thanksgiving this year.
• Someone else is cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Yay mom!
• pie
• The cheap gas and the prevalence of Dr Pepper available via soda fountain that I will be enjoying for the next 4 days.
• Christmas decorations.
• My husband's passport, which allows him to travel with me.
• The diet pepsi that is going to help me make it until I cross the border and have access to the afore mentioned Dr Pepper.
• And of course friends and family... blah blah blah. Mooshy.

There is so much more. I could make a pretty long list because, for the most part, I am very thankful for my life.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you eat too much pie. I know I plan to.

I wasn't back in the states more than 20 minutes before I was asking myself why I left in the first place. Oh yeah, fell in love with a boy. Man, I sure do love it here. I haven't even travelled across the bridge to Seattle proper yet. Been spending most of my time in the Woodinville - Bothell - Kirkland area. So gorgeous. All the evergreens mixed with fall foliage.

The one thing that would make it perfect is for a certain boy to be down here with me. And the kittens.

Going here helped.

I decided that the best way I could help my cousin Kirsten through this horrible time was to ease her spirit a bit. And make sure she has baby soft skin. So I am taking her to the naked lady spa on Tuesday. Where she has permission to cry all she wants to while she soaks in a hot pool for 45 minutes before someone spends another 45 minutes scrubbing the sadness and death off her. Even the sadness hiding in her butt crack. I don't know, maybe that's not what most people would do for a grieving widow. But it sounded appropriate to me.

Ok, yes, I get to go as well. But I might have some sadness hiding in my butt crack too.

Wow. The blog has been silent awhile, hasn't it.

I'm leaving for Wa tomorrow. Not as expected. I'm going to be traveling down without Wil. There has been a death in my family, and it's important that I go and be with the people who need me right now. Death in the family is one of the emergencies that should allow me to travel alone, and still get back into Canada. Hopefully.

Wil does not have his passport yet, it should be arriving by registered mail on Friday the 6th. So he will be coming down on the 7th and we'll drive home together on the 8th. So I will be with my husband when I get back to Canada, however, not the entire time I travelled. Nonetheless, my lawyer said I have a good reason. Worst case scenario, I will not be let back in. At this point, I am very close to getting my VISA. It would suck, but not as much as if it were six months ago or last year.

I did receive my work permit. On my work permit it states "Application for PR status has received initial approval." PR = Permanent Residence. That works in my favor as well.

I don't feel quite as excited as you'd think I would feel. Well, one - it's a death in the family. And I am quite shocked and saddened right now. Two - I am paranoid. I think I will always be paranoid until I have my visa. I'm quite sure that Wil will get tired of all the strategizing I will do next week, via email, on his entrance into the states. "If they say this, answer that. Don't say this unless they ask. Carry X,Y and Z with you. Make a copy of that thing." And so on. Why I should worry about his entrance into the states is beyond me. Canadians come down to the states ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME. Plus, he's a grown up. Maybe because things went all wonky for me coming into Canada two and a half years ago, I'm always going to be a freak about it. I hope not, because I have hopes for us going back and forth as we like many times. God forbid I turn into some kind of anal retentive freak about it.

Three, I will miss him. I always thought when I got married I would have to marry someone who is SUPER understanding because I would be FIERCELY independent. None of that mooshy stuff when one of us had to travel with the other. But it's been two and a half years of pretty much constant companionship. One time, Wil went to Victoria for a couple of nights without me. But other than that, not a day has gone by, you know? So, I'm really going to miss him. I'm already missing him and I haven't left yet. Turns out, I'm mooshy.

He, however, will probably beer drinking no pants boy parties with video games and cigarettes and no girls allowed.