December's been quite the month for me, you know.  I won't remember half of what's gone on, but here are the basics.

1. Dad

Dad's been suffering from... something since mid-September.  It started out as a hangnail being infected, then it went septic and the infection spread up his left arm (scary part: your heart's more on the left side and Dad has a heart condition).  Got that mostly cleared up, when it seemed like he had something else along with the infection.  We finally got a diagnosis earlier this month: Clostridium defficile (C. difficile).  He's on antibiotics for about the next three months, so we'll see what we see.  I'm just glad things are going to settle down.



2. Work

The end of the month at work will always be a hectic time, and since December is a short month with being closed the entire last week (yay!), it was even more hectic.  So I got another experience of how tired one can be working full-time as I was full-time for the last week and a half.  It didn't take too long to run out of lunch ideas, let me tell you.  Friday's paycheck will be very nice and I'm looking forward to it; of course, it makes up for not working at all this week so I suppose it'll break even somewhere.   And guess what?  All of us got a $100.00 Christmas bonus!  I've never had one before, so I was excited.  I didn't even think I'd be entitled to one, with being the newest employee and not being there very long (since July), but when I opened up the paycheck paper-thing it said Christmas Bonus: 100.00.  

We had a Christmas dinner last Wednesday at lunch, which was super-nice: pot-luck with turkey, rolls, salads, chicken wings, butter tarts, cinnamon buns, apple cider, etc.  I didn't even realize that we were having the dinner, so I didn't feel like I could eat without contributing, but Gord, Lidia, and Rick all told me not to worry about it.  I love work.

We go back to work on Tuesday, but I'm going back in the afternoon instead of the morning because of a doctor's appointment.  It's in Burlington, so I'll get to work whenever I get there.



3. Whisper

I took Whisper in for her fall maintenace appointment mid-December, and got her two back shocks replaced.  Also did an oil change, tire rotation and balance, checked battery, fluid top-up, replaced one of the belts and two light bulbs, and replaced the flicker-thing so now I don't have to manually flick turn signals.

I was there on a Saturday morning at 9:45am, ready for the hour to hour and a half wait time they told me to expect, but due to replacing the shocks (the bolts were stuck and then they rusted apart so had to be replaced) and general business I didn't get out of there until 2:30pm that afternoon.  The longer it took, the more I was worried that the total would sky-rocket due to the $69.00/hour working fee.  I was imagining a thousand dollar plus total and was wondering how I could manage that with paying for my last course and student loan on top of that.

Grand total?  With taxes, and hourly rate: $385.00.  Most of that was for the shocks, yes, but I was soooo relieved.  Thankful doesn't even come close to describing the feeling I had.



4. Christmas

Last but not least, Christmas.  I did pretty well this year, especially in gift cards.

My parents got me a bedroom set, sort of, with a duvet cover (blue with a white lacy pattern), sheets and pillowcases (same blue as duvet cover), huge white pillow, and two valence-curtain-things (darker blue, but who cares?).  Also got a $25 gift card for one of our local gas stations (yay!), earing and necklace set, ginger cookies, down-filled vest to keep me warm at work, and stuff like that.

Grandma outdid herself, both for my brother and I, and we both feel guilty about it: $25 gift card (mine's for local drug store, brother's for local music store), $10 gift certificate for local donut store, and $100 cash.  Also got a cat pin from her cat, Tuesday.

'Bolt got me an amaryllis bud and a pot to put it in.  He got me one last year, and it did really well until mid-August when Dad threw it out.  Also got me a gift card for a makeup consultation at the mall, and the most adorable cat pillow with a cat curled up sleeping in a blue shirt.  Caption: No outfit is complete without cat hair.  Very true.

And I think that's about it.  I'll be over at 'Bolt's for New Years Eve until just after midnight, cause we have Church in the morning.  Have Monday off, then back to work on Tuesday.