December Obsessions

I'm still recouping from the Christmas weekend. I think my stomach has stretched enough to fit an entire turkey in there. Seriously. I think I have also eaten double my weight in chocolate and cookies. Oomph! That's the sound of me trying to adjust myself in the computer chair. Not a pretty sight. Trust me.

WTF? All of a sudden I'm holding a turkey sandwich in my hand! Before I pass out in a food coma, here are the five things that I've been obsessing about all December long:

1. Dance Central 2. I shit you not. Maybe it's the Asian in me. Maybe it's the gamer in me. Maybe it's both. But I LOVE dance games and would always go nuts whenever I see them at arcades. So when I heard that this was coming to an Xbox near me, I knew I had to have it. I'll confess right here, right now, I'll be up 'til the wee hours of the morning and will possibly spend my days the next few weeks months playing this game. I guess it's one way to burn off those holiday pounds!

2. The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Yeah, I could've clumped this with the first obsession but really, it deserves it's own place on the list. I know the ladies of my knitting group laughed at me when I told them that all I wanted for Christmas was one thing and one thing only. The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Seriously. No jokes. Although, both Hayley and Natalie admitted that they laughed only cause they want to play it too. I've been bugging Brett about getting an Xbox with Kinect just so that I can play Dance Central. Forget Wii, I'd break something with those controllers. There's a wristband on those bad boys for a reason. I wanna be able to get my groove on and not have to worry about whether or not if I'm holding the controller tightly enough so that I won't be destroying my TV, windows, or anyone's sheer amazement at my dance skills. Don't laugh. You'll see. If I ever get challenged to a dance off in some dark alley somewhere, I'll be prepared. If the Black Eyed Peas find themselves down a back up dancer all of a sudden. Yo! I'm ready. Don't hate.

3. Crofter's Organic Fruit Spreads. Holy crap, do I ever love this stuff! I seriously cannot.get.enough.of.it. I really don't like to buy store bought jam and try to get homemade whenever possible. It was a summer goal to learn how to make my own jam but never got around to doing so. Mainly cause I kept missing the prime fruit picking times at my local U-pick farms. I guess I could always use frozen fruit. But I think that'll ruin my first jam making experience.

Last winter I discovered Whimsical Preserves at a craft fair and was sad that I had only picked up 2 jars of their yummy jam and had to go a few month (gasp!) without any homemade jam. Then I found out that they were going to be vendors at an outdoor market that, I kid you not, just happens to be right outside my front door every Saturday during the summer. It kinda got sad cause the lady started to recognize me as I crossed the grassy knoll to get to her stall, and she would have my preferred jam all ready to go. You'd think I'd stock up to carry me through the winter months. Sadly, no. I totally missed the memo about when the last day of that market was. I've been a complete sad face since. Until now. Sometime in November I discovered Crofter's Organic at a snooty (and pricey) grocery store. Curious, I read the label and bought a jar. I was in pure heaven! HEAVEN, I tell you! I had to limit myself though, since this so-called high end market likes to charge an arm and a leg for pretty much everything in their store. So imagine my sheer surprise when a week later whilst roaming the aisles of a local grocery chain store that I discovered my beloved jam! And one week it was on sale!! Hells yeah I stocked up!

I love this "fruit spread" in quite an unholy way. I love it so much that it makes me lick the butter knife I use to spread this goodness on my toast. Yes, I know, it's a butter knife and therefore cannot cut me. But still, it's a knife here people! This jam is making me live on the dangerous side. Not only is there actual chunks of fruit in the jar, but there's absolutely NO preservatives, corn syrup, fructose, cellulose gum, or weird crap like that. The no corn products is what really does it for me. I still shudder at those freakin' ads that used to be on TV, where the American government was trying to convince everyone that high-fructose corn syrup is actually good for you. Yeah um...corn products in general aren't good for you. Your body can't digest it. And sugar shouldn't be man-made chemicals and that highly processed. Don't even get me started on cellulose gum.

I love Crofter's Organics so much, I'm even letting the Munchkin finally have jam on his toast again!

Oh, disclaimer here: please note that Crofter's Organics did not pay or ask me to give my so-called review on them. But if someone from this company just happens to be reading this, I will accept cases of fruit spread. Just saying.

4. Houndstooth Sorel Boots. I was dreaming about them all November and for most of December. Then just as I was about to buckle and buy them already, I found this pair. On sale. Oh yeah. You bet I high-tailed it into the shop, waving my credit card like a crazed boot addict. The weather has been pure crapola here, which means that it's been grey and not so great for photo taking. So I give you an internet-found photo rather than one of my actual boots. Mine came with awesome bright yellow and black plaid laces, but I'm in the process of finding some pink laces....ooohhh...

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Melissa on Pinterest

But just to be sure, I made sure to try on the pair that I had originally wanted:

I knew that if I didn't try them on, I'd always be wondering "what if?". Do you ever get that? Where you see something that you totally heart, but didn't get cause you couldn't justify getting it and then later down the road you find yourself thinking about that item, all forlornly? Yeah, that would have been the case with these. So I tried them on. They were pure awesome sauce but didn't hold a candle to the tall boots. I love these boots. They've already paid for themselves. They are sooooo comfy and sooooo warm! Which, if you've been reading my blog all month, is a must as I've been freezing my butt off all December long!

5. Yarn. OK, so this one is nothing new. I'm sure you were expecting this one. But really, I've been thinking about yarn all.month.long. Twenty four seven. Not just any yarn though, more specifically: my stash. Yeah, yeah, so I acquired quite a bit of new yarn during the month but now I think I've reached my limit. I know my house has. I'm starting to get overwhelmed by the fact that I have a lot of choices. I've been thinking up of a game plan on how to get some control over the stash, besides stop adding to it! I smell a goal cooking up. Just to forewarn you.

Source: threebagsfull.ca via Melissa on Pinterest

Some honourable mentions: warm woollies and Polartec, and most of all - my bed. I seriously think I've slept through the entire month. I've been so extremely fatigued, so beyond exhausted, and feel like I've been battling my eyelids all December long. I'll get spurts of energy (which I would expend on Dance Central sessions) here and there, but to tell you the truth, December was a blurr due to being so sleepy. I'm looking forward to getting my thyroid treated next month (actually, excited isn't the proper word for how I really feel about finally being able to deal with my thyroid issues, but I'm too tired to come up with a better word) and am thinking that maybe, just maybe 2012 will be much, much, MUCH better for me health-wise. YAY!

'Til then, you'll be getting nothing but sleepy posts from me. Oh well. I'm off to make more coffee.