Christmas: The Whirlwind Edition

I've had five glorious days off work (including today) to aid me in the celebration of what I beleive is important at Christmas - friends, family, and little traditions.

Day 1 (23 Dec 05):

Morgan worked today. I slept in (woot) and drove up to my work to drop off caramel corn for the food-fest (a condition of me getting the day off). Lydia had made 1000 spring rolls. She got in at 8am. They were gone by 8:02am.

Ducked out, called my dad to see if he wanted to hook-up for lunch. In typical 'that's my father' style, he needed to shop at lunch. Hey, that's a day early for him!

So went to visit my sister. Morgan got off early, and we made plans to meet for lunch. Drove by the old apartment (sigh), ate some cookies, fought some traffic, and got ditched by the sister. Apparently, she was kind of in charge of the whole cookie exchange thing.

On the upside, we went home and watched our new digital cable via ADSL. Pretty slick service, if you ask me.

Watched TV late and fell asleep.

Day 2 (24 Dec 05):

Up not terribly early, but early enough for me and a Saturday. Headed out to the in-laws for a steak and lobster Chritmas feast. Went to the traditional Christmas Eve party. Then to the Chritsmas Eve mass (this was a Catholic year. Since when did Catholics sing everything? I damn' near thought we had gone into a Lutheran church!). Peace be with you, we finally saw our house again at about 1:30am on Christmas Day. Our poor cat was horrified that he hadn't seen us since our departure at about noon that day.

Day 3 (25 Dec 05):

Up early (too early for a Sunday!). Well, rather, Morgan let me sleep and put all of the gifts into bins for transport to our parents' houses. Yes, the joy of having multiple Christmas mornings! Good time had by all, lots to drink. Left house one at about 2pm, left house two at about 10pm. Watched a movie with my dad. Morgan had a debate with him. Fun stuff!

Day 4 (26 Dec 05):

Not up early. Well, Morgan was. She went shopping. Apparently her efforts to beat the crowds were a little extreme, though - seems no one was shopping but her. But that's okay. When she got back at about 8am, she brought me coffee. Sweet. Nourishing. Coffee. This was the first day to relax a bit. Putzed around the house. Cleaned some stuff up. Watched M*A*S*H (season 3 and 4 on DVD! Woot!). Then to Hanukkah chinese food dinner with Chas, Syl, Larry & Tina. And some really good scotch. I think I'm moving away from Highland and into Islay. So good.

Home around 11pm. Cat still horrified, but stoned, so he's okay.

Day 5 (27 Dec 05):

Well, that's today. Slept in until almost 10:30am. Morgan is shopping. I think we'll head to the framing shop later.

House is fairly clean, everything is mostly in order. Need some new batteries for my palm pilot.

And then work tomorrow. But only for three days.

Plans for New Year's? I say movies and scotch and my house. We'll see if we make it until midnight.

I've found the past five days a little exhausting, but man did I finally find the Chritmas spirit I was missing this year. What a great ride it has truly been.

My love to you all.

-R.