Happy New Year! My goodness, is it 2007 already? I had *just* gotten used to the idea of writing "2006" as the date, and now it's time to switch things up again.
I had an awesome holiday, work was nice and slow (so I got to catch up on a lot of normal people things during the day, like simply dropping up my car for its tune-up.) I got to see some family and spent Christmas Eve at a family friend's house. That tradition of Christmas Eve dinner at their house started before I even left Toronto, and this was the first time I've been able to participate since returning. It was cool to see all the aunties & uncles again, and how much their kids had changed, or stayed the same, since I last saw them. Before Christmas, I also had a really long catch up session with another friend, we ended up seeing the Fountain (which I thought was horrible, but he loved it) and hanging at a bar for six hours just chatting. Good times.
A bunch of good friends also came into town during this time - I spent Christmas Day with an old friend who was visiting from Seattle. Her family was throwing a Christmas dinner and invited me, it was nice to see her and her parents, who've known me ever since I was six! Another good friend that I know from law school visited from Vancouver and crashed with me New Year's weekend. I dragged him around shopping malls (luckily, the holiday sales selection sucked so my credit card, and him, weren't permanently scarred) and we ended up ringing in the New Year at my place with bellinis (my firm gave me a bottle of champagne as a gift) and watching Children of Dune. Oh - he also came with me to see another friend play in the band. Good thing too since I started blacking out towards the end of the set (it's happened before twice, when I was out partying in a crowded/stuffy place) luckily he managed to get me outside & home before I did any major damage. Other than that little incident, we just had a nice relaxing holiday.
Yet another law school friend was visiting from Paris (where she's taking a year off - I'm so jealous!) so I got to catch up with her too. Poor girl has had the worst luck, she's gotten her wallet stolen, gotten kicked out of her apartment etc. But I told her after that string of bad luck, she's due for nothing but good times from here on out. I'm also thinking of making a trip to Paris, I have enough points saved up, I could crash with her, and Longchamp bags are a lot cheaper in France. Now, all I need to do is just book the flight.....
I also got to go shopping with another friend today to make sure there really wasn't anything left in the stores that was worth buying. Despite four and a half hours of concentrated shopping, we still had no luck. *sigh* Ah well, at least I'll make a larger dent in my student debt.
So, in all, the holidays were really good. Well, except for the fact that my pants are a lot tighter than they were before, thanks to all the eating and baking (I went through 5 cups of butter and 2 cartons of whipped cream. Made 2 batches of gingerbread, another batch of shortbread, a cheesecake, poundcake, and sticky toffee pudding. I gave most of it away but still kept enough to do some major damage.) Then again, holidays are always about food, and catching up with good friends & family, so I really shouldn't complain. I'm already planning when to book my next time off. I've only taken one vacation day since I started work (I have 9 days left). Only question is where to go. I'd love to go to Vancouver. I haven't been there in 8 years, three of my friends are there, I've convinced another one in Calgary to go if I come to town, one of my friends in HK might consider stopping by too, and I might be able to convince another friend in San Fran to stop by. That way - instead of hitting several places in order to see everyone, I could just go to one place & make them all come to me! :D The only thing, Paris is so incredibly tempting. *sigh* Decisions, decisions.......all in all, not a bad way to start off 2007.....
