Non-Denominational Holiday Cheer

If you hadn't noticed I've been away from the blog for a while now. For a few reasons, none of which have anything to do with nothing to say. I'm always thinking about stuff I'd like to say, it's just getting to the computer that's the hard part. The holidays haven't helped either with my brother-in-law occupying my computer most of the time.

But it's been a pretty good holiday season so far. It was a little short on the usual cheer at first but I quickly got into the usual swing. It's funny that ever since I stopped working at Toys R Us I've been surprised as the season snuck up on me. I love Christmas much more now that it has nothing to do with my job I must say. In fact I can remember waiting impatiently for the winter semester to start so that I could get back to school and relax. Now that was truly sick.

The weather has been truly amazing here. No white christmas for us, and oddly no one seems really sad about it. I'm personally not a huge fan of the white stuff so it's all good, and freezing your ass off while you run around shopping definitely contributes to my holiday stress.

My sister, her husband, and her infant son showed up about a week before Christmas and their visit went well. The baby Zane, was a lot friendlier and happier than he was last time he visited. He spent most of his days being passed around from one person to another smiling most of the time. He woke up crying in the middle of the night a few times, but it didn't really affect me as I was still up anyways. My sister spent most of her time being neurotic and paranoid about her son, but I guess that's what happens to first time parents. It's hard to imagine how anyone from my generation survived childhood without all this safety stuff, and the mass of advice that's available on child rearing.

The early to bed parent responsible sister is a new one for me. I'm used to her going out with her friends every night when she visits and getting hammered, but I think she went out only once in the afternoon. My brother-in-law is a great guy and when my sister wasn't bossing him around he was inevitably playing games on my computer. That's all fine and well, but he should know that that's my job around here.

Even the shopping was a breeze. I really don't have that many people to buy for as my friends and I have never been in the habit of exchanging presents. I'm thinking maybe we should, just to bring us together. Didn't have a lot of contact with them this season, and it would have been none if I hadn't organized a small dinner at the Louisiana Purchase. A very excellent restaurant that serves a very excellent German wine that I can't remember the name of now. It was a nice occasion, but it kind of sucked that everyone had to go their seperate ways so early.

Anyways, back to the present buying. With only a few little hints and nudges I was able to pick up quite a few things early which takes a lot of the panic away. Then one day we packed up everyone and headed to the Big Mall for some marathon shopping. It wasn't too crowded when we went and I managed to pick up everything that I wanted to get for people. I don't really let the stress get to me, and I'm always amazed and disgusted to see people running around frantically with short tempers. Bitching because you have to wait in line for five minutes is never going to solve anything. The only worry I had was that Shani would spend all of her money on gifts for everyone. I needn't have worried though as of course she did.

The only small problem with the shopping is that pretty well all my gifts to Shani were of the boring household kind. She really needs that kind of stuff, but I'm the type of person who likes to give away exciting gifts. So when I picked her up from work on Saturday we went shopping at the less big Southgate mall. Very packed but I just took my time and wandered around. The personal gift problem was solved fairly easy at La Senza, and that's enough said about that. Can't be too sure of who's reading this. My brother-in-law asked me if I had a blog and I vaguely answered him saying that my blog was fairly boring and pedestrian so that he wouldn't want to read it. What a lie that was.

Christmas Eve was nice as some of us set out to see some pretty lights somewhere. My sister of course was excited about her son seeing the lights for his first Christmas. Well Bright Nights at Hawrelak park was out of the question as the line of cars was very long, so we headed to Candy Cane lane; an area of the city where most of the residents decorate their homes. Again it was pretty busy, and we spent some time driving very slowly down the street. On one was too impressed so I pulled out and we headed home. As it turns out we were still a little way from the good stuff, but it didn't really matter as the baby spent the whole time sleeping in the car.
We spent the rest of the evening visiting, and playing some cards.

I had way too much Coke to drink so after everyone went to bed I stayed up watching A Christmas Carol that had Patrick Stewart in it, and then the Angel episode where he gets turned into a puppet. It had been a pretty busy week filled with people so it was nice just to sit back by myself, and watch the pretty lights on the tree for a while.

Christmas day was presents, presents, presents. Much unwrapping and picture taking was done. Everyone seemed happy with what they received except for my Dad who possibly broke his computer installing his new DVD burner. Even the baby seemed really happy with his million presents, but I think he would have been happy with anything he could've banged the crap out of. I had a nap in the afternoon and oddly we had no visitors. Usually my family has a few people popping in and out during the day but it was pretty quiet. Everyone seemed either a little tired or grumpy that day, but that might have been just me. We didn't get to hang out and play games all night after supper like we usually do either. My sister's flight was leaving very early the next day so they had to hit the sack. Strangely for me I felt sad as I knew I would miss them and the little baby. The thought of him growing up away from us made me feel a little forlorn. Not sure what that's about, but hopefully it's not what you think.

Boxing Day was insane. Plain and simple. Don't go shopping on Boxing Day at South Commons. The place is a rat's nest at the best of times. Today was worse.

Well that's about it for today. I was going to wade in to the whole "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas" debate, but I've babbled on too long already.

So in closing I hope everyone had an amazing Holiday and good night.