Merry Christmas!

What would Christmas be without a little manical cleaning? I spent the better part of last night cleaning the entire condo (i'm using the word entire liberally here, this condo is the size of my studio apartment with an added wall between the bedroom and the living room/kitchen/dining room/family room) because I couldn't stand it ONE MINUTE LONGER! It was quite obviously that slacking on my house wife duties last week made me a little crazy; it was not my intention to spend Christmas night combing the house over with a dust rag and a broom.

Needless to say, it was a different kind of Christmas this year - no real christmas tree (instead we used the fake ficus in the corner to put our one gift under), no snow (i believe the temperature lingered around a chilly 78 degrees), no big dinner with family (we ate leftovers), no real gift exchange (N got me a necklace but I didn't get him anything), no wrapping paper littering the house (the few gifts we did get were mostly gift cards sent by parents and we do have a few misc. amazon boxes laying around).

Instead we did what any 2 family-less-ness people would do: go to a ridiculously early movie (Juno - it's great. go as soon as you can), return the rental car to the airport just to pick up another one, read & play xbox, clean, and think of all the great restuarants we would like to go to if only understanding restaurant owners would forgo their christmas plans with family to assist those without plans or family to make it feel like just another day of the year. It makes the sting of being away from home a lot less painful. Okay? Thanks.

Suprisingly, I finally managed to get all of the christmas gifts for family ordered and shipped. I did miss out on the essential Amazon.com free shipping AND the presents will be arriving late because I refused to pay the extra $30 for one-day shipping despite the guilt trip offered up by said company: "Are you 100% positive that you want to ruin your niece's 3rd christmas by not having your gift under the tree that magical morning? She's at a very impressionable age and she may begin to think that Santa doesn't really care about her or worst yet her aunt and uncle don't care. Do you really want to be that person not to pay the additional $30 to make her holiday dreams come true? Really?"

Yes, i said. Dr Seuss can wait a week.

Ok, I might exaggerate, but only slightly.

I hope all of you had a great Christmas full of hot chocolate, more food comsumption than your body could handle, restful afternoon naps, your dreams wrapped in frosty the snowman wrapping paper, great kinship with friends & family and memories that will last a lifetime if you can only remember them the next day (you may have had a bit too many candy cane martinis) .

Merry Christmas
(a day late, just like your presents)