Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night Christmas has come and gone again. Sometimes it seems sad to me that so much anticipation is cultivated for one day. It's not really just the day that's anticipated though, nor is it just the day that's enjoyed. The anticipation is directed towards the whole season, and Christmas day wouldn't be nearly as much fun without the anticipation itself. After spending the morning with my family opening gifts, I went south with the Boy to spend the rest of the day with his rather large extended family. It was the first time I hadn't been with my family for Christmas dinner and I must say that overall it was a disappointment. I've always put a lot of stock in Christmas traditions so it was hard to forgo mine. Still, his family is a jolly bunch and I did enjoy myself. Just not as much as if I'd been where I'm familiar. Listen to me complain! You'd think I'd been denied Christmas altogether! I did get some lovely gifts I've been gloating over all day. A new dressing gown, $60 dollars worth of book gift certificates and a fascinating book that covers all the major scientific discoveries in history starting with the development of the earliest counting system in 35,000 BC to name a few. The most exciting things, at least in my mind, were the technological gifts. A digital camera for the family and a GPS reciever for me! The GPS is fairly impractical for my lifestyle, but it's still exciting and I've been playing with it all day. I've managed to get down to an accuracy of 7m in the house so I've high hopes for out in the open. Not that I'll likely be in the open when I'm actually using it for navigation, more like hemmed in by mountains on all sides, but it's still a very cool little toy. I didn't get any clothing though, so I think I'm going to venture out for the Boxing Week sales to see if I can't get myself some new jeans. I realised today that the last time I bought myself new clothes was over a year ago, so I suppose it may be time. I HATE boxing week with a passion and I'd really prefer to stay home with my library books, but I haven't got enough money to turn my nose up at sales. All in all, this has been a wonderful Christmas, as always. I've always found there's nothing like Christmas to remind me just how much I have to be grateful for. |