The reality is that even if I were in Winnipeg, many of those traditions wouldn't be there anyway:
My sister and her husband are off traveling the globe this summer, so I would only have seen them one evening, in passing. We exchanged gifts through the mail this year, hopefully I'll be able to convince her to make a visit out to Vancouver sooner than later.
The traditional Christmas-eve celebration at my grand-dad's was downgraded this year to an afternoon stop-in; this tradition, I'll miss the most - it's the only time each year when that whole side of the family gathers together at the same time. We did have my grand-dad's 90th birthday this last fall, it's just sad to think that such a long standing tradition (about 30 + years) has come to an end and there's no-one in the younger generation that will keep it going.
This year, my friend Tia and I had a wonderful movie night! We started by going for Greek food, the service was terrible, but it was decent and filling. Next, we went to a wonderful dessert place and got a selection of... 6 cakes, pastries, etc. We picked up another friend of Tia's (also a Christmas orphan) and watched Centurion and Amélie at my place - neither of these were Christmassy at all, but that's ok!
Today was pretty traditional, actually. I made my Christmas calls in the morning, while making an apple crisp. In the afternoon, I went over to my friend's house for dinner - he has a 9-month old and a 3-year old, so the joy and magic of Christmas was wonderful!
Tomorrow is boxing day, which is always a big deal in Winnipeg. Here, it is not. I think the malls have big sales, but I didn't get a single flyer for boxing day/week sales... That's another Christmas day tradition for my family - looking at the boxing day sales and figuring out what shopping you want to do on the 26th. Tomorrow, I won't be shopping because there's no-one to shop with, and there's nothing I particularly need.
I've been pretty productive this week, but I still have a mild-to-moderately overwhelming amount of work to do on my piano piece. My sleep schedule is pretty ridiculous, but it's working relatively well for me. I'm in bed around 5 or 6am and I wake up in the early-ish afternoon. I've been pretty social in the afternoons/evenings, and then I work until the wee hours of the morning when everyone else is sleeping. It's also helpful that the internet is EXTREMELY BORING after about 1am - there's literally nothing new on facebook until around 4 or 5am, when the early birds on the east coast start their days.
Long story short, I've quite enjoyed my holidays this year, even though they've been quieter and different than normal.
Hopefully, everyone has been having wonderful holidays themselves!
Enjoy the rest of the year, and hopefully I'll remember to post again before 2011!
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