Joyful recap, maybe

How was your Christmas?! Hope you all had an amazing time, enjoyed being with your family and friends, opening lots of presents (or none), and just had an absolutely perfect holiday time.

Christmas on my side of the world was okay.
As you may have figured we do celebrate on Christmas Eve, and most of us open our gifts on that evening as well. Can't beat that one. ;) I opened mine actually in the morning. I simply couldn't wait any longer which made me realize how silly I behaved and how much I was looking forward to all of this. Ridiculous. However, the little girl inside of me was stronger and I loved to open each and every gift I received. I received four things I was really looking forward to and the rest was pretty much a bonus (however you want to look at it). My DVD collection has grown, I have one more tree ornament (thanks to my Starbucks addiction!), new clothes (yay on that one for sure), new comfy socks (oh I love these so much), and stuff to pamper myself.
The best gift though I received on Christmas Day. While I was trying to read the news online my cousin called. She absolutely made my day, or my night. I was trying to read quickly and then head to bed but couldn't because she was calling me from England and well, I couldn't say no. Praise the internet, and praise Skype. :)
Yes, of course, I know how ridiculous this all sounds, but hearing her voice again and having a girl-to-girl talk was something I'd been missing. A lot. It was a blessing. Funny thing was she wanted to hear my stories, the way we celebrated the holidays (she didn't grow up celebrating just recently learned and all), and well...it was just beyong great to talk to her again. My best Christmas gift. Ever.

Actually, my Christmas was disappointing. Yes, we went to my aunt's place and yes, she did cook beautifully, but it wasn't what I expected. We were only four people!!! What the heck?! My cousins (both way older than I am and married and having kids) decided not to join us. Not even to say hello. I mean? Who does that?! Yes, my cousins have other family dinners to attend but they did that on the 26th, both of them, so the 24th or even the 25th would have been perfect to get together. I haven't seen my cousins' kids in over two years. They're growing up and even though we're family it doesn't feel like it. Anyways, my aunt cooked, my uncle made jokes, mom was, well, mom and I was in the middle of everything not really feeling it and missing the family and Christmas spirit. Have I mentioned that there wasn't any Christmas decoration?! No? Now you know. Not even one candle. Not even music. Nada. I'm not expecting the house to be lit like crazy and decoration all over so you can't walk through the house but come on!!! Holiday-ish candles would have been nice, or just something...but no! My heart broke into pieces...and even though these pieces were glittery and all (yes, deep inside I felt great about the holiday)...it just wasn't what I wished for or hoped it would be. Just disappointing. I'm still so disappointed in my cousins. I still wonder why they didn't show up. Did they quit the festivities? Nope. I have no idea. I don't want to think about it anyhow. It's just so sad.
So, well...no midnight mass, no snow, no gifts from my family, just amazing friends whom I miss like crazy sending me awesome treats and a phone call that just lightened up my mood the next day. At least that.

So, thanks S., you are an amazing cousin. Even though we don't live near each other I hope you can come visit me here (at some point). I love you. You've always been my best friend and will always be the person I turn to when I need guidance, happiness, laughter and just love. So sad we're not sisters, but then who knows, we might not have the bond we're having. :)  Thanks for making my day!

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In other news...on December 26th (a holiday over here and well, everything and by that I truly mean everything, is closed) I would have normally spent the day in my PJ's watching holiday movies, reading books, drinking hot coco and all, but this year I tried something new. Ok, not really tried. Two friends of mine and I went out on a so-called field trip. Apparently they do this every year on December 26, but I never participated (either because I wasn't here, or was working or was sick or all of the above!). This time I decided to go and unfortunately we were only three people. It was still fun though. Expensive fun but we all know my life needs excitement and some adventures. We met at 7.30 in the morning, took a train to some distant city, went up a few mountains (gosh that was scary fun!), and walked through tons of snow and tried to catch some sun. We failed with the latter part of the wish, but the snow was fun. The sun just seemed to hide from us...at some point she came out and we cursed ourselves for not having brought our sunglasses with us but all in all it was a good day.

That's about it...Christmas is over, and New Year's Eve is pretty much around the corner. Can you believe this?! I simply can't. It somehow scares me, but it's okay. I'm trying to end the year positively (even though I want to scream and yell - maybe I should do so) and then start the year as positively as even possible.
I need to believe that whatever happened this year (or whatever didn't happen) has its own little purpose somewhere and this is part of my life and at some point in the future I will understand why.

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Have an absolutely awesome Sunday!

xoxo