X-mas

I know it's been a long time, but can you blame me? Christmas, christmas, christmas. I felt as if I'd spent forever shopping, having the competing events of Christmas Day (for Andrea's gifts) and the postal deadline (for family gifts), stretching the whole process over the entirety of December. I've had a long and busy month. It's the first time I'd ever been away for the holidays, and though (or so I've been told) I lean toward the 'scrooge' side of the coin, I really missed the holiday and my family this week. Andrea decorated our tiny apartment, and we made plans to have dinner on Christmas Day at Evan and Carolyn's, and to have the other English teachers that live in our building over for a 'get-together' on Christmas Eve. Here X-mas is sort of a sleeper holiday, and it was interesting to get some distance from the mad rush of things. Though truthfully, with our late work schedule there was precious little time for the gruntwork, so at the last minute everything sort of came together, luckily.