Ramblings

The holiday time gets me thinking about the move to Canada just over a year ago, and how my life has changed so much in that time. Large holiday gatherings with family have not happened for me in a while, due to the distance now and the fact that many of those family members are no longer alive, and that is one thing I really do miss. I guess that comes with the territory when one has a large extended family. Even though I am an only child my mother was the youngest of 15 and my father was the youngest of 9, so there are relatives all over the place! It's funny but when we were deciding to make the Big Move I really didn't think of it as starting over, and I still don't. It was more like something that we HAD to do and I view it as a new chapter in my life. Same book, new chapter, new country. Christmas was kind of a non-event for us this year. The excitement over finding just the right gift for all those relatives and friends is not there anymore for me. The excitement over putting up a tree was not there. I was hoping this year would be better, mentally, but I think the weather, and being snowbound at home, kind of did me in. I was off today and tried to hunt for some after Christmas bargains but I just don't have the patience for the crowds, and not being able to find a parking spot in the haphazardly plowed lots did not help either. Funny thing tho...I have heard from a few friends/relatives who kind of had the same kind of Christmas - sort of ho-hum. Some blamed it on the economy, others had no explanation. Maybe with the state of things people are perhaps reviewing their priorities? Could it be the start of something? I was raised Catholic but drifted away from that years ago so Christmas for me is more of a generic thing - practicing good will, appreciating people in my life, that kind of stuff - nothing really religious. Maybe next Christmas will be on track for me. I did manage to bake a lot of cookies though, which I have not done in ages!

In the meantime I am really looking forward to going to work on Tuesday, after way too many days off, and I am really excited about 2009!

I wish you all a healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year!