Christmas!

This Christmas was the first time I have ever been by myself  to celebrate. It was a huge change from years past yet I tried to make the best of it. After coming back from Germany two weeks ago I decorated the house (while I didn't take out all the boxes I did use a lot - including my favorite decorations.) I even bought a real Christmas tree in town and put it up. An important part of the holiday is the traditional food. For Christmas Eve I made the following: tourtiere (French-Canadian meat pie), spinach and artichoke dip and French onion soup. I had planned to make a big Christmas dinner today too, but with my dad and sister coming here next week I thought I would save the prime, prime roast for then. Instead, I had leftovers from last night as well as Hungarian goulash.
For presents I received: DVDs, books, a t-shirt, a sweater, candy, a gift certificate and money. I then bought myself many of the items on my Amazon Wish List so I could have more items. I also got several cards (some from people I have never met before - one of my German friends knew I love getting cards and post cards and so asked her friends to send them to me - ironically I never got a card from her, but the other ones will make up for it. ) One thing that I would have liked would be to get more e-cards. They are free and especially good when you can't send a regular card or present. It's a nice, easy way to let someone know you are remembering them.
 One thing that really annoyed me is all those fake holiday cheer that people over-do this time of year. Usually I can tolerate it, but with everything that I have gone through this year I just didn't want to and so I didn't. That may have made some people upset, but you can't always live in a world of "lemon drops and moon beams" sometimes you have to live in reality - even during the holidays. That doesn't make me a Scrooge (since I don't try to stop others from having a good celebration - I just don't want to be a part of it - not that anyone invited me to join them.)
While, I won't say this Christmas was one of the better ones I've ever celebrated I will say it was an ok one. I did my best to keep a promise to someone close to me and hopefully I did them proud. I also hope that next year (especially next Christmas) is much better than 2014 was,