Holidays!

I must say, it feels weird to say Christmas has passed. There is always such hustle right before the big day, to get cards out, packages sent, phone calls made, that by the time the day has passed me by, it feels like it never happened. That everything was just a big blur. I might feel that way, because I had such a busy weekend. It feels weird to have it wind down.
I spent my Christmas Eve night with my brother, his wife, and their son, Owen. We had a lovely dinner. The next morning, I headed back down to Venice to their house to watch Owen celebrate his first Christmas. Needless to say, an eight month old baby gets more excitement out of the wrapping paper, than the actual presents. It was still great joy to watch him partake in the holiday fun.
After spending the day with them, I headed down to Huntington Beach, where my Portland friends, Shannon and John Anthony were visiting her sister, Dawn, and Dawn's boyfriend, Mark at their house. Christmas night was filled with yummy pasta, bottles of wine, movies, and games. I had so much fun. I stayed the night and the next morning, we all headed to the Santa Anita Race Track for Mark's birthday. WIth bloody marys in hand by noon, we were able to place our bets. I pretty much broke even, which is a good thing. I spent what money I had left at the local H & M, because I felt it was my duty to give back to the economy. :) The rest of the weekend was topped off with cat-sitting for a friend and relaxing with bad Lifetime movies. Nothing beats that. At least I can say I survived another Christmas and only have a couple of more presents that need to be sent out fashionably late.