Merry Christmas ...

As planned, we spent the holidays with C's family up in the Central Coast area. We showed up at his mom's place on the 22nd, in case she needed us for preparations or to run errands for her. We were the first guests to arrive this time, although C's sister arrived later that night with her kids and the dog ...

I spent the holidays here two years ago too, but this time was a little different, for many reasons - most of them sad. For my part, I didn't really feel in the mood. It's just so different here from what I'm used too. It's too warm here, too casual, not dark enough, not cozy enough. On the day of Christmas Eve, we went into town to fetch some prepared food C's mom had ordered, and nothing there made you think that the holidays were coming up. Although I guess there was probably a little less traffic than usual. Something that was reflected in the commercants' grumpy mood. We walked all around downtown to try to find gift tags and cards, but couldn't find anything seasonal. "Maybe you'll find them at Target", people said.

The American tradition says you're supposed to watch this movie each Christmas. (The Americans will know what I'm talking about.) Well, I tried really hard, but didn't make it through. I'll take A Wonderful Life anyday over it ... We then did a round on the ranch, delivering Danish chocolates to the neighbours and spent a while with them, having cranberry cocktails and chatting with C's childhood friends.

It was nice to have the kids around on Christmas Day. They were excited and fun to watch. The downer for me though was that everything is super casual here. C's brothers and sisters don't even dress up for the Christmas dinner. But, Americans don't get a lot of vacation days. So, I guess, when you're on holidays you're really gonna want to relax and hang out. And that's what we did. Alot!

I read a couple of novels and started the third one. Will maybe finish over the New Year break, who knows.