Reflections on Christmas

I like Christmas time. Not only is it advent - a wonderful time to reflect on the upcoming celebrations of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it's also a time of Christmas movies, hot chocolate, and decorating. Sigh.

Honestly, some of the best memories that I have from my university career came about at Christmas time, when I was living with my best girlfriends. We all love Christmas, and seeing as exams were over part way through December and we wanted to maxmize decorating time, we would put up decoration almost immediately after Halloween. Every girl would decorate outside their doors with lights, and we would often just leave them on so we had a Christmas-y hallway. We also started a tradition of breaking up the study time with Christmas movies - favourites that include White Christmas, the original Miracle on 34th Street, Mixed Nuts, National Lampoon's Christmas vacation, One Magic Christmas (but it only counts if Al cries) - so that at the end of each long day of hard work you could look forward to cuddling up on the couch with your fantastic friends to with hot chocolate and candy canes. Sigh. I miss that feeling. I love Christmas.

Then there is always the tradition of going to church on Christmas Eve with my family and then coming home to open the gifts sent from Africa. This was because we would all be up at the crack of dawn to call Africa for Christmas greetings, and you had to thank them for their gifts. (This year this tradition will be postponed seeing as we did the family Christmas thing in October, but the thought will be there!) Sigh. I just love that feeling of sitting next to the Christmas tree lights, tingling with anticipation or the feeling inspired by just sitting and staring at the lights and ornaments. I can't wait for Christmas!

This year, though, I think I've created a new tradition for myself - office Christmas parties. Although I didn't make it to the official Shindig for the GBCCC at Sunlife, I have managed to go two for two as "arm candy" to parties for my friends. My first venture was the party held at Wycliffe College at U of T. I went along with my friend Andrew, mostly because he (literally) asked me to be his arm candy for the night the day I returned to Canada from Africa. Somehow in my jet-lagged state I said "Sure!" Alas, it was fun - a good night of free food and drinks, plus the blessing of being amongst an Anglican church family even if just for a day. (Again, something that I grew up with, so it's something I cherish). Then this past Sunday I acted as a "date" to the Etobicoke Ikea party with my friend Enoch. So much fun! We ate tons of food and danced up a storm - trying, of course, to avoid the path of an overly friendly co-worker who was grinding with not just one, but about three different guys. (She hasn't read the Metro I take it - for weeks now they have been saying this is a no-no for office party etiquette. Tsk, tsk). Overall it was a lot of fun!

Maybe I should start renting my "arm candy" services. Um, no wait, that would give me a bad reputation. Maybe I'll just stick to being the invited girl, the random friend who will come along and have fun, but not too much so you are embarassed in front of your collegues. I figure this year has been a nice step into that direction. I'm batting two for two. Yay me! Yay people for inviting me!

p.s Below is a picture of Andrew and his arm candy. Aren't we cute?