Happy Holidays!

I am in the middle of my one week off this year, and it feels good. Damn good. I've been getting tons of sleep, and eating far too much chocolate and gingerbread for my own well-being. (Although I am also continuing to go the gym, so it's not all bad!) I had friends over for a Yule ritual on the 21st, which was really great, and then a big dinner on Xmas eve with friends that included the infamous "tofurkey". :)

For those of you who have never tried it, or perhaps never even heard of it, the tofurkey is a big roll of fake turkey-like "meat" that has a layer of stuffing right in the middle. (I must note that "tofurkey" is a bit misleading, since the consensus at dinner was that it tastes a bit more like ham than turkey.) But the texture was good, it came with these fantastic little dumplings filled with sweet cranberry sauce, and the stuffing in the middle was quite nice. Definitely worth trying once!

I spent Xmas Day alone with the kitties (yes, I got a new kitten! I named him Loki because of his mischevious-looking raccoon tail - unfortunately, all my photos of him climbing the Xmas tree are on film, hehe), and by the end of the day it really felt like the best Xmas I've had since 1999 when my parents were last together. Kind of ironic. But being able to go back to bed mid-day, bake gingerbread cookies (and make an absolute mess while trying to fend off cookie-stealing kittens!), drink too much wine, and smoke cigars on the patio late into the evening, was really great. I do miss my family, but if I can't see them, I'm happy to not have wallowed in self-pity because of it. It's kind of liberating to know that I can have fun on my own on a major everything-is-closed-and-the-rest-of-the world-is-with-family kind of holiday and not feel lonely. Although I should clarify this does not mean that I am condemning myself to becoming a "crazy cat lady" by any means... ;)