Honestly, now.

So the other day Rachel and I went to Chris’s apartment to decorate.  (His mom sent a box of stuff to make his place all Christmasy.)  It was a whole ton ‘o fun!  Christmas is a little more difficult that I had anticipated.  I just figured that, after eight years in retail, I would be ready for a break for all of the holiday spirit.  Turns out that I kinda miss it.  It’s strange here because while all of the retailers still try to capitalize off of it, nobody really does much for Christmas.  I’m going to miss oyster soup on Christmas Eve.  Sugar cookies.  The smell of cedar.  Dad falling asleep under the tree.  The anticipation of seeing all of my family at once (and the chaos that ensues).  I’ll miss watching Christopher rip into his gifts.  I’ll miss Hank (I won’t miss Elvis, but I will miss making fun of him.)  I’ll miss eating a huge meal and then wandering off to take a nap.

I’ll miss a whole lot.  But that’s okay, I’m lucky for it.

But I will still have my holiday.  So this year, Christmas began this week with Rachel and Chris,  a box full of decoration, a bottle of wine, and a whole bunch of Christmas music.

I must say, we had a great time.  After admitting that we were being dorks, we decorated the tree (and apartment), wore silly hats, danced around to Christmas music, talked about home, danced around some more and generally acted silly.  It was awesome.

I got to teach Rachel a bit of swing dance (6-count basic, Charleston, etc.).  I wanted to teach Chris, but he wasn’t so enthusiastic.  We took photos to send back home and post on our blogs.  (Chris was having issues keeping his eyes open for pictures.)  I’m glad these two live in my building.  (My building’s name is Arion.  Sean often calls it “The Dorm.”  He’s not wrong.  It’s not uncommon to see one of us in the elevator with a pillow.  We often have movie nights and most people don’t have enough chairs or bed space.  Combine that with the fact that it’s fairly easy to know all the Westerners in the building and it really does remind me of freshman year of college.)

The silly hats were a nice touch.

Oh, and thank you to Chris’s mom for sending him the goodies.  They were well appreciated by all.

Ah.  Good times.   The rest of this is mostly just photos.  I think I’m going to wander off to bed.  Take care of yourself.