This is my first christmas away from home. As most of you know, I have been dreading the last two weeks of December for awhile now. This concern was due to the departure of my three closet friends and a strange holiday away from my family. Alas, two of my friends have left and it is christmas eve! In some ways, it is just as sad as I expected but in other ways it seems to be kinda funny. I have received emails and cards from all of my family expressing their

dislike for the holidays. My mother and sister are in Costa Rica- where they are happy that christmas is almost nonexistent. My father will work the entire break and I am getting up to go skiing at 4:30 in the morning. Even my grandmother is looking forward to these 48 hours being over with. How did we all become such scrooges? Could the holiday blues be hereditary? Either way, I find it kind of amusing that we are all semi-sulking on opposite sides of the world. Perhaps next year, we will all just learn to be grateful we can sulk together. Now, I’m off to find baileys for my coffee! Merry christmas!