I've been having a strange feeling like I'm living through an elaborate Christmas in July production this year. We've been experiencing a bit of a heat wave here this year. Last year was a terribly cold year, so as per nature's way, this year is on the extremely warm end of the spectrum. I'm not trying to rub it in for those of you living through -45 but we've been having +20 and +25 days the past few weeks and while that's nice and all, it's kinda strange. I've got a little tree up, I've been Christmas shopping for weeks, and I've even done Christmas baking here this year, but when it feels like summer, it's really hard to get in the Christmas spirit. So needless to say, I can't wait to come home and breathe in some crisp, cold air and make snow angels in the backyard! : )
Last weekend was our Christmas Open House at school and it went very well this year, so much less stressful than last time for me. My grade 10 computer class made some simple games in QBasic so we had the lab open for parents and students to come and try out the games. We had all sorts of Guess My Number games, Hangman, MASH and even Tic Tac Toe! I was so impressed with the kids and we had a good turn out from the parents too. It was quite fun actually!
This evening we had our staff Christmas dinner at an all you can eat buffet restaurant. It was a food amusement park, at least that's what we're calling it The placemats were maps of all the food stations, because this place was so big, you honestly wouldn't be able to find all the food without one! It was crazy! They had western food, Thai food, Indian food, Chinese food, soups, salads, all make and manner of desserts (including a chocolate fountain!), oh yeah, and the most amazing Brazilian BBQ I've ever had! So in typical western style, we gorged on way too much food and went home with bulging bellies to sleep off our over indulgence.
Tomorrow I'm going to the symphony and Sunday I'm having a little Christmas dinner with my Chinese friends, so there's certainly a lot of festive events to help me get in the holiday mood! For those of you I won't have a chance to see while I'm on my whirlwind week home, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!