Christmas in Chicago was.... cold. And white (go snow). And actually surprisingly very nice. I was totally unprepared to leave when the time came. My 
sister and I are not very religious people, and my dad goes to a new church with his girlfriend. We contemplated going to Midnight Mass and then decided to stay home and watch the OC on dvd and eat cookies instead, if that's any indicator.
For the holiday I received a much needed new digital camera (popfrenzy! broke the old one) and cooked a ham (that's right, Jimmy, a HAM). The kitchen didn't blow up and I took some great pictures. Not having been home in
a year, I was happy to see that not much has changed, except that they built a Starbucks with a drive-thru about two blocks from my house. Good for lazy people requiring massive caffeine intake to function, I suppose. For our Christmas movie tradition my sister and I selected "Finding Neverland," which was really fantastic. The movie made me cry and also really want to adopt some children with adorable british accents. I know that wouldn't really work but it would be pretty nice.
Otherwise the weekend was spent shopping, sleeping, eating, and watching the news when the horrible tsunami tragedy occured. Just before I left to go to the airport yesterday I received the news that our old nextdoor neighbor's son, Ben, was staying near the devastation on a trip and no one had heard from him since. Ben was the first boy I ever had a crush on when I was young (the typical boy-nextdoor kind of thing), and seeing his father on television asking for information was pretty heartbreaking. The entire tragedy is just something I cannot fathom, despite the pictures and eyewitness accounts. It's just unreal.
(edit: brooklynvegan has compiled a good set of links to help you contribute to relief funds for the tsunami victims)
sister and I are not very religious people, and my dad goes to a new church with his girlfriend. We contemplated going to Midnight Mass and then decided to stay home and watch the OC on dvd and eat cookies instead, if that's any indicator.
For the holiday I received a much needed new digital camera (popfrenzy! broke the old one) and cooked a ham (that's right, Jimmy, a HAM). The kitchen didn't blow up and I took some great pictures. Not having been home in
a year, I was happy to see that not much has changed, except that they built a Starbucks with a drive-thru about two blocks from my house. Good for lazy people requiring massive caffeine intake to function, I suppose. For our Christmas movie tradition my sister and I selected "Finding Neverland," which was really fantastic. The movie made me cry and also really want to adopt some children with adorable british accents. I know that wouldn't really work but it would be pretty nice.
Otherwise the weekend was spent shopping, sleeping, eating, and watching the news when the horrible tsunami tragedy occured. Just before I left to go to the airport yesterday I received the news that our old nextdoor neighbor's son, Ben, was staying near the devastation on a trip and no one had heard from him since. Ben was the first boy I ever had a crush on when I was young (the typical boy-nextdoor kind of thing), and seeing his father on television asking for information was pretty heartbreaking. The entire tragedy is just something I cannot fathom, despite the pictures and eyewitness accounts. It's just unreal.
(edit: brooklynvegan has compiled a good set of links to help you contribute to relief funds for the tsunami victims)