Christmas and Post-Christmas

Well, folks, the holiday season is almost over, aside from New Year's of course. Christmas Eve was absolutely lovely. Leigh and I co-prepared a delicious and decadent French inspired Christmas dinner. Leigh did all the shopping and menu planning and I did the preparations. We hit up our favorite local gourmet grocery store, New Sagaya Markets, to find a lot of the items and used Costco for the more common things.

As you can see, we had baked brie (one with organic honey and one with chorizo), mushroom pate, ham, green beans, carrots, camembert, baguette, and chocolate eclaire cake for dessert. All served with pinot noir. It was a really fun meal because we ate things we love but cannot always justify buying. Such a nice way to celebrate. Late that night I had to take Leigh to the airport to catch her flight back East. I also spent the evening making pumpkin pie and preparing macaroni and cheese for the next day. While Leigh spent all of Christmas Day in the air and airports (ugh), I spent the morning cleaning the apartment and cooking more American style Christmas foods.

Around 3pm a good friend stopped by with her little boy for dinner. We exchanged presents, played with the little boy's new toys (including a few from Leigh and I. Shopping for kids is so much fun!), chatted and watched Cars. By the end of the evening I felt we had sufficiently celebrated the holiday and I felt completely spoiled. Not only did Leigh and I get a gift card to New Sagaya (see above), but I was also the recipient of some nice warm clothes and a beautiful Southeast Alaska framed print!

Then yesterday, Boxing Day, was very lazy for me. I had the apartment to myself and caught up on some TV shows I have on DVD. Today I'm back at work and realizing that, while it was nice to decompress by myself for the weekend, I'm really missing Leigh. This is the first time we've spent even a day apart since I returned home from Europe on May 3, 2010. Over the summer we worked together nearly 12 hours per day and drove from Virginia to Alaska. I'm not saying we are co-dependent, we are fully capable of doing things on our own, but the daily grind just isn't the same without my best friend.

That being said, the sooner Thursday arrives, the better: Leigh comes home that night, I get another 3 day weekend, and we have our Inidigo Girls concert on New Years Eve!

PS: I've joined Twitter. Still not entirely sure what it's for, but I'm learning. Follow me at AKAvocate, if you like.