'Twas the Season

It’s official; I survived 2006! The holidays almost killed me but I thankfully managed to pull through. What I had hoped would be a relaxing break, turned out to be utterly busy and exhausting – I suppose it was an appropriate way to end off a chaotic year…

Being newlyweds, Daniel and I were faced with the difficult task of trying to divide our time evenly with both our families throughout the holidays. While we did have to deal with this back when we were dating, being married truly does add an extra level of complexity. Being the wonderful “unit” that we now are, we are expected to appear side-by-side at all family functions. It sometimes feels as though we are the main attraction…some sort of freakish double-feature at a circus.

All in all, I think we handled the holidays rather well. The 24th and boxing day was spent with the in-laws and Christmas day and January 1st was spent with my family. All the days in between were spent running around. In the span of 11 days, we only managed to sneak in three meals “alone” at home...two of which were takeout. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly the romantic week I originally had in mind. Thus is the life of newlyweds …but at least I didn’t have to cook many meals right?

The colossal year of weddings, ended off in fine style. Dan and I traveled to Guelph on December 29th to attend a friend’s wedding. It was a fun-filled weekend as Dan played the role of best man…lots of partying was involved. I knew barely a sole at the rehearsal dinner but left Guelph two days later feeling as though I knew everyone. Some things never change, those Engineers are still a wild bunch! Amusingly, I had already met some of the guys in the wedding party…although under some fairly embarrassing circumstances…

Rewind to University back in 2000: I was a very eager little communications Frosh, trying to earn scavenger hunt points for my faculty. One of my main objectives was to infiltrate the Engineering pub crawl in attempt to steal a much coveted hardhat from a poor unsuspecting male. Armed with three of my girlfriends, we brazenly lied and flirted our way into the party. After several hours of drinking, dancing and making an utter ass of myself, my friend snatched a hardhat and we tried to escape the pub unscathed. The guys were having none of it; they were already on to our little scheme. We ran out of the pub with several engineers in hot pursuit. To my horror, two of the engineers that I flirted with mercilessly to get into the pub were at the wedding. I don’t think they recognized me, but silly me had to open my mouth. My introduction went something like this, “Hi my name is Jenn! I think we already met several years ago. You tried to throw me out of an engineering pub. I was the drunken Frosh who was gyrating around one of your buddies on the dance floor….” Thank God I’ve grown up…somewhat…

So there you have it, a busy and interesting holiday season for Daniel and I. Once again, my relentless celebrating, lack of sleep and overindulgence has left me sick as a dog.

Bring on the Kleenex, the Vicks, and the cough syrup….bring on 2007!

And now for your amusement, here is my favourite Christmas gift ever! Allow me to introduce Seamus, the Leprechaun cookie jar - the perfect amount of kitsch, functionality and Irishness. Many thanks to “Bruiser”, the world’s best shopper!