My Christmas

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas.

I spent Christmas Eve with Jimmy and some of his friends. We cooked together - a nice assortment of dishes - then watched movies. Actually, I watched part of three films, but didn't see any one in its entirety. The first was 28 Days Later, which the undergrad of the group found too slow-moving. We moved on to The Lake House, but I was talking to my family over Skype. Finally, those who remained watched Shaun of the Dead, but it was something like 1 am by this time, and I had already seen it (I think I mentioned this in a post earlier: I believe I saw it on a Friday in early to mid September), so I went home.

It was lovely to talk to my family. They had trouble hearing me over the noise of the rain, but I heard them fine most of the time. Everyone was obviously enjoying themself.

On Christmas morning, after wishing Patrick a happy Christmas, I tried to go to 7:30 am Mass at Harvard. Unfortunately I had misread the timetable, and there was no 7:30 am Mass at Harvard. I came home and began preparing lunch, going to 9:30 Mass at St Mary's instead. I roasted a turkey (the smallest I could find, but not exactly small), and made four salads. I was working steadily from 8 am until 11:30 am, apart from the hour or so I was at Mass.

At midday, Jimmy and Josephine (the initials JMJ made us an appropriate party of three to celebrate Christmas!) joined me for lunch. Here's a photo of the table ready for lunch: I don't have photos while we were actually eating.

We enjoyed lunch and chatting, then moved onto Fluxx, a game I gave Josephine (it took so long we didn't get to the game I gave Jimmy). Fluxx is an interesting and very fun card game, based on the conceit that almost very card played changes the rules. It makes it nearly impossible to build towards victory: instead, you suddenly discover that you are about to win.

In the evening I went to a party put on by the associate housemasters. We ate and talked, sang carols, exchanged gifts (I received a book called 'Salem Witch Judge'), and generally had a good time.

In the evening, I was able to talk to my family again, this time the other side. Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas. I realise it is the first of many away from home - at least from my Australian home - and it's not too difficult to cope with.