Merry Christmas everyone! Went for lunch with Jen(1) yesterday and I picked up my Grandma on the way. I have been trying to see as many people as I can before I leave. I don’t see Jen enough but we always have great talks. She ended up getting lunch for both Grandma and myself after another big fight over the bill. We have to start adding that into her lunch hour.
The family accommodated me by coming over for an early Christmas dinner last night. Thanks mom for a great dinner and everyone else for coming. Special appearances by Al and the dancer(2). From there Al and I went to JD’s to drop off some fancy sandwiches(3) and pick up a few things for Shan and myself. Always festive there on the holidays and it was nice to collect all kinds of hugs to pass on to Shan(4). From there we hit up Nolan’s place for his annual Christmas Eve bash(5). I have a rep of eating all the wings there but I am usually there before the Sullivans. Now I know why! Great to see everyone that I know I will be missing very soon and hang out with Gould, Al, and Nolan all at once. Always hard to say goodbye to Nolans. This morning I was at Erin’s for 8:45am and although I missed most of the opening she was still charged and that is what I love most about year. Spoiled again at the Taylor house(6).
Just want to thank everyone for their support this past few months. I hope that I have been able to thank you all face to face at some point but I have been overwhelmed by so much lately that I fear that I haven’t expressed myself enough at times. I am truly blessed to be surrounded by so many great friends and family. Have a great New Years, I know I will.
(1) – Jen Jordan at the time, superhero name, superhero energy. When I first met Jen she was the daughter of my boss (Donna) at the NWC. I had met Jen a few times and Donna had asked me stay at their house while they were away just to have an adult there because they were gone for a week. I think Jen was 16-17 at the time. Anyway she made me drink some wine and I got sick and it was a whole thing but we have been good friends ever since.
(2) – I met “the Dancer” when I worked at Intrinsix. She was a graphic designer there and we became fast friends. We spent a lot of time together that year and she fit in really nicely with the friend group. She even came camping with us at Tulabi. Miss that girl.
(3) – JD and I both love the little fancy sandwiches. We would share them with each other when we could. We often joked about going to funerals just the have the sandwiches after.
(4) – Shan was in Thailand.
(5) – Christmas Eve at Nolan’s was an annual thing. All the guys from hockey would show up and we would sit around and drink and tell stories. Kind of like it is now in room #1 each week after the game.
(6) – This was a second family to me. I always felt very welcome at the all of the Taylor homes over the years. They moved a lot but I spent so much time with Erin back then that I would just come over and hang out and everyone would just go about their day. Darryl was like an older bother and I would sit and talk with Sylvia for hours. We had such good banter.