Happy Boxing Day

I hope that everyone reading this has had a relaxing Christmas holiday whether this is a day of special meaning and tradition or not.  Tonight, I will be heading over to my friend's house for her traditional Boxing Day dinner party.

However, before I dwell on today's events, I wanted to say thank you to my other half for surprising me.  We've been together for nearly eleven years now and yesterday in his own awkward way he gathered my family around to let them know that he would be taking me to Paris for my birthday this spring. Although my birthday is not for another few months, in 2010 it will be a milestone birthday and he wanted to celebrate it someplace that he knew had special meaning for me.  Suffice it to say, I am very excited and the planning for this trip will go a long way to distract me from the cold weather this winter.

Our Christmas celebrations really started on Christmas Eve. We had a delicious dinner and friends started dropping by to visit around 9 pm.  The following day was also wonderful.  We spent the day up at my parent's house in New Hampshire. Our two houseguests who arrived on Wednesday, December 23rd have added so much to our holiday celebrations this year and I was pleased that they had such a nice time with all my family.  Both are young women from other countries and with their own family traditions, but I think that everyone genuinely had a wonderful day.