I survived the holiday season.

I managed to deal with family and nobody cried. My eyeglasses got busted in two but a friend managed to epoxy them back together and thank god he did because I lost a contact lens so I would have been totally blind. I survived the airports and airplanes and border line ups. I saw doggies and cats. I ate good food and drank excellent beverages. I got an excellent haircut.

The Vancouver part of my trip was awesome and awful all at the same time. I was happy to see my family and my friends. It was so wonderful seeing my parents. It wasn't enough to make me want to go back a lot.

Christmas at my mum's house is just too hectic and noisy and annoying, just like every holiday dinner my family has. I have two very out of control, young, cousins that make me want to bash my head against a wall. That's not to say I don't love them, I do, very much, but they are too much to deal with for more than an hour. If I am going to spend only a few days visiting my parents, it will not be over a holiday weekend. I will not go through that again. At least this Christmas nobody got stinkin' drunk. It's a first.

Another Christmas tradition is visiting my Nana. My mum and I go over to her house every Boxing Day. This year, for the first time in 8? years I saw my father. That was weird. My Nana, god love her, has it in her head that my father and I don't get along. She refuses to understand that my father is simply incapable of picking up a phone to call his kid. Seeing him left me more pissed off than anything. I'd written him off long ago and seeing him again made me realize I had made the right call. It's hard to believe that I spent years trying so damn hard to maintain a non-existent relationship with such a bitter, cynical, and selfish man.

Unfortunately Boxing Day was my last night in town and it kinda left a bit of a pall over everything. The next morning I was glad to be leaving town, it was one day too many at Mum's. I love my parents but I can not live with them for any length of time without there being some sort of snark coming out. The day I left there was quite a bit of snark.

Seattle was excellent. I miss Seattle like mad. Seattle is where I wish home was. I really wish Seattle was closer to Calgary.

I saw almost everybody I wanted to, even people I never expected I'd get a chance to see. I drank excellent beer (god I miss the beer. Alberta beer sucks ass). I did some excellent shopping that I really couldn't afford but it was worth it.

The flight home was the worst flight of my life. From the moment I realized that the ticket people had printed the wrong gate on my boarding pass and having to, last minute, bust my ass to get to the right gate on the other side of the airport, to the landing, it sucked. There was one point where I was convinced we were all going to die. I didn't know how they were going to land the plane without it crashing in a big fiery mess. I'm not afraid of flying but this scared the hell out of me.

I'm glad to be home. I don't want to leave any time soon.