What I Love About Christmas Vacation

I'm debating whether or not to dedicate another whole post to my second favorite books of the year. Maybe just the covers? I'm feeling a little Internet-weary, despite my lovely computer free Christmas. BUT I'd still like to wish y'all a very Happy New Year (I'm even early, how about that?). So, as a present to the universe, here are some of the lovely things I enjoyed on vacation.

Sherlock Holmes 2

Noomi Rapace was fabulous, of course.

I was just talking about how awesome it is when a sequel ends up being as good as the first book/movie. Well, this sequel is EVEN BETTER than the first Sherlock. (Unless you want to get all snippy about how the plot doesn't follow any of the books. Which I don't.) So much wittiness! So many explosions! SO MUCH AWESOMENESS!

Blackened Alligator

Yep. I ate that thing.

This has ended up being the year that formerly-picky me got adventurous with food. First, I ate guinea pig in Peru, and then I tried alligator for Christmas (because if you're going to eat alligator, you should do it somewhere they know how to cook it - like Louisiana). I also got to hear the story about the time my dad went alligator hunting.

Vintage Dresses

Too bad I can't afford to buy one.

Despite being a pretty adamant feminist, or really because of it, I am not at all ashamed to admit my undying love for fancy 1950s dresses. I almost bought a $44 dress that was so pretty and so swooshy, but it had Velcro instead of a zipper. Not quite perfect. Someday, I will waste a lot of money on one of these. Or learn how to sew...

Family

In the interest of privacy, I can't post pictures or name names, but let me assure you that I have been having a ton of fun with quite a few awesome family members in the past couple of weeks. Amazingly enough, I managed to see...29 (and two halves!) people I'm related to, one way or another. I think that's an all time record for Christmas.

Figure Skating

Left and center. These guys are incredible.

And now that I'm back, I got an unexpected present: Evgeni Plushenko got yet another gold medal at the Russian Nationals. Thank goodness for YouTube videos of his brilliant performances. In other great news, a couple of my other Russian favorites placed as well - a silver (men) and a bronze (ladies). And to top it all off, Plushenko is eligible to compete at the European Championships!! With a bunch of other ridiculously talented guys. After that, there's only two more years to wait for Sochi :)

I hope each and every one of the lovely people who read this have had an equally wonderful end of the year!

More Blessed Word Count: 17,029

That thousand words? All done in the space of an hour. You can get a lot more done while writing in the car without the Internet to distract you.