Christmas / New Years

Well this is probably one of the best holidays that I've had in a while. It started out boring. I traveled up to my parents place in Traverse City. The Friday and Saturday were really boring. I was the only person there with my parents. So we just sat around, talked and watched movies. Christmas morning the three of us opened our presents then sat around the rest of the day. My three nieces came over, finally, in the late afternoon and spent the night. We all exchanged gifts then sat around, talked, attempted to play a game.

Monday morning me and my niece Alex drove down to my place. She asked me during her last visit in August if she could down for a week during her Christmas break. I agreed so there we were putting our plan into action. I didn't have anything planned for that Monday since the drive took a good chunk out of the day. So she set up all her stuff in the spare bedroom and the bathroom. She moved my bathroom stuff out of the way and spread her stuff all over the bathroom. :-)

Tuesday we went to a mall and she spent some of her Christmas money. From there I took her to an Indian restaurant that I like. We then went back and later that night we went to go see a movie at the theatre that was recently built next to the condo complex I'm in.

Wednesday I took her to Ann Arbor to see a museum at the University of Michigan. She was impressed at the small portion of the campus she managed to see. I've seen better museums but it was pretty good for a school museum. I rented some free movies I got for Blockbuster and we watched movies for the rest of the day.

Thursday I took her to an indoor waterpark that was in a Hotel close by. I was required to get a room to use it so I got the cheapest room and never stepped foot into it. She seem to love it there and really enjoyed a whirlpool thingy that forced you to spin in circles. It also had a water slide that I went down a few times. We finished the day watching some more of the rented movies.

Friday I didn't have anything else planned so I just returned the movies and showed her another mall. We watched some of my movies and used the computer.

Saturday we drove back to my parents place where my sister had gone up to visit. She had her new daughter with her and one of her boyfriends kids also. The kid was annoying, she had head and neck trauma about a year ago and doesn't act her age as a result. The next day was New Years Eve and we all stayed in and I actually managed to talk both of my parents to join in on a card game (Mille Bornes). Now this is a minor miracle as I can't even remember the last time both of them participated in a family function. Most of the time one or both has an excuse not to join in. On Sunday the nieces all went home, just Danielle came over for new years with her boyfriend in tow. Later that day I joined Alex at the mall to help her spend her "Mall Dollars" and took her back to her place where I stayed most of the night. We played some cards, Jenga, and some PS2.

As I drove back Monday morning I was depressed. I guess it was from coming down from all that fun we had together. Or having to go back to being on my own again. I get used to it after a while but when I get a taste of having company I get reminded of how it could be better. I might take some time to get used to living alone again... even though it was a mere week with a companion.