Over the past week I have been:

Peaceful.  Rushed.  Irritated.  Delighted.  Joyous.  Confused.  Content.  Heartbroken.  Inspired.  Nostalgic.  Bitter.  Hopeful.  Frightened.  Giddy.  Depressed.  Determined.  Amazed.  Exhausted.  Hyper.  Lonely.  Loved.  Full of love.  Thankful.  Wistful.  Jealous.  Frustrated.  Excited.  Moved.  And completely awestruck....

It's been a good Christmas.

Cavalia was SPECTACULAR.  More details later when I'm feeling a little more articulate.

We're here. And after a week of no internet access, we have our network up and running.

And really, I was only disconnected for one week and I come back to find two of my friends engaged! Life happens too fast.

Now it is time to finally watch the Doctor Who Christmas special

Edit: Watched it.

Whoa. Well I just don't know what I make of that.

I was dreading it and it wasn't perfect, but it has come and gone and I'm still here.

It was kind of busy, but a good busy. On Thursday night, went over to Carlsberg Cleverpork's house and he cooked up a fine feast for the 2 of us and we ate and watched "Family Guy: Something, something, Darkside", "Robot Chicken's Star Wars Vol.1", and "Emmit Otter's Jugband Christmas" (my personal favorite Christmas movie). Afterwards, we played XBox 360 way into the evening (I'm loving the FPS games now, especially "World at War" and "Modern Warfare 2").

Friday was a lazy day. Left Carlsberg's early in the AM and exchanged gifts with the people I'm staying with. I got a throw/pillow set and a Doctor Who Encyclopedia of Baddies. Afterwards, I went back to Cleverpork's and we went to see "Sherlock Holmes" which was fantastic! One of the tops for the year IMO.

Saturday consisted of lunch with my oldest friend Shelton, Avatar in IMAX 3D (it was even better the 2nd time, I'm going back this Saturday for thirds), and dinner at my favorite hangout/bar, Johnnie MacCracken's Celtic Pub (both with my friends Shelton and Ken). I was happy to get to go to there since I missed Johnnie MacCrackmas on Tuesday due to being in the ER with unstoppable vomiting. I got my Shepherd's Pie and Young's Double Chocolate Stout after all.

Yesterday was a lazy day, video games and some Torchwood (I've been re-watching the Doctor Who/Torchwood shows while my roomies watch them for the 1st time).

I'm looking forward to having another 3 day weekend. Mine is consisting of a wedding and NYE celebrations. I am really going to celebrate the end of the stinker that was 2009.

The thing is, Christmas was tough, but it was barable and sometimes even downright fun. I survived Christmas 2009 and I did so with help from my friends and for that I am grateful.

... but also a girl."

So this year, I tried to do some homemade gifts under the (apparently mistaken) assumption that overall it'd cost me less. Still the gifts went over well. Everyone who got a recipe book immediately flipped through it and marked recipes to try.

( And below the cut is the gift I made for my future mother-in-law. )

Inspired both by the scene in "The End of Time: Part One" which made me cry, and by discussion of the scene in DW Confidential. Spoilers within.

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( Every cell of him feels brittle and old and fragile ... )

Christmas was lovely. Dinner delicious, presents nice (I got a breadmaker and can't wait to try it out), game of Monopoly suitably argumentative.

I got a great Blackadder fic for Yuletide, Somewhat Akin to a Limpet, about how Blackadder and Percy got to know each other. Very nice! Also my recipient liked hers, which is comforting.

"End of Time" - well, I downloaded on iPlayer and watched because I knew I couldn't wait. Aaaargh, basically. I cried in the middle. If you've seen it you'll know where. If you haven't, I bet you'll cry too. Why do we have to wait a week for the last bit?

As the daughter of a convert to Judaism, I am a Christmas refugee; this year, Darling Boyfriend's family has kindly taken me in, given me gingerbread, and allowed me to huff their Christmas tree to my heart's content. And there are kitties here! His family is a cat family through and through, so I've had a steady parade of lap-visitors and pet-demanders.

December 25 is also a great day for fanfic, thanks to Yuletide -- now with extra excitement, since the fics are being hosted by the OTW's Archive of Our Own. I've only had time so far to read the fic that was gifted to me, and it's a doozy.

One of my requests was for Austenfic. I wrote, "The problem with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is that the zombies weren't really integrated into the story. I mean, the characters' everyday lives would surely have been different with the undead on the loose! So give me Emma and Zombies, but with more thought to how the presence of shambling dead would change the people and events of the story." My so-far-anonymous author did a bang-up job. Want to read a suspenseful bit of Regency horror? OF COURSE YOU DO. Upon what grounds, wherein Emma Woodhouse must cope with an undead invasion. Leave comments of praise, for comments are love!

I'll have further recommendations as the week progresses, and I'll post my own fics after the New Year's reveal.

A quick one, for this week's Christmas-themed doctor_donna challenge.

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( Donna looked at the giant tree being manoeuvred into place. )

Well, it's Christmas Eve - my parents arrived at my flat yesterday, and since then we've been to Waitrose three times (once yesterday, once today for stuff for dinner tonight and a few odds and ends, and then again because I forgot the icing to decorate the cake and realised I had no flour to thicken the gravy with) and Robert Dyas (hardware shop) twice as Mum and Dad have been helping to put up my bookshelves. We also walked to a (fairly) local butcher's to pick up our lovely free range turkey; Mum and I have made cranberry sauce and stock, prepped the sprouts and the turkey, and have a list of what needs doing when tomorrow. This afternoon we cemented the Christmassy feeling by going to the service of lessons and carols at Westminster Abbey, which was lovely save for the small fidgety sniffly French boy fidgeting around near us for the first half. Later on he went to bother his dad rather than his mum and we had a bit more peace! They managed the crowds well by letting loads of people stand, instead of trying to find seats for everyone. Nice service with some unusual carols sung by the choir as well as the more standard ones for the congregation.

My brother and his girlfriend are coming for lunch tomorrow; annoyingly it seems as though I might be outvoted on the absolute need to watch Doctor Who and may have to wait until Sunday!! This is obviously a disaster. I could record it but my DVD recorder's not very good and I'd rather watch it in decent quality ... as Virgin have failed to connect my broadband I might need to decide whether to use up a chunk of my mobile broadband to watch it on iPlayer. Can I wait until Sunday? It's debatable!

Anyway, I wish all of you a very happy Christmas.