It's the most wonderful time of the year...

I love Christmas.

I love seeing my family. I love singing Christmas songs. I love everything about it.

Especially this year.

So, update on Boston... we'll start with the bad news:

When I moved, I put all of my stuff in a storage locker for a month (starting November 5) until I found a permanent place (plus, I was going to be visiting family for a week). They didn't save the contract. So, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, after Church, I asked Ian if he would drive me by the place so I could grab my little Christmas tree--which I'd left by the door of the unit. Thought it would be 5 minutes tops, in and out.

When I got up to the (very secure, I miglht add) unit, the lock had been changed. The manager was called and he told me that the locker had been mostly empty when he saw it but there were a few things left if I wanted to see if they were mine. In the janitor's closet there were a few garbage bags of my clothes and about half of my books. My Christmas decorations and other decorations were decorating the janitor's office. Awesome.

I bawled.

A lot.

And still do sometimes when I think of everything that was in there. I hate having to purchase everything over again when it comes to furniture and that kind of stuff. But mostly it's just sad that all of my stuff from Africa and most of my stuff from Japan and almost all of my pictures were in there.

Then the police had to come and the locker people said that they found record of the locker and the guy hadn't hit save after printing me a copy. Okay, but why not dig first?

They also weren't very honest as his story kept changing. First it was that only a few things were left in the locker, then it was that everything was loaded up into the locker and then thrown away... uuuummmmm... right. Because anyone with half a brain wouldn't throw away a road bike, new snowboard, solid oak furniture... Also, the stuff that is left was obviously picked through and it is my least valuable stuff.

I'm sure they DID throw away my personal pictures. So. Yeah, it's been rough. Violated.

Anyhow, yes, I'm working on getting compensation. The rough part has been that almost every night after work and with Ian on weekends, I've had to shop. I am not a shopper. So. HA. Anyhow. I know it is just stuff. I really am happy. I love seeing Ian a bit more (though he's not living in the city anymore, he's in a suburb).

It's just been a really interesting little bit.

But yesterday was such a good Christmas. I felt so loved. Most of my gifts I bought in France this last summer, so those were gone too. I bought a few little things, but because I was stuck spending so much time trying to get enough stuff to have an orderly place (oh, and a bed! so nice!), I didn't get out shopping much.

In my family, we draw names and everyone gets one member of the family. This year everyone gave stuff to ME. I'm crying just thinking about it. And I'm not a crier generally. I have the best family. Best friends. Best Christmas ever. I don't think I even know how to explain to them how much it meant to me.

To add to the general insanity of this last month (the year was so good--this last month has just been rough), Ian flew out to Utah with me and less than 24 hours into our trip, he found out that his uncle had died. We knew it was coming, he'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer a while ago. Because his uncle is Jewish, the funeral was to be held the following morning. Ian thought he wouldn't be able to make it back, but I called around and we got him on a redeye. He just barely made it.

I've always known that life has ups and downs and I've decided that all in all life really is good.

This sounds like a depressing post, I'm sure. I'll have fun pictures and everything later. I just am going to keep playing with kiddos so I'm not even going to read through this.

Merry Christmas! :)