a few days till christmas

it's the run up to christmas and it's all just a bit strange.

christmas for the last few years has felt a bit strange, a mixture of being aware of post new year uni deadlines and then last year when we all changed venue and spent it with family in three different locations.

this year im away from family altogether which is weird, well, blood related family anyway. i'll miss them, but i'm with my second family here so i still feel at home. i've always maintained that the people i'm staying with are like second parents to me, and the last few months with them have made them mean even more to me so (other than with my first parents) i can't think of a better place to be at christmas. (and then of course there's the extended family of the people in the church i go to that decided to unofficially adopt me...)

there's a lot more light here. moer light through the day. we havn't had a single misrable cold grey day on the run up to christmas yet. it's just not right!

Christmas was always the big shiny red and warm day in the middle of the crap that is a northern hemisphere wet winter. (which we'd inevitabley get dragged out in carol singing at some hospital or housing estate to spread some cheer while freezing our giblets...)

instead, this year it's a shiny warm day in the middle of lots of crisp blue days with twinkly nights. (not the stars since you can't really see them here, but the emense amount of ornamentation on the houses in the area it's so insane that it's kinda cool. there's even one house by me that has it's own radio station, when you tune into it the lights are all timed so as to give you a show along with the music.)

all in all, Christmas is a very different experience this year. not worse, or better, just different.