Recap of the Holidays

I can feel that I am emotionally winding down as the holidays unwind. Although I was ready for Christmas, it still came up very quickly and I am a little stunned that it's over. I think that is what happens when I work a regular 9-5 job though.
I worked 9-2 on Christmas eve and came home to find my sister and her boyfriend at our house. There was so much snow that they had closed some highways near the boyfriend's hometown so he was able to enjoy (or not) Christmas with us. My parents arrived later that afternoon and we made plans for how Christmas would look this year. Christmas included beer pong, opening presents, having grandma over, talking a late walk in the woods with my sister's boyfriend's wild dog, snacking and skipping lunches, and lots of shoveling. My mom kept saying that it was "the best Christmas ever." Despite those comments she still only gave it a 9 out of 10, since she basically doesn't give 10s. My sister left to go work on the 26th so we spent time cross-country skiing and playing the Beatles RockBand game. Dave and I wish that we had saved more of our playstation money to get more Beatles songs, but we've been enjoying the game. By the 27th it was already time for the family to go back home.
During the week I got to spend more time in the pharmacy. I am getting concerned that it will be difficult to memorize so many drugs and their generics, but I will only get better if I start and stop complaining about it. I had Tuesday off since I had to work today (Saturday) so Dave and I went cross-country skiing again but we cut out a loop that was added when we went with my parents and brother. I kept thinking that it would be lighter out in the mornings but I think it will take quite a while so I might have to just start skiing in the dark. I called this my "week of Sundays" since I only worked Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Next week will seem long I anticipate. I'm still slow in the pharmacy so I end up putting drugs away to be helpful and not slow things down.
On New Year's Eve Dave's family came up. Sadly we were all duds and went to sleep by 11:15. I woke up to a text from my mom saying "Happy New Year." I'm not too sad though, New Year's has never been one of my favorite holidays. I think of it as the beginning to bleak January. I don't care if it is my birth month, it's bleak and cold. All of the excitement from the holidays is over, W2s start coming in, and the weather makes you want to stay in bed. On New Year's we spent most of the day (with no exaggeration) playing Empire Builder, or My Train Game! I love the game and not many people are as enthusiastic about it as I because it tends to be a long game. I suckered my family into playing it last summer and I don't know if I'll be able to get it to happen again, but at least I have a better understanding of the game so the set up is much faster. We enjoyed some champagne at the end of the game play and then played Beatles Rock Band before going off to bed. I should also note that there were some fishing adventures that ensued through out the day. We either didn't hear that there was now an ice auger in the garage or just didn't see it, so Dave and I went over to our neighbors to see if we could borrow one so that his father could ice fish. They let us use a real gas powered machine which was very nice. Dave returned it promptly and we soon found that there was indeed a nice hand auger in our garage. Dave's dad had a contraption that involved a flag that would go up once the fish was on the line. That way he didn't have to stay out in frigid winter air. No fish were caught but the flag was checked on quite a few times.
I'm sure there are many things that I'm forgetting about, but overall Dave and I have had a great time over the holidays. Oh, I know... we are going to have a "roommate" starting in mid-January. It was a major faux-pas with my parents, but they sort of gave their blessing along with a warning that it not happen again. The guy sounds very nice and he is going to be student teaching in the area. He didn't have a place to stay and it sounds like his cooperating teacher was supposed to (and failed to) find him a place to live for the semester. I wrote up a big thing about what was expected and the guy was very gracious about the whole thing. He sounds respectful and busy. He will be leaving town every weekend and will be out of here by late mid-May. I'm still hoping that we can just share a refrigerator and not use the scuzzy one in the basement.
I'm going to try to entice Dave into eating leftovers and playing more train game.