Five Days Without Update

The past few days, in bullet form:

• We pretty much replaced our wardrobes, thanks to birthday/Christmas money and Boxing Day. It's kind of exciting to own pants that fit and shirts that aren't t-shirts. This took up a surprisingly large part of the week.
  
• On Saturday we lost one of the best old ladies I've known. Anna, my friend Rebecca's grandmother, was one of the first people who really made us feel at home and like family in Victoria. And she was one of those people who held everyone else together, even though she was quite unwell for the whole time we've lived here. Her death was unsurprising, and yet hard. And it happened when most of our church people were away for Christmas, and so it fell on Chris and me to contact everyone. It's all still sinking in.
  
• It's crazy how busy the holidays are, even though we stayed in Victoria. Little Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Day, and then Boxing Day busyness, and then Anna stuff, and then a Hanukkah party, and then dinner with a family from Chris's school, and then New Year's Eve, and then Derek's birthday. Then Chris goes back to school.
  
• Not that I haven't spent all my spare time watching Food Network marathons.
  
• This is how scattered my brain is right now: I spent part of the day feeling draggy, and trying to figure out why I felt this underlying sadness. And then I remembered: oh right I lost a friend this week, one who figured pretty prominently in the last three years. Also, since all the snow melted, it's really dark outside and I can never handle that.
  
• You know, tonight was really nice. One of the teaching assistants from Chris's school, whose kids are also at the school, had Chris, Ariann, Derek and me over. I like collecting good people.
• Have I ended this on a positive enough note? I feel like there's been a melancholy/whiny edge to this blog lately.