Boxing day!

          As you might know, boxing day follows Christmas day and it has nothing to do with the blood sport. It originated as the day you were meant to open your presents, giving Christmas day the reverence it was intended. In Canada,^[12] New Zealand, Britain,^[13] and some states of Australia,^[14] Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday, much like the day after Thanksgiving in the United States. It is a time where shops have sales, often with dramatic price decreases. For many merchants, Boxing Day has become the day of the year with the greatest revenue. [wikipedia]

        For me it means a continuance of Christmas festivities. Having celebrated well at my friends Jacques’ and Angie’s place for dinner the night before one could say boxing day came with many ups and downs. It started off great as I was awakened by the sound of a Skype call signaling the opening of stockings with the family. It is difficult to put into words what a wonder Skype is to a person living on the other side of the world from their family. It has enabled me to feel a part of the whole and is by far one of the most precious things our feeble human hands have made. We Skyped and giggled and showed off our presents and I even joined in on the festivities with a mimosa; this was great, this made me miss my family terribly, this also made me realize that I am stronger than I ever knew for being able to somehow be away from them during Christmas. I looked outside and listened to the Lories and admired my orchids and the presents scattered on my bed, I reveled in the sound of my family and I got the best present ever, the realization that I am indeed a VERY lucky girl, blessed by God and humanity from head to toe.

      Boxing day as I mentioned before also delivered some lows… this came in the form of Australia’s performance in the fourth test of  the Ashes Cricket final. Just dreadful, so much so that Robbie couldn’t be bothered with watching it, only listening, and even so, very faintly.

        It gives a Cricket lover (and a new inductee into Cricket watching) quite a headache to see the nightmare that unfolded this day. I can only compare it to watching Derek Fisher score that shot from the sideline that knocked the Spurs out in Game 5 (May 13, 2004) of the 2004 Western Conference semi-finals agains the Lakers. In this case the series was tied 2–2, and Game 5 was a closely contested affair. With 11 seconds remaining, Kobe Bryant hit a jump shot to put the Lakers up 72–71. Tim Duncan then made an 18-foot shot in double coverage despite falling away from the basket to give the Spurs a 73–72 lead with 0.4 seconds on the clock. When the game resumed, Gary Payton inbounded the ball to Fisher, who managed to catch, turn, and shoot the game-winning basket all in 0.4 seconds. It was a brutal blow, the same was dealt to Australia this boxing day. 

      I spent the rest of the day, napping and intermittently Skyping, Face-Timing, and calling my various family members and friends in the states. I also chewed up a lot of time playing with my new iPad and realized that I need a new format to this blog as it doesn’t display well on either the iPad or iPhone…

      Things picked up in the evening when Robbie decided to clean out his snake enclosures! This may give some of you the willies but it gave me a much needed burst of energy! 

This is his coastal carpet python "checker" (I know, super original).

All in all the holidays have been good so far… I have off until Thursday so what to do until then….