Tuesday 25 December, 2001 at 11:54PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (3)

Hello and Merry Christmas! Managed to eventually get through on the phone to most of my family in New Zealand to wish them Merry Christmas last night (they're 18 hours ahead of New York), although I didn't manage to get through to Amber which is pretty upsetting, although I left messages on their home and cellular answer services for her. *sneef*

IceQueen and I spent the day at home together which was all funky and kewl (IceQueen is still suffering from a pretty nasty bug) and that is about all the news I have, believe it or not. IceQueen has been sitting her GRE exams so she can then go back to NYU to do her Masters Degree, and the results she has so far are excellent. We have not been very active for this reason, combined with the fact IceQueen has been sick, hence not a lot of news.

Up to now the weather has been way warmer than normal for this time of year (we didn't get a white Christmas either), but that is all about to change by the look of things. The weather forecast for the next five days consists of highs of slightly above 0°celcius every day, and lows down to -8°celcius. Fortunately the central heating here is awesome - t-shirts and shorts kind of awesome. I am fully expecting to see some snow in the next few days, providing there is some moisture in the air to create it, as most days here are cloudless.

Hey how's this? They work on Boxing Day here! In fact, I don't think Boxing Day even exists in NYC. For those of you (not in NZ) who don't realize it, Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, and is also a national holiday (at least in NZ). Here's some info about it:

Boxing Day derives from the tradition of opening alms boxes placed in churches over the Christmas season. The contents were distributed amongst the poor of the parish. December 26 is also known as the Feast of St Stephen. It is often a day of outdoor sports and horse racing and hunting. Only in the last century however has it become a holiday. By having Christmas Day and Boxing Day as holidays this allowed many people to take trips but also rejoin family members, which may have encouraged the tradition of families getting together at Christmas time.

I have also read somewhere than Boxing Day evolved in England, and was basically for all the servants who got to open all their boxes of presents the day after as they were too busy serving their employers on Christmas Day.

Right that's about it for now. Hope everyone is having a great Christmas, and Michelle, Yvonne and Pete, I will write soon, honest. Like... yeah, sometime before next year.. heh.

Best wishes and Happy New Year to all.