Since I could remember, knowing the days of the week was pretty important. As a kid, knowing it was Saturday morning may have meant knowing to tune in for the latest episodes of He-Man and Thundercats. Throughout school, it may have meant knowing that a book report was due on Wednesday, or some kid threatened to beat you up in gym class on Friday. Entering the workforce, it may have meant knowing that the shipment of pizza dough comes in on Sunday, or that your bosses bosses, boss will be visiting on Tuesday and that you should look extra sharp that day. However, there's that rare time in life where knowing what day it is becomes so less important...when you're on vacation.

I have had roughly 2 weeks off work during the holidays, and many times I have struggled to remember what day it actually was. When you remove your normal routine, it's much harder to keep track of. Throw in some holidays and you're all mixed up. Tuesdays feel like Saturdays. Saturdays feel like Mondays. And Mondays you just play video games all day. But just because it was difficult to keep track of the day does not mean that my vacation was not eventful.

CHRISTMAS EVE: The usual family party. This year at Brian's/Grandmas old apartment in Chicago. I got there an hour late due to the homemade brushetta which took me 2-3 hours to complete. Parking was not fun. There were plenty of spots available, but they all had a pile of snow in them. So you had to pick your spot based on the one in which you would get the least stuck in.

The food spread was above average. The sloppy joes were a nice addition. Everyone seemed to enjoy the brushetta I slaved over. The family picture took extra long to take due to Uncle Bill's faulty camera equipment. Eric gave everyone a good laugh playing Santa Claus.

Our white elephant gift exchange was quite entertaining. I personally enjoyed stealing The Office trivia game from Sarah. It was eventually stolen from me by Eric, and I was left with a bottle of wine, which I did not mind. At least I didn't end up with Clare's ugly space painting.

I debuted Eli's wedding video, which I finally finished. After that, it seemed like we spent the last hour of the party saying goodbye to people who were leaving. In total, I got asked the question "Where is Colleen?" 13 times that night. She was stuck working of course, so we had to spend the night apart. That night, all the other couches in the house were taken, leaving me to a particularly uncomfortable night sleep on the floor.

CHRISTMAS DAY: Christmas morning with Dad, Brian and Tim was pretty low key. We opened a few gifts, watched a little Christmas Story, and then went on our separate ways.

I headed back home to pick up Colleen so we could head up to her Uncle Roger's in Wisconsin. I was sure to bring some of my 3 hour brushetta to this gathering as well. We got to see a lot of her extended family who we probably haven't seen since last Christmas.

The kids recieved a gift that was pretty entertaining to us. It kinda like a Dance, Dance, Revolution type mat, but it was an American Idol version. And it wasn't for a system, it was a standalone game which plugged directly into the TV via A/V cables. The most baffling part about this game was the poor manner in which it was programmed. The graphics were very boxy and probably consisted of no more than 16 colors. We're talking original Atari quality here. On top of that, the music was just awful. They were all MIDI, and sounded like the came right from the soundtrack of Mega Man 2 for the original Nintendo. This game looked like it should have been released 20 years ago. It amazes me that in this day and age, someone could have created a game that looks this bad.

There was a surprise white elephant exchange that Roger and Ginny had set up. We all ended up with gifts, so it was very nice of them to do that. Immediately following that was my gift to the whole family. 

Last Christmas we had come accross a bunch of old film reels at Colleen's parent's house. They were short 8mm films that her Grandpa had shot back in the 70's and 80's. We tried watching some of them on a projector, but were unsuccessful. I took it upon myself to get them all transferred to a DVD. I surprised everyone with the footage at this years party.

Everyone enjoyed watching them. Unfortunately there was a technical glitch that caused the DVD to stop about 50 minutes into the 90 minute video. I told everyone that we could watch part 2 next Christmas. I was pretty irritated that the DVD stopped working, but regardless, everyone was very appricative of the video.

From there, we went back to Colleen's parent's house with her siblings and nieces to open up more gifts. We sat around the Christmas tree and talked and Kaylee rode her new bike around the house 9,000 times.

It was after 1am by the time me and Colleen arived home. It was then that we finally opened up our Christmas gifts to each other. And with that was the end of a long Christmas Day.

NEW YEARS EVE: This New Years was more low key than previous years. There was a small gathering of friends over at Alex and Jenny's. It was fun, but seemed to go by really quickly. I guess that several martinis and a shot of whiskey will tend to make time go faster. I could tell that Ryan was buzzed for a while. Maybe it was the fact that he stole the Christmas tree star and asked me to take pictures of him dangling it over a toilet. Or maybe it was the fact that he was putting olives on the end of all his fingers and eating them off one by one.

The night could not have been complete without a guys vs. girls game of Catch Phrase. The guys got the last win of 2008. 2009 came and there was kissing and such. People harrassed me and Colleen about getting married. I learned all about the Turkey Dance from Mel. And people started signing the 2x4 that was boarding up Alex's condemned balcony. I thought more people would spend the night, but it ended up being just me and Colleen. My stomach faired much better than last year. I woke up the next morning and felt great.

MISC. HAPPENINGS DURING MY VACATION:

- 2 separate trips to the Pub Quiz at Bridie McKenna's...lost both times.

- Finally replaced my leaky bathroom faucet

- Cleaned out the closet under the stairs which still contained boxes from when we moved in a year and a half ago.

- Beat the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess after playing it for a year.

- Endured a lot of snow

My vacation is coming to an end. Tomarrow is Friday. Why do I know this? Because that is the day that I return to work.