Since I am student saving for school, I told my parents I had no money for Christmas presents. I told them even though I don’t have money, I have time. So what I did this holiday season was devote 5 hours of my time to each person of my family to help them do something (like clean out files) or hang out with them. I think this is the best gift to give, even if you did have money.

I saw Sarah Brightman with my mum. I bought her the tickets way back on her birthday, August 3. It was the most expensive thing I ever got her, but we had so much fun on Dec 12. She was in awe of Sarah’s costume from the sparkling diamond bathing suit to her Marie Antoniette costume. I’m impressed that she sounds good live as she does on CD. That was my one worry of her, mind you I love Sarah Brightman. I just hoped and prayed she wasn’t sucky live, which she wasn’t!

I had coffee with my dad down at Kerrisdale, and we talked. He sounded so isolated at points – because he said he’d love to have coffee with someone all the time like this. It made me a little sad, because when school starts I’ll be so busy. Later that weekend we had dinner at Milestones as a family.

Really there were things involved that didn’t require money. I learnt how to do the laundry and did it for them twice. I helped clean up the house. I took photos of the decor for my dad, taught him how to use my new camera. I’ve done the dishes so my mum can rest after work. I feel domesticated, but it’s the one thing I can do during the holidays… otherwise, I’m so busy with school, work, life.

There was a shift in my perspective as well. I’ve had this alienation with my father for some time. But during the break I tried moving out, and it went crazy. It is a long story I’ll explain elsewhere, but my dad actually stood up for me and we fought that one together. If he wasn’t there, I’d be screwed and robbed of my damage deposit. So as we were walking from the other house, I was pretty happy…the last time my dad stuck up for me seemed like a long while ago.

Anyway, my break has been really strangely eventful, besides familio events. I’ll write up on it sometime!