It’s been a while, things have been going well.

This holiday season has been really special, I think I was able to meet up with nearly all my friends and family, some of who I haven’t seen since I left for Japan. It started out with a great party hosted my my new company, MCCG. They really treated us well, and we had a fantastic dinner at the Lamplighter Inn, with some really cool gifts as well. Probably among the top work parties I’ve ever been to.

I was also had a great time at the Christmas party pot luck and gift exchange with the London Japanese learners community. I had a tricky time shopping for that gift exchange, as the limit was much lower than I was used to, $10, but we all had a lot of fun. I gave a shoe horn in exchange for some hand cream, not bad!

There were also the two extended family gatherings, one with my mom’s side of the family, where, like every year, there was lots of great food, great company, Christmas wishes, and at least one minor disaster (turkey juices overflowed all over the trunk of my grandmother’s car, spent a good while wiping that out in the cold). The gathering with my dad/step-mom’s side of the family was also a great time, having not seen many of the relatives on that side in a good long while. It was great catching up with everyone.

A big highlight was a trip with Mom out to Winnipeg to see my brother, Jordan, and his family. It had been about a year and a half since I had seen little Issac, and boy has he grown. We had a great time, we were even invited out to a Filipino Christmas party by Trish’s family, and that was certainly a new experience. The food was great, and there were lots of games and presents to be had. There was a bit of show-and-tell-like family things (line dancing, bad karaoke?) that went on for a little while (hours) that we may have ducked out of early (sorry!), but honestly, it was a lot of fun. It was fun getting up before dawn to catch the red-eye back here when it was -25 degrees outside. I haven’t felt that cold and tired at the same time in quite a while.

The last big thing was new years! Not a lot to say about this, except I had a great time with some friends. The party at London Music Hall was also fun (but a bit expensive). Defiantly had a great time at the house party portion of the evening, and thanks to Peter for hosting it!

Another thing that has been keeping me busy over the last month or so is I’ve treated myself to a Playstation VR, and got pretty hooked on Beat Saber. So much so, that I’ve been occasionally checking the prices on PC VR headsets, because I’d rather play the superior PC version. Seriously, it’s good. You should play it! I’ll post more soon when I round up another best of the year list for 2018, look forward to that soon.

And finally, I feel like I’m finally 100% settled down here in my apartment. I’ve got everything the way I want it to be, and I’m pretty happy with my current arrangement.

Some other fun things that happened this month:
– On the way back from Winnipeg, in Toronto, all gates were closed due to a security breach for an hour, while I was nearly dead on my feet waiting to board so I could get home
– Went to an RMT for the first time in almost 2 years. She was shocked at how bad my back was. I guess I’m going back soon
– Sent out some cards to friends in Japan, I hope to keep in touch with them and I can’t wait to see them again soon

That’s all for now, see you next blog!