Well, here I am then. It has been far too long, but finally I'm back. I am posting for the first time using my new Dragon voice recording device. It's a bit awkward at the moment, but I think I will get used to it. At any rate, I'm enjoying not having to type.
On Christmas Eve we visited our friends Pat and Mary and shared a nice meal and some beer. When we returned home, we opened a few of the gifts that had been piling up in our living room. The BH's family was far too generous as usual. I now have plenty of warm socks, as well as more books and CDs and movies than I know what to do with. I'm already halfway through Sex and Bowls and Rock 'n Roll, but the Mark Twain autobiography is so large as to be a bit intimidating.
Christmas turned out very well. In the morning we phoned our families and wished them a happy holiday. Then we opened the rest of our presents together, ate some Christmas cookies, and headed out. We drove to Canada to see my friend Yanick and his family. There were about 20 people, and only five of them spoke English. Not having spent much time in a foreign country*, I found the whole experience really interesting. Everyone was very friendly of course, and those who did speak English went out of their way to speak to us so that we wouldn't feel out of place. Yanick's aunt and uncle spend their winters in Florida and they speak reasonably good English, so we had a long talk with them about the merits of traveling in the South. The food was fantastic, and it was really interesting to sit at the dinner table and just let all of the French words kind of wash over us. A bit overwhelming at times, but a very good experience. I hope we get to visit Yanick and Anick in Québec City before we move.
Last week, work was ridiculous yet again. I spent a lot of my time helping panicked customers choose just the right champagne for their holiday meals. Yesterday's customer of the day was a guy who, when Sven asked me to hand him some Bucheron, remarked that it was amazing that I knew exactly what he meant.
"Yeah," I sniggered to Sven as the man walked away. "And when I asked the carpenter for hammer he knew exactly what I was talking about! Crazy!"
Sven has been in a very sour mood this week and it's making my life really difficult. I have half a mind to call in tomorrow just so I don't have to deal with it. I won't of course, cursed as I am with a work ethic, but the thought is nice. The BH is working in the kitchen tomorrow anyway so it's not like we could do anything fun.
Last night we were invited to the neighbors' house for a New Year's celebration. It was the only chance that we were possibly going to leave the house since we have a strict "No New Year's" rule here. After years of bartending, neither of us is particularly keen on amateur night.
Other than that I don't have a lot of news, honestly. I've signed up for a photography class which will start in three weeks, and with my new toy here I'm hoping to get some more writing done. This post has taken me a lot longer than it would have had I simply typed it, but once I get used to it I'm sure it'll be better.
I will try to get around to posting some pictures soon. Happy new year, everyone.

*You may remember that we spent a very short time in Tiajuana a few years back, but that was interesting for reasons other than the language barrier.