Merry Eastern Orthodox Christmas Eve!

I guess the holiday season is finally just about over. Just one more round of eating and drinking and partying to excess. As I said in one of my previous posts, Megan and Chris and Caroline spent Christmas in Arizona, so what better time to Christmas at the Friesen's than today, Christmas Eve on the Julian calendar?! Wikipedia will tell you that the Eastern Orthodox (Greeks, Russians, et al) still follow the Julian calendar for their religious festivals even though it was replaced in the secular world by the Gregorian calendar hundreds of years ago. Growing up in Saskatoon, with a large population of Ukrainians, I always thought that maybe, just maybe, the Ukrainians weren't as stupid as they were often portrayed. Taking advantage of all those post-Christmas sales to stack up gifts under their trees two weeks after the "real" Christmas didn't seem so stupid to me.

I think 2008 is going to be a pretty good year. A couple of years ago, I made three resolutions, all of which met with varying degrees of success. I resolved to quit smoking, get in shape, and lose some weight. This is probably the holy trinity of most-broken resolutions. I started off the year by not smoking, by joining a health club, and watching what I ate. The non-smoking lasted for six continuous months, with some serious cheating for the remainder of the year. I paid for a whole year at The Olympic Health Club, and for a week, swam, worked out, and played racquetball. Two weeks into the New Year, I went skiing, and promptly broke my ankle. So much for my fitness and weight resolutions. Last year, I started off the New Year by not drinking for the month of January (and part of February). I lost 11 pounds without doing anything else differently. I didn't do much in terms of working out, and in between months of not smoking, still smoked sometimes. This year, I'm already a member of the Olympic Health Club, have my own personal trainer, and tell myself every day that I am not a smoker. After I have a glass or two of wine tonight, I'll quit drinking for a month or more, and next week I will start playing racquetball again. And for something totally different, I want to climb at least two mountains, Triglav in Slovenia, and Seattle's favorite, Mt. Rainier, this year.

So in spite of the fact that I've made no new resolutions this year, maybe I can keep a few of the ones I made two years ago and have a great time in the process.