The past week has been a lot of shopping, eating and drinking. I need a break.

this christmas I decided to build individual gift baskets for everyone. so there were several trips back and forth dollarama to get all the necessary material for the construction: baskets, ribbons, clear wrapping paper, packaging tissues, scotch tape, etc. then it was off to the mall to hunt for the gifts. the strategy was to have one main gift and then fill the rest of the basket with fillers. my favorite fillers include chocolate (eg, ferrero rocher), liqueur samples, mini ice wine bottles, perfumes, incents and ready-to-serve shooters.

on xmas eve, mag and I went back home to have dinner with mom and dad, edward, regina and aunt belinda. we gave them their xmas gifts early coz we were not meeting them on xmas night. we got edward a mini keychain flask (filled with rum), regina a kangol tuque, my parents a passport for the niagara falls wineries. we also had baskets for Yeuk-si, Patricia and Pearl who weren't there that night.

I got up (way too) early on boxing day morning to leave for toronto. beside locking my keys in the car before we even got the chance to take off, I'd say the trip went well. we skipped the scenic route and arrived directly in Vaughmills, one of the biggest shopping malls in toronto. finding a parking was next to impossible. I asked mag to go in first without me, she was already shutting the car door before I could finish the sentence. (:

we stayed in the Courtyard hotel where we met up with wilson, and we went to visit fai together. wilson had opened a restaurant in montreal six months ago, and he seems to be handling it quite well. we had dinner together (with patrick) at a restaurant before we headed back home on the night of the 27th.

on the 30th, bob organized a party at his place and many showed up: ali-john, maryse, guillaume, john, christine, veronique and boyfriend christian, catalin(?), andrea(?), manu(? - johnny's brother). there were tons of food and sweet sweet desserts. I left at around 10:40 to pick mag up from work.

on new year's eve (yesterday), it was my turn to throw a dinner party. bob, karine, xavier, marc-andré, john and christine joined mag and I for dinner, a belated house-warming toast, a farewell to 2005, and a big welcome to 2006. guillaume couldn't join us for he had something else planned. we also used the occasion to give them the xmas gifts that we didn't have a chance to give them during the xmas holidays. the night's menu was:

entrée

• french onion soup
• chicken florentine
• greek salad with light feta and sun-dried tomato

main course

• grilled spring lamb chops with grilled zuchini and mashed potatoes

dessert

• porto and french chocolate truffles (which karine kindly donated from her gift, ours melted from the heat in the kitchen)

I was drinking red wine and porto all night, and I was perfectly fine, well, until the countdown and the champagne toast at midnight. the bubbly hit me and hit me hard, and I went down like a flaming blimp. I'll stay off sparkling wine for a while.

2005 finally gave me something to be thankful for. I'm thankful for friends, family and the time I spend with them. and I'm also thankful I didn't need to see my december credit card bill before the year ended.

cheers, to 2006! .e  18:09