This was the first year that I didn't go to sleep on Christmas Eve in my old bedroom at my parents' house. I wasn't awoken barbarically early on Christmas morning by an eager little brother or an overstimulated dog to open gifts. This was my first Christmas morning away from my family--just me and my husband in our apartment.

I was scared I'd hate it and be totally emo and nostalgic on Christmas this year. I actually loved it.

I think my favourite bit of Christmas this year was going skating on December 24. My sister and I used to go skating every Christmas eve afternoon at our local rink and then grab a hot chocolate, and this would be the first year with no Christmas eve skate. I was seriously boo-hooing.

On Thursday morning I moped around the house with a long face and whined about not going skating this year to the point that Peter--who, for the record, has never tied his own skates, THAT'S how long it's been since he went skating--braved SportChek on December 24 to buy skates and spend over an hour with me that afternoon circling the rink. That's love.

I know Peter has about as much interest in going skating as I do in seeing Avatar but the fact that he did it and at least pretended to like it was awesome. I, on the other hand, will continue to avoid seeing Avatar. I know it's supposed to be amazing but IT'S ABOUT BLUE ALIENS AND IT'S WELL OVER TWO HOURS LONG.

We went for hot chocolates afterward and I got called a bitch in the drive-thru and Peter was going to singlehandedly beat up a car full of riff raff...that's also love. We settled for squealing the tires and giving them the finger instead. Ahhhh, the Christmas spirit.

When we did make it to my parents' on Christmas night, it did feel different. We'd missed all the excitement. We arrived in time for the post-Christmas crankiness and turkey coma. I felt more like a visitor and less like I was supposed to be there. We had our family turkey dinner on Boxing Day, and it was delicious as usual, but there was definitely a feeling that something had changed. Not in a bad way, just different. Adult. For the first time it felt like Peter and I were officially our own distinct little family. It was eye opening, and much to my surprise, rather than feeling emo and nostalgic, I'm happy about it.