Back to Ottawa, Back to Work

Christmas at the Blurton household(s) was short and sweet. In my three and a half day vacation, I managed to do the following:

• Chat with my parents into the long hours of the night.
• Have Christmas dinner at my younger brother's home.
• Play with his adorable little daughter Hanna.
• Go to my older brother's house for Boxing Day dinner.
• Play with his daughter and see the newborn - both adorable.
• Get my butt handed to me in Settlers of Catan (at least Chris didn't win).
• Play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer (short review: it's awesome).
• Sleep in a room-sized dollhouse.
• Play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood singleplayer (short review: it's also awesome).
• Have another Christmas dinner at my parents house with Gramma Blurton.
• Fly home, get sick and work the next day.

So aside from the getting sick part, it was a pretty awesome vacation if not a wee bit condensed. My favourite moment was I was showing my little niece my iPad and the thirty or so Disney movies installed on it. This was her actual quote:"I like your movies (pause). I love you."That one just about melted my heart and made me ask my brother if I take her back to Ottawa with me. This year it really hit me how far away from my family I have gone. I only get to seem them twice a year now and a whole new generation of Blurtons are growing up without me. It made me reconsider my move to Ottawa, until I remembered what Ottawa has that Enderby doesn't:Jobs.I wonder if these are the same emotions that my ancestors felt when they made the trip over the ocean from Britain. They must have known that they would never see their families again and yet they still made the trip, looking for a better life. I guess I should count my blessings. At least I get to see my family twice a year.After the vacation, I returned to work for a quiet two days and then spent the long weekend recovering from my illness. Unfortunately, I gave it to my roommate. In the meantime, I did finally finish the line edit of Evermore: Call of the Nocturne. I had never imagined that it would have taken so long (approximately 6 months). I still have a few pages of notes of things that I need to go to fix but for the most part, the next draft is ready. My next step will be to hire an editor to do another line edit, clean up the text and finalize it for publication). I pray that the final edit will not take nearly as long.Oh yeah, my birthday party is coming up. This year I'm turning 32. Thankfully, I have aged well. The birthday party will be at Pub Italia on Wednesday at 5:30 pm. If you don't know where Pub Italia is, then I probably don't want you showing up to my party. :) Here's to 32 more glorious years.Until next time, keep the comments coming.