Merry Christmas everybody!

Well, Christmas is now over and we're already preparing for the New Year. It's been a rather strange Christmas but I've had fun anyway. I could not have got through it without the group though (David, Rene, Kevin, Vikki and Sam). The friends you make out here end up becoming your adopted family and you rely on them alot.

For the last month of work, our managers have been warning us "it's going to be really busy, be prepared, you'll be weeded, it's uncontrollable...." I'm not sure if they were trying to scare us or if they really thought we'd be busier than we have been. Don't get me wrong, we're really busy but we're not out of control. We're handling it really well. I only hope New Year will be as good.

I had a pretty good schedule over Christmas. On Christmas Eve I was a PM and then an AM on Christmas Day. The Christmas Eve PM was fine. Everyone was really excited and all my guests were a pleasure to talk to. At 7pm, all the UK's got really excited because it was Christmas Day back home (due to the time difference). The guests were in the spirit of things and celebrated with us which made it a pretty fun night.

After work, we all went round to Kev and Rene's apartment. David brought his mattress round while I carried his toy Wall-e that he felt had to join us for Christmas. It was amusing to see David carrying his mattress as he looked like a mattress with legs! Once we all arrived, we sat in a circle and opened our Christmas tree presents. I got the DVD Scrooged which I was pleased with. We all showed each other our presents and then it was suggested we open another one. After all, it was actually Christmas Day at this point. We agreed to open one more; our secret santa presents from work. I recieved a small book called "101 things to do with a thumb tip". I use thumb tips in my magic and I was touched that someone knew me well enough to pick out the perfect present. Kevin got UK chocolate which he was over the moon about (you can tell by the photo). Poor David didn't have a secret santa gift. I guess whoever chose him hadn't got round to buying one. The boys wanted to open "just one more present" but Vikki and I were firm and sent everyone to bed (oh yeah, girls rule!)

I was up extra extra early the following morning. I'd set my alarm for 6am but it had been knocked in my bag without me realising so I actually got up at 5am. I showered and dressed before noticing the time! Annoying! Anyway, I went online to Skype my mum but she wasn't available. I waited online until 6.30am and then decided it was time to get everyone up. Hee hee! I poked Dave a few times and jumped up and down on Rene for a while. I avoided Kevin as he is NOT a morning person! Vikki and Sam had spent the night round Sam's apartment so I called them and they came over. Then we sat on the floor and Vikki handed out the presents (she was nearest the tree).

Considering none of us have our families out here, the stack of presents for the six of us was quite impressive. Soon we all had a pile in front of us and we got stuck in. The photos show how much fun we all had! Kevin loved his Tigger soft toy and me, Vikki and David had a go of David's new foosball table. I got a really cool book on dinosaurs (yes, I'm a geek!) from Sam but the sweetest present was from Rene. He painted me a huge Peter Pan! I loved it! He'd worked on it so hard and the fact he'd put so much effort into it made it really special in my eyes. He was up until 5am Christmas morning working on it so he only had one and a half hours sleep! Bless him!

Kevin, Rene and I had work after that so we headed off to catch the bus. I expected the guests to be in great moods, after all, it WAS Christmas Day. However, everyone seemed really miserable and moody. Most of them were in the complaining mood. I was lucky, my tables were really nice but one guest told managers "the servers are too happy" and another complained "Christmas is everywhere!" We started the shift on a high. Everyone gathered at podium and sang "we wish you a merry Christmas" but the guests pulled us down. By the end of the lunch shift, two servers were in tears and security had to escort one group of guests from the park for causing a scene! I was determined not to let it affect me though and on the way home, I wished every single person I passed a Merry Christmas (much to Kevin's amusement). I got a few smiles but mostly people grunted at me. Still, I tried so it didn't bother me.

When we got home, David had started cooking. Kev and I set the table and opened our presents from home. I'd asked my family NOT to send me anything because anything they send out, I have to bring back at the end of my year here. However, my mum and my best friend are disobedient and I love them for it. I got a cool fox calendar and a dolphin necklace from my mum while my best friend, Lou gave me a new diary (purple! Yes!) and a rather puzzling thing called cat soap. Apparantly, you get it wet and it grows fur. I laughed out loud when I saw it. I'll have to be careful, if I leave it in the boys bathroom, it will be hard to tell apart from all the other stuff growing fur in there!

We settled down to dinner at around eight. It was brilliant! We had turkey and cranberry sauce, stuffing (made by me, Vikki and Sam so I'm surprised it was edible!), roast potatoes and mashed potatoes, broccoli and sweetcorn.....it was great! We also had Baileys to drink and Christmas crackers to pull! I loved every second of it. After dinner, we continued to drink the Baileys which had the unfortunate side effect of me not really remembering much after that. We played Monopoly and....something about a cat....I fell over a few times....erm.....I woke up this morning in my own bed, fully clothed with a few extra bruises and no idea how I got home. I later found out Rene took me home and put me to bed. He even set my alarm clock for me. So, all in all, a very fun Christmas! I love my friends and I'm glad I had them to celebrate with!