Are you homesick yet? ... The Christmas Edition

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. 

~Oliver Wendell Holmes~

Am I homesick yet?
It’s a good time to relook this question because it is the Christmas season and I am not headed to the sunny shores of home to spend Christmas day with family at my Granny’s, and another day in the holidays with family and friends at my Mom’s. I am not feverishly cleaning my place, looking for curtains, putting up a colour coordinated but simple Christmas tree and wondering what day I would do my own entertaining. I am not rehearsing Christmas tunes, I have NOT heard one Kenny and Dolly Christmas song and I am certainly not running around looking for gifts. I could keep going on (black cake…hmmm) but I won’t.

So am I homesick yet?

What I am, after discussing all I would miss, is hungry … lol … But honestly, I miss home and I will definitely miss some black cake this season. Maybe I am homesick this time because I am a little sad, but a lot of that sadness is based on my own greed and love of people. I am a very social being and will miss all the hugs, laughs and interaction with all of the people I love and care about. I will miss, oh heck I am missing some of the excitement, but I am also enjoying the quiet moments.

Considering that I chat face to face with someone special almost daily, I assure you that I am still getting a lot of the interaction that I love with the people I love. But I really should have learnt to make black cake before I left or at least brought the fruit with me. I am hoping that I am dropping enough hints that whoever visits me first brings black cake with them. I can manage all the other dishes without assistance and goodness knows that I can bake but black cake is an art that I have not perfected (neither is rice, but don’t tell my grandmother.)

I got a Christmas card from a neighbour, an invitation to Christmas lunch, am spending some time with a cousin and attended the Department’s Christmas lunch so I am not totally alone. I also got a very nice email from a department (IDU) of the Uni at home. So I am not crying in a corner people, mourning the loss of family and friends. I may be a little homesick but I am managing. Furthermore, friends (new and old) and family are making the change easier by just keeping in touch.

No matter where you are and how I interact with you, know that just knowing you care makes a difference and makes being away from the familiar that much easier to handle.

Merry Christmas everyone! May 2014 bring more experiences, more lessons and lots more of life.