Christmas...back home?

Yup, I spent Christmas back in Toronto! It wasn't my original plan, but it was unavoidable, and in the end, it was very nice.

I had been trying to push back my flight back home from Dec. 23 to after Christmas because my initial plan was to catch a cheap flight to somewhere like Thailand or Vietnam, where I could spend Christmas for very little money (since I didn't have much left in the budget). Well, with my luck, I found out my flight was successfully pushed back, a few hours after I had checked-in online the morning of my flight!

But like I said, it ended up being nice to come back home for Christmas. Even though my family was in Hawaii (they didn't expect me back home for Christmas either), I spent Christmas Eve having a big family dinner at my cousin's place (so I still got to be with family), and it snowed a little bit on just the 24th so I could get a white Christmas after all (I found out it'd been a pretty dry winter so far)! Plus, I got a few days to recoup and readjust to the different time zone before I set out to my next destination. I've borrowed the first 3 photos from my cousin.

All of us at Christmas Eve dinner.


With my first cousin once removed (who comes up with these terms?), Cassandra, posing with the Christmas presents my family got her.


Near the end of the night, relaxing on the couch reading a cook book...you can never learn too many recipes!


The goodies I got for Christmas (it wasn't much, but it sure was tasty hahaha).


An awesome meatball sub I made for dinner one night that I just had to grab a photo of - with my own custom pasta sauce!

After changing up my pack to winter wear, I was set for my next destination...