A Christmas (Eve) Story...

I decided not to fly home for Christmas this year, which was a good decision considering the airports were a mess in this city, thanks to the huge dumping of la neige (translation: snow).

Instead, my plan was to spend Christmas Eve with Saritz and Tom Tom at Saritz's mom's place in the 'burbs, spend Christmas Day at my best guy friend's parent's place in the 'burbs and then Boxing Day at Aims' parent's place in the 'burbs.

Then Wednesday happened, ie. tons of snow, which meant no driving and instead taking the train out to the 'burbs for Christmas Eve. Until Tom Tom and I got to the train station. Yikes.

The line was six-person deep to get through, plus a few trees that had fallen on the tracks were causing major delays. Major. And this city is not prepared for snow causing such delays of such majority status.

Our plan was for Saritz to get in on the stop before us (since it was closer for her), then she'd hop off at the next station to meet us so we could all board the following train as a trio. After seeing that horrific crush of people, Tom Tom and I knew that wasn't happening. At all.

We frantically kept on trying to call/text Saritz to stay on the train and keep going and that it was too much hassle so we'd stay downtown for Christmas Eve, but lack of reception underground forced Tom Tom and I to take turns going back up escalators and stairs to the ground level to make calls, which didn't get through to Saritz because she was underground, too.

So Tom Tom and I eventually decided to eff it and hotfoot over to the station Saritz was at, since no trains were moving and we could probably catch her.

We got there to witness the train's doors shutting and taking off. Hot damn.

Saritz got one of our texts once her train got out from underground and replied, saying she understood and that she'd keep going.

Tom Tom and I then proceeded to have our Christmas Eve dinner at The Keg (closest restaurant we could find to the station), ordering double jack and cokes (for T) and Keg-sized white vino (for me).

My dinner? Prime rib, 8 oz, medium-rare (more on the rare side), garlic mashed potatoes and a side of three cheese butter. Yeah, you better believe it.



Then an hour and a half later, we got a call from Saritz, saying she'd been stuck on the train going between the two stations for an hour and a half. She was getting off and meeting us.

Saritz ordered a double gin and tonic, plus prime rib, the minute she sat down.

In the end, we all tramped through the snow across to the other side of downtown to spend the rest of the evening at Tang's, where we drank more vino, played a few rounds of Rock Band very tipsy, watched Wanted, had good laughs and felt very merry.



It was our version of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but you know what?

I wouldn't have had it any other way.





* And yes, those are my pom pom slippers.

** Photos are property of Haute Hippie and are used solely for commentary purposes