here's the recap on my end-of-2003 holidays (aka Xmas)

12.25// Christmas morning... we were waiting for chris & ed to arrive so we could go to West hill for Xmas lunch and when they did we did the usual gift exchanging. now, i understand the whole 'it is better to give than to receive' morality but sometimes giving/receiving gifts to/from my sisters seems pointless since we either a) give an amount of $ that we end up receiving also; b) give a list that we're surely going to receive at least something from it; c) or in my case, not have time to go buy specific items so i ended up buying gift cards majority-wise; and d) we're all adults and xmas gift-giving is really for kids; and perhaps e) i'm thinking i'm old too soon and not in the holiday spirit. The biggest gift was a baby picture frame for my parents as a surprise indicating that chris is 4 mo's pregnant! call me tito edgar in May i guess haha... the happy news was THE topic in west hill - particularly since many of our cousins there brought their children and so it was a great time for everyone

for dinner we went to chris & ed's new home and yeah, their bronte rd. townhouse is far from my uncle's place (let alone ours)... i got to play ed's arcade racing game in their basement and that's a tough game to play - but he's definitely a pro at it w/o a doubt

12.26// Boxing Day morning... martin & restie came by around 9am and we picked up thomas to head to the Heartland Town Centre - similar to the Eglinton Town Centre but much bigger and better - hoping to spend some xmas ca$h on BD deals... i thought i was going to buy a couple of Harry Rosen suits but it didn't seem right to buy them on impulse nor do i really know how to buy them. "next time," i said since the 'sale' looked to be year-round at the outlet store anyway... future shop and best buy were pure madness as all these ppl were looking to buy shit b/c everyone else was buying shit! we didn't buy anything all day - except for some chinese fast food lunch... how sad - maybe we should have just gone to STC instead? make it next year...

for dinner my family met up at my other uncle's, in oakville, and had a good family function there

12.27// My dad and i went to oakville for some afternoon poker - make that Texas Hold'Em Poker - to play with ed and his buddies for $50 entry... there were 8 of us so winner gets $250 and runner-up gets $100 while 3rd place gets back his $50... the tourney ended up taking about 4 hours and with no limit betting, those on his last set of chips had to go "all-in!" as we enjoyed hearing & saying thru-out... ed's brother ended up winning the pot - but fortunately i ended up breaking even by finishing 3rd! it was definitely fun gambling and enjoying the food&drink that's for sure - so it was worth it - next time tho, i'll play smarter to hopefully end up winning heh