Happy Holidays from Toronto!

Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you are enjoying the holiday season.

Today is the coldest thus far and we have nothing to complain after hearing about the snow storm in the south. I remember it was freezing cold and snowing almost every other day last year this time around. Compared to that weather, I am much much happier this year. It’d be a bit better if there were some sunny days every now and then.

During the time off, we decided to visit Royal Ontario Museum. It is supposedly half price after 4:30pm and during holidays it opens till 8:30pm. We figured we would take advantage of this price break. Boy, we saw a huge line wrapping around the museum in this atrocious weather.  It’s amazing how people cope with the cold and the crowd. Speaking of crowd, this year we shopped online on Boxing Day. Here in Canada, Boxing day is the day where retail stores give out huge discount and sales. People usually go there early in the morning (as early as 5am) to line up and get the best deals at various stores. It’s very much like Black friday (the day after thanksgiving) in the States. Little did we know, we participated in this frenzy last year and ended up getting nothing but a huge headache. There were long lines for almost anything – cash registers, washrooms, restaurants, and the stores. Crowd has slowly dissipated as days pass but still stores are calling this week Boxing week. Mainly they gave out discount on seasonal stuff - Christmas decorations, cards, wrappers, etc.

As for entertainment, iMax theaters were jammed pack due to this Avatar movie. Shows were all sold out when we got there. We tried purchasing the tickets online in advance but Cinaplex requires us to be enrolled in this program which authenticates your security code and stuff. It’s a long story. Anyway, there are a few other good movies this season also.

Some of my brand new friends are going to Niagra Fall for this new year eve. According to them, there are usually fireworks and concerts. Last time I went there during summer, there were many little stores and casinos. It’s like a little resort town and we can see how much fun it could be to spend the new year night there. Of course, the hotels are all booked for the night but I guess we don’t have to sleep there. We can just drive back to the city in the morning.. let’s see.

Happy new year!