It's only a few days until Christmas and this year, I am not going home. As the holiday was drawing nearer and nearer, I could feel myself slipping a little deeper into a sort of sadness - not depression, just feeling a little blue. I just feel a bit lonelier this time and some days some tears even well up in my eyes just looking at happy families playing in the snow or a happy couple waking down the street holding hands.
Instead of dwelling on my "sad situation", I decided, that if I wasn't going home for Christmas, I will have my own celebration. SInce it's so close to the holiday, I didn't expect many people to come, but I guess the invitation to a traditional Hungarian "gulyas" dinner was too tempting for many to pass. I had 12 people other than me in my apartment, which is the most I have ever had over. It was tight but cozy and by all means, a success, at least I thought so. Nobody complained. I made 2 gigantic pots of gulyas, and only have maybe a half a portion left for lunch tomorrow. Most people went back for seconds, I guess that means that they liked it :) I was stressed about not having enough food for everyone or not being ready in time (had to go in to lab for a little while in the morning, and then really needed to run too) but everything worked out perfectly at the end - even the weird chocolate cookies turned out well, even though at one point, maybe an hour before people were supposed to come over, my entire kitchen was covered in gooey brown dough that was too sticky to make into balls, but somehow I managed to put them on the cookie sheets and baked them for half an hour instead of the suggested 14 minutes.
Some people are leaving for home tomorrow, others have to work, so everyone left pretty early; now that I have cleaned up most of the ruins, it seems like there was nobody in here today: always a little sad after the party when you're left alone at home with the mess and then just the emptiness. I am really happy though, it was a wonderful evening spent with some of my favorite people, and even though we are not related, and I am sad that I don't get to go home and spend the holiday with my parents and close relatives, on days like today, I feel like all the people I have become friends with here are family in a way.
I was so busy I even forgot to take pictures. I do have a really cute little Christmas tree though that I took pictures of. And I wanted to share a picture of the amazingly creative and delicious cupcakes that my friend and lab-mate, Janice made, along the theme of the holiday party last weekend.
Now I am exhausted. Time for sleep.
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