More about Christmas

Here's an attempt of having a nice Christmas picture with the Christmas tree. Don't know why I am posed like this, I guess I was worrying too much about blocking the view behind me. This was a gigantic tree which we had last year. Vlado and I thought it was a good size till we brought it inside the apartment and it took almost 1/4 of our living room (okay a bit exaggeration but you can get my point).
This year we haven't bought a tree, I have been sick the last few weekends that we didn't have time to get a tree, i think it would be too late to find one next weekend. We won't anyway spend Christmas here and Baghira won't have the chance to eat all those tinsels and make a hairball out of it (yes we do have a weird cat in case you haven't noticed).
This weekend, I am very excited to see my old friend back in college who I haven't seen for 10 years (time flies so the saying goes). She lives in Oregon and since I have known her, she has been dreaming to come to Europe and see those majestic castles and old medieval towns. I hope I can bring her closer to this dream this coming weekend. Funny, I don't remember what I have been dreaming about back then. Surely not about the castles and Europe. Probably more about surving college and staying alive till the end of the world in year 2000.
This weekend was a success, Vlado and I were able to combine work and pleasure. We finally had a chance to do our Christmas shopping. We literally opened the shops. The shopping street was so empty it looked as if it was Sunday but not till 11 am. It was just darn cold, not sure what temperature it was but it was sure a negative. Because we were rushing to get ahead from the crowd, I forgot my complete winter gear: scarf and gloves. Brrrr.. chilly.
In the evening we got a chance to meet some friends and watch Rent, the musical at the English Theatre. It was really nice with a live band doing the accompaniment to the songs. I liked one song in particular which brought me a bit into thinking - 525,600 minutes..... How do you measure a year? in minutes? in cups of coffee, in daylights? in sunsets? in midnights? Now that we are coming to the end of the year I just wonder, how was 2005? How do I measure this year?