One day left in the year!! (Sorry, Sharon. Although it won’t be the complete end of blogging for me–just the end of daily entries.) Unfortunately, I somehow managed to bring the Northern chill to Texas with me. In fact, the sun even disappeared, which is a bummer. But it’s still way warmer than back home and we still managed to have a good day. My boyfriend’s family gave me Christmas presents this morning, which made me feel both bad (I wasn’t sure about it, so I didn’t bring them anything) and good (they got me presents!). It was unexpected and awfully sweet and made me feel accepted. Then we spent time just wandering around Austin, popping into consignment shops and whatever else looked interesting. The huge Whole Foods was amazing. We ordered tacos at one of the specialty cook-to-order stations. It would be dangerous for me to live within walking distance of a store like that. I’d stop by daily for something interesting and maybe never cook at home again. But…then, we also went to a cool spice shop which gave me ideas for wanting to cook. We also found a couple of book stores and got a few Dr. Who books to share and a couple of Dr. Who figurines because we’re geeks. Oh and coffee. Always coffee. By the end of the day, I found things for his family to return their kind gestures, my boyfriend saw parts of Austin even he had not seen before, and we had a lot of fun. Much to be grateful for despite the lack of sunshine.