i could've danced all night...

There's nothing like an Audrey Hepburn movie to make your heart feel happy. As I sat, eating my dinner a few minutes a go, watching her singing and smiling, I could't help but notice that I was smiling too--a real smile, from ear to ear. I LOVE Audrey. I always have. There's something about her.....I don't know what it is....her movies just make me happy :)

Have you ever had a day that started out bleak but ended up being the opposite? That's what today has been for me. This morning? Everything went wrong. I got not great news, I had an appointment that I had scheduled and planned my week for and around get canceled last minute...things just weren't working out. It felt like no matter how hard I tried, no matter what I did, things just wouldn't work out.

What changed? Nothing. Nothing big. It was the little things. You know--the Little Things that, in the end, aren't so little? Liana and I went shopping tonight at Yorkdale and we saw those stars in the new section do their little show--flash their lights and sing their song--and that started it. So simple; so small; but it just...it was perfect. Yorkdale at Christmas always makes me feel happy. No matter how crowded or busy or how difficult it is to find parking....nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit quite like it. Maybe it has to do with our lifelong connection to it. Yorkdale has always been Our Place, for shopping and more: for PA days spent with Mom in elementary school; for our annual Christmas dinners and Christmas shopping nights; for shopping for Mom with Dad at Christmas (and picking everything out ourselves lol); for all of our years visiting Zia at Eaton`s and then, now, at the Bay; for getting dropped off by Zia--and, more recently and more entertainingly, Zia and Zio Joe--on our way downtown for school; for meeting Zia after school only to find her shopping with her friend instead of working-- almost everyday; for...Everything. Yorkdale really is one of those places that is more than just what it is. I know this probably sounds cheesy and lame, but its more than a mall--its a home away from home.

And Yorkdale, like many other places and things in life, has not remained the same. Its changed over the years. Countless renovations and extensions have left it looking very different than the place I used to frequent as a child with my mother, brother and sister. The muffin place that we used to visit with our aunt, where I`d get my favourite bran muffins (without raisins, of course), no longer exists; the underground, old-school movie theater that we used to go to see movies at has shut down, a new SilverCity having replaced it; Eaton`s, my absolute favourite department store, doesn`t even exist anymore. But yet, Yorkdale still stands. It still exists. And I still love it. Its changed, but I love it just as much as I used to. Clearly I`m the sentimental type, and a tip to Yorkdale is always, on some level, a trip down memory lane. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. The way I see it, history is important--personal history included.

Where is this all taking me? What's the point of this whole diatribe on Yorkdale? Nothing and Everything all at once. We all have our Yorkdales: we all have places and things that we take comfort in; places and things that mean more to us than they do to the next person, more to us than anyone else could ever know. And if we're lucky, we also have people who do the same: a few, select people who mean more to us than anything or anyone else in the world. If we're really lucky, we know it; we can recognize them for who they are and what they mean to us and not let ourselves take them for granted. We can tell them. And show them. And be grateful for them.

Even when we think its unnecessary or not necessary.

And especially at Christmas.