This past year has been so stressful that I am glad to see the end of it. I'm hoping for a calmer 2016 for everyone.

Since my sister has to work for the 4 days around Christmas(she's a nurse), her shortest scheduled day was Christmas Eve, so that's when we had our celebration, such as it was. It was just us three, our mom and us, so my sister stopped at our favorite Italian restaurant for take out pasta dinners, which we all enjoyed. Then we opened our gifts, all of us getting some nice practical gifts, as well as funny ones. My sister loves the Minions, so there were several items featuring the little yellow creatures. She got me a Chia Pet dinosaur, since I've retained my childhood fascination with prehistoric beast. And I bought our mom a t-shirt with some cartoon polar bears, which I think she liked better than anything else she got.
We usually do everything on Christmas Day, so the early celebration has left me a bit confused about the exact date right at the moment. I know some families always do things on Christmas Eve, so it's interesting to see how habits affect one's perceptions. Thus, my very late greetings.

When I was looking at some of my photos, I realized I'd never posted the pic of the plant I was drawing on July Fourth. The neighbor placed it in a pot amid the flowerbed by the back door of our building and I could see it from my apartment windows, where the curly leaves beckoned me to draw them. So on my country's national holiday, I spent several hours drawing the plant from different angles. The curly leaves were indeed a challenge to draw and I enjoyed trying to capture the way they cascaded over one another. As the afternoon wore on, the sun crept over to the bench I was sitting on and got too bright to continue. By then I had several detailed drawings and it was time to make supper anyways.

I still have no idea what kind of plant it is. I never saw any kind of flowers or berries, etc. on it, though the leaves got a bit bigger.Even if I never get it identified, it was still a fun afternoon sketching it.