Well, another Christmas has drawn to a close. Here I sit at my brother's house in the city of Irvine, looking at the now darkenend Christmas tree sitting by the stairwell and I have to say that, overall, it was a pretty good Christmas. Thanksgiving and Christmas were both spent behind the Orange Curtain this year, and I'm wondering if every holiday for the rest of my life will be spent here. Probably not, since my brother seems to have a strong desire to move back to Fallbrook at some point in his life.

As you get older, it seems that you tend to receive fewer and fewer presents for Christmas each year. This was a pretty simple Christmas, as far as the getting of gifts on my part is concerned. While Alyson and Sawyer were opening mountains and mountains of toys, I was left with four presents, one of which was a duplicate. I got the Back to the Future DVD Trilogy, two copies of the Fellowship of the Ring Extended Version, and, as a retro-80's gift from my mom, a Rubik's Cube. Also, when I talked to my mom on the phone today, she told me that she had mailed me a check so I could buy some other things as well...so all is not lost.

Still...as my previous post explained...there's just something missing about Christmas for a single guy in his late 20s. I think it's something that most of my married friends don't quite understand. A lot of my friends (particularly from high school) all got married really young, so they're not too familiar with the confusion that can settle on single folks in their late-20s. I really won't attempt to explain it here, other than to say that sometimes hanging out with groups of married friends and always being the single guy does tend to get old...but anybody could probably figure that out.

Well, Christmas is coming to a close. Alyson and Sawyer have gone over to their mother's house and Erich and Jaime are upstairs sleeping. I am going to be staying here until January 6, with a brief foray down to the Fallbrook and Vista area for New Year's. Erich and Jaime will be taking a road trip across the amber waves of grain, the purple mountains majesty and the fruited plain, while Alyson and Sawyer will be staying with their mom. I'll be here taking care of the dog and making sure the house doesn't burn down. If you need to find me, this is where I'll be.