This is it. The end of the month and the end of the year. I haven't written in my diary in ages, and part of that is by design. I just haven't felt like writing, because I don't trust my thoughts on any subject. (Things must REALLY be in the air, when even I doubt the validity of what I have to say! *Eyes Roll*). But, I didn't want this month to go away unrecorded, so I'm writing despite my lack of passion for it.

    Boy! That first paragraph must have gotten you all prepped to read further. I've really given you the incentive to soldier on and to read about the details of my life over the past month and a half. My thoughts will probably be all over the place as I try to recap this entire holiday season.

    Christmas is done. Christmas was good. I packed all the ornaments last night while watching a Woody Allen film. I don't normally rent Woody Allen films, but this one had Christina Ricci in it, and I kind of have a thing for her. It was average at best, and I didn't particularly like her character, but it made for good background noise for me while I wrapped up all the Christmas lights that I put up this year. This was the first year that I actually hung Christmas lights in my home. This was also the first year that I bought a tree. It was also the first year that I hosted Christmas and it was fun. My sister-in-law reminded me that as the host, I would also have to take care of the Christmas dinner, so she took me to Costco and helped me pick out items that all the children would eat. (I recently joined Costco, and have already made my money back... or at least I think so)

    My sister's family came on Christmas morning and stayed with me for a couple of days. My parents could not make the trip down, but my brother's family arrived shortly after 8 am on Christmas Day. 5 Adults and 8 children make for a pretty busy household during Christmas. The boys were able to play Halo on the X-Box and it can be humbling to be beaten by a 7 and 9 year old kid. All in all it was a lot of fun, and the adults only had one argument, which is pretty good during Christmas time. As usual, it revolved around our parents. We all have different points of view about them, and typically we argue with our parents, but since they weren't there, we argued in their absence.

    I'm going to have to get rid of the tree soon. It's now unadorned, but it still has a lot of needles on it! I'm not looking forward to hauling it out of the house in it's current state. It's going to leave a great deal of needles behind. I'm thinking of throwing off of the back deck instead of bringing it down the stairs. Maybe I can even chop it up for firewood. Who knows? As you can tell, I bought a real tree this year. As a kid we had a pretty good fake one that we used year after year. In order to get this tree, we drove out to a Christmas tree farm and cut down one of our own. It snowed that week and it was a lot of work to get the tree from the place we cut it down, to the place we had to pay for it. The path's were icy and my shoes were slippery. All in all, it was an adventure and a memorable one at that.

    This was the first year that did not have me buying Christmas gifts on Christmas eve. This year I had my Christmas cards out by December 16th and I had all of my gifts purchased as well. I don't know how I did it, but I think my cell phone had something to do with it. Whenever I was out shopping, I was able to call my sister and ask her what her kids wanted. In the process of doing so, I was able to save several hours of unproductive shopping. I also bought a few things on-line. More of that will be on the table for next year.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you for the Christmas cards that I received. If you didn't receive one from me, it's probably because I don't have a current address. So please send one on to me if you want to make the list for next year. Next year's Christmas card should be really cool, so you may want to let me know early!

    Speaking of thanks... Thanksgiving was really good and relaxing too! My sister-in-law's family was gracious enough to invite me over for dinner and it was really warm and fun. Being a quasi-guest allowed me to have no cooking duties. I did help clear the table, but the stress free component cannot be underestimated.

    I'm trying to fight off a cold right now. I got approximately 10 hours of sleep last night, and I'm still yawning and my head feels like it's fuzzy. I can taste (ewwww!) the cold coming on, or perhaps it's that flu that's going around. I had my flu shot, but it's no guarantee (or is it? I don't know). On the day after Christmas, I had a wicked headache that caused me to be nauseated and to have a fever. I'm not sure if this is more of the same or not. I can tell you that I considered calling in sick today, but I just wasn't sick enough.

    Now that I've recapped where I've been and where I am. It's time to look ahead to where I'm going and how I view 2004. Well, to start with, I'm going to have a roommate in 2004, and he'll be living in my basement. My parents appear to be staying in New York, so I won't need to hold a room open for them. I'm looking forward to the extra cash, and I'm looking toward stowing more away for a rainy day. It's obvious that I needed it last year with my pipes breaking, and who knows what will happen in the future. My house is 10 years old, and eventually my shingles will need to be replaced as well. I'd also like to have some money around for that special vacation, ring, etc. and I might as well now that most of my material needs are taken care of. The new year will bring a fat tax return, an increase in funds (via my new roommate) and hopefully a raise at work. With the financial picture rosy, I can look to other parts of my life to either work on, or look forward to.

    I'm trying to be optimistic about 2004. And I really don't have any reason to believe that it will be anything but good. 2003 was a mixed bag, but only because I thought that it had yielded the greatest gift of all. Given the balance of the year, it was a good year. I saw some new places and met some new people, and have even said goodbye to a few of them.

    2004. 2004. What will become of it? Will I finally meet that special someone? Do I already know her? I suspect that 2004 will be less dramatic than 2003. I've gone through a lot of radical changes in the last several years (houses, church, job, relationships, states). Just about everything that could have changed, has changed over the last several years. So, I'm imagining more growth, more change, but at a slower pace.