The feeling of walking into your own home after being away a few days is so nice.  We unpacked the pooches (they are SO tired), and then unpacked our stash from the weekend.  It was nice to check email without having to wait for an eternity for something to download.  I've often said to Chris that it would be nice to live somewhere like where his parents lived, as long as we had all the facilities that we needed (or more importantly, wanted).

When we finally settled down, we exchanged some gifts with Brian.  I got meself a thumb drive - yay! Both of us were tired, so we took the lead of the pooches and had a nap.  We have now just finished something to nibble on.  I've got to download some pics from the camera, and then I'm thinking I may go play some Halo 2.

I'm IM'ing with my friend Jeff, and he was telling me that a friend of his (whom we know) was in Thailand when the tsunami hit (the effect of the earthquake in Indonesia).  He's concerned as the area that was hit the hardest was the area that he was visiting.  Just checked CNN and they are reporting 11,000 dead across Asia (about 450 in Thailand from reports). I'm hoping that everything is going to be fine, and he'll hear from Gordon soon.

Yesterday, after we had opened all our gifts, Chris found out that the item he had ordered was sitting at the Longview depot of FedEx (due to their delivery problems, they had made the decision to be open on Christmas Day). He decided we should go and grab this, otherwise he wasn't sure where it would end up and when, so we drove into Longview and collected my new toy.

We got home and plugged it in and let it charge while the turkey cooked, and we took the boys for a long walk. Chris parents have a really nice block of land, except they have a number of hunters that do their thing nearby, so there are times when you are walking through the quietness of it all and then BANG! I'm always concerned that Bosley is going to be a victim, as he runs so fast, and I'm not sure a hunter would be able to tell the difference (especially given the intellect of some of the hunters that we saw at Wally World).

I played a little Halo 2, and am eager to spend a day or two just getting into the game. There are a lot of improvements to the game (dual handed shooting for one), along with the introduction of more “difficult” aliens to dispose of (hence the need for greater firing power). The opening scenes were a little odd. They show a movie (like the last one) but it jumps arounds between the Master Chief and the Covenant torturing one of it's own due to the failure of the previous version of Halo. The back of the case says “But resourceful and tenacious as he is, the Master Chief will have to rely on new weapons, unexpected allies and a secret so incredible, it will change the Galaxy forever.” I'm thinking the mutant that is being tortured will be the suprise, however I'm going to have to just play the game to find out.

Dinner was fantastic, as it always is. Chris's mom really does work very hard to put together a good spread. She makes it look so easy, but I can only guess how much work is really involved. I played more with my new Palm and then relaxed some before watching “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks. I have to say it was a good film, and very good acting from Tom Hanks (as we expect). We then played some Scrabble (I didn't win), and then watched the “Out-of-Towners” with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn.

Today we are just taking it slow before packing up and heading back to home. I think Bosley knows that today is the day we are going home, as he seems reserved. We should be heading back around 2 today, so we'll see how the day pans out.

Chris has just started playing Ghost Recon, so I'm going to watch him play and then shower.

Yesterday we went to Gilmer Wal*Mart - a joy at any time of the year - and picked up some gifts for the boys, along with a picture that Chris wanted to get printed for his mother (we have the same one hanging in our house). He also found a couple of other tooly things for his father. Oh, we also went to this hardware store where we bought a “two-bit” axe for his father (it was on his wishlist). Fun place.

Last night we watched Family Vacation (the Chevy Chase version), then Catch Me if You Can, and then - ugh - A Christmas Story (”You'll shoot your eye out kid!”). After that I had to go to bed.

After the boys woke up (the second time) I knew it was time to get up and start the morning. Bosley and Colby were so excited. It was like they knew it was Christmas morning and they needed to get to their toys under the tree (well they weren't under the tree, but we did have stockings for them both).

Chris's family gives out the presents from under the tree and then it's a flurry of paper and ribbons as we dive into our gifts. I must have been a good boy this year (in fact, I think I was extremely good). I got myself a Quesadilla Maker & Halo 2 (thanks Aurelia and Ron), which I found out could have been just one of three copies (it seems my addiction to this game is widely known), a Josh Groban CD (Closer, thanks Jake) and one of my wishlist movies, Longtime Companion (thanks Chris). Actually Chris also got me a Steve Walker print, Key West Connections, which I absolutely love — it reminds me of meeting him for the first time, even though that took place in New Orleans (NoLa is the other place I love, besides Key West). I also got a new Palm (which is still travelling to me through FedEx), but Chris printed out the product sheet and wrapped that - it was really sweet.

After a sluggish beginning to the day, Chris finally ventured out to the stores so I could get some gift wrapping done. It seems everytime I wanted to do some, he was there. I know that “all will be known” on Christmas morning, but I like to have at least some resemblance of suprise when he tears open the gift wrap. Aft er I got that done (record wrapping time), I drove over to the stores to get some last minute things (like doggie treats, etc) for our trip to the country.

We both got home and started to get the car ready for the journey. The boyz were excited, as they usually are, especially as Chris was egging them on with “do you want to go see grandma?” or “let's go see uncle Jake.”

As we were getting ready, my mother called, so I chatter with her for about 20 minutes or so. She was concerned that we might miss each other given our travels (and hers). This will be the first holiday season when my mother doesn't have anyone buy my sister around, as my younger brother moved to Queensland earlier in the week to join my eldest brother (we don't talk about son number 2). It seems she has the whole week of the holidays planned, and when I was chatting she mentioned that as much as she loves the kids (referring to the grandchildren), she was looking forward to not running all over the place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to make sure she gets to see them. It's an odd thing with my family, my mother travels to see them, not the other way around - which always peeved me off. She was always catching trains, trams or buses to get around, where my brothers had cars and child seats. Anyway, I'm hoping that she enjoys her time with her sisters and brothers over the break. I”m going to try and call her “somewhere” on Christmas Day, but we'll see how that pans out.

Finally, we got the car moving toward Gilmer around 5:15 PM. We stopped for coffee along the way, and experienced the longest wait for Starbucks I've ever had. It seems that everyone else had the same idea as us, just at the same time.

The pooches were very excited (as they normally were) when they got to the grandparents, and instantly started to mark their territory. It was 22F (-6C) when we arrived, and was meant to get down to 14F in Dallas (not sure if it got that low here). It was pleasant, as the fire was roaring and the house was toasty. Jason - Chris's brother - has decided he can't make it for Christmas due to his car being rear-ended prior to leaving. Chris thinks it's a muse to just get out from coming, as he works for a body shop, and has previous experience in the insurance game - so getting a hire car would be no problem. His parents are a little upset about it, but I'm sure they will recover.

It seems the cold is playing havoc with my sinuses/head, so I headed to bed early to get some shut eye and rest. Need to remember to get some Dayquil.

has just posted a link to a cute video for Virgin Atlantic's upper first class.