Holidays aftershock

It's been a while. What have I been busy with? Well, the carefully planned holiday activities turned out to be just that--a careful plan. But it's festive as is usually expected.

Avoiding panic shopping was useless, we're on it almost everyday. Gifts that needed wrapping were on queue but sweep right on schedule. Food--I love and hate it--gave me an inch of hard-to-hide bulges. The likable weather were the typically unpredictable cold--reminded me of winter in Brazil--wishing it's the year-round breeze of mountain fresh air. My kids were too busy with PC gaming they hardly notice vacation's over until that sleepy Monday morning. Each day after Christmas and New Year's eve I would ask my wife for 'proper' food--that's neither fried nor swimming in tomato sauce--they're all delicious but'll soon taste the same: sweet, creamy/saucy and fat. Friends, neighbors, relatives, colleagues texting and greeting you cheers for the holidays is like the email with the red exclamation point--reminds you not to ignore them. I welcomed 2008 by finally getting done with the thickest Harry Potter book (The Order of the Phoenix) and then watching the DVD then later searching online for details of the next movie only to spoil the excitement of reading the 6th book. The Simpsons movie, which my kids have been watching a couple of times already, made us roar--in laughter--reminds me how Bart Simpson I am (and how now my kids are likely). Sad-lightly, I haven't gotten any of my I-Must-Haves, not that they're too important.

These are Kodak and MasterCard moments I'd keep--precious, priceless.