Whew! It's been a weird month.

December 16: Jen gets out of school early (one day early, too!), and we fly to Chicago via Southwest Airlines. Flight scheduled to leave at 5:15, but delayed till 7:45. Arrive at Midway Airport at 10:30, wait an hour for our shuttle to the Hyatt Regency downtown.

December 17: Wake up, eat breakfast in room. Try to brave the cold (25 degrees!), but Jen whimps out and we get a cab to the Sears Tower. Pretty cool, but would've been better at night. Then we walk around, and go eat lunch at Giordano's for some deep dish pizza. Yum! Took a while, but worth the wait. We walk around some more, visit our friend Brett who was in town for the Midwest Band Clinic, and go see his concert. Good stuff! We head back to the Hyatt for dinner at the Steakhouse (don't waste your time...), and go back to the Hilton for the Duncanville concert (I'll reserve comment, cause if you can't say anything nice...). We do some more walking, this time down Michigan Ave (S), and a little bit of shopping. Frolic in Millenium Park and the video wall pond, take pics, blah blah. Fun!

Dec 18: Wake, go to Art Institute, look at art, boring or not, eat in the cafeteria, and get our feet tired. Walk around some more, and go look for the flamingo statue. Found it, at the Post Office on Dearborn. Cool! Jen starts to feel sick, so we go to the movies (The Producers) on N. Michigan Ave. and then try to walk back to the Hyatt, but Jen is too flustered, so we stop at Water Tower Place, window shop, take some pics at the tower, and get a cab home. We're hungry, so I drop her off, and walk back to Michigan Ave to Chipotle for dinner. Yum.

Dec 19: Wake up at 6! I'm still mad at her for that. Eat breakfast in room (I love hotel breakfasts). Get on our shuttle and hop on an SWA flight at 9:25 am back to Hobby. Get to Houston, we're hungry, so we go to Freebird's. Yum. Go home. Chill.

Dec. 20: Veg out!

Dec 21: Go to Longview
Dec 24: Go to Austin to visit Dad's mom and family, then go visit my sister Sonya in San Antonio. She's getting better at hosting, and she's a great cook now! Got a honeybaked ham, wine, the works!

Dec 25: Wake at 8, do xmas with Jen, Sonya and her b/f John, and me. We then go to Cedar Creek for Xmas with Mom's side (my favorite thing all year), and celebrate grandpa's 95th birthday. Leave around 4 to head back to Longview. Arrive in Longview at 9:00, and do Xmas there with Jen's family, eat Wendy's for dinner.

Dec 26: Watch Harry Potter, kinda ok, a bit disappointed and bored, but I've never read the books. At 2 am, get a call from my oldest cousin Lillie telling me that Granda had a heart attack and is in the hospital.

Dec 27: We lose Grandpa, and I get all sorts of calls from family informing me. I decide to not go yet, since I wanted to remember Grandpa the last time I saw him, happy as can be on his birthday. We decide to go home to Lake Jackson, with Natalie in tow in the SUV, since she never comes to visit. We go to my friend Chris' house in Katy for beer and poker. Blew off steam.

Dec 28: Funeral will be on Friday, but Rosary on Thurs. We go to Sugar Land and go shopping for house stuff. Sounds cruel, doesn't it? Eat at Pei Wei b/c Natalie loves it. Go home and try to put curtain rods everywhere. One doesn't fit, so I go to Wal-Mart (God, I hate that place, on so many levels and for so many reasons) for another. Then another. Curtains up, cool. We go eat, then the girls veg in bed and I veg on the couch.

Dec 29: Head to Austin for Grandpa's funeral. Catch lunch in Houston on the way. Make it in time for the Rosary. Stay at our friends Mitzi and Steve's house (they're nice; but we only see them when someone dies). Eat with almost the whole family at a good Mexican restaurant that stayed open late for us.

Dec 30: Grandpa's funeral in Austin, then burial in Cedar Creek. I was a pall bearer, along with Lillie, Francis, Louis, Ray Anthony and Richard, all grandchildren. After that, we all went to the church in Rockne, had a big meal like Mexicans do, and then went to Leon's next door in memoriam of Grandpa. More on that another time. Head back home to Lake Jackson.

Dec 31: We're tired. Veg out a bit, then go to Mike and April's in Sugar Land for a great NYE party. We were just gonna play games and chill with wine and steak, but then everyone in the neighborhood decides to set off their own displays, and it's like the Chinese New Year out in Sugar Land! Awesome! Ghetto fireworks kick ass! We get drunk (well, maybe just me) and go to bed.

Jan 1: Wake up, eat brunch at Taco Cabana and go home. Veg and watch football and the Redskins win. Cowboys lose, knocking them out of the playoffs. Crap.

Jan 2: Wake up, veg, watch bowl games all day.

Jan 3: Jen's back at work, with only two real days at home for rest.

Now we're up to speed. And that's why I'm still tired.