So Christmas is nearly here and this is going to be a weird one for me. For the majority of my life, I had gone to some predetermined location to meet with family(s) on Christmas, and Christmas eve. After my grandma died in 2005, no one seemed to want to continue doing that, so there are uncles and aunts and cousins that I have not seen since Christmas 2004. The only reason this is not too big of a problem is that I really have a hard time remembering their names anyway, let alone "what child is this?" Uncles, Aunts, those are not so much a problem, but when we get into the extended family, it gets fuzzy. My mother is one of 7 children, and I know all of her siblings. My dad only had one sister, who had one child, so that side easy to remember. But my moms side is all over the place. I was number 21 of 22 grandchildren, which makes it even harder to know who my cousins are, because the oldest one is something like 25 years older than me. I know her, though, that's Brenda. But after that, I have no idea. I had my mom break it down for me a couple times and I forgot already. So with that being said, I miss my family, but not my extended family, because I don't know who/what I'm missing.

Anyway, as I have extensively documented before, I have moved a thousand miles south to Nashville Tennessee this year, and this will be my first without ANYONE I know. Further complicating the mater is that fact that my wife is heading back north for the holidays. My mom is coming here, but her and Dean will be traveling on Christmas day, thus leaving me completely alone on Christmas. All this may sound over-dramatic, but truth be told, I'm excited to have a week of alone time. I get to just hang out, watch TV, stay up late, play video games, eat whatever....things like that. It's the Christmas spirit of togetherness that I will miss, as it has been on a downward slope in the past 5 years. Things change and I am well known to fear that change, then embrace the result, as it is usually out of my hands, and I am forced to play with the hand that is dealt. And that usually works out just fine. So my first Christmas as a married man will be one that is spent alone. And as you can tell by my tone, I have mixed emotions about it. Keep your phones on, readers...

-brad p in Nashville