I promised Andrea that I would try to start posting more and so here we go.
Christmas Eve: I programmed the VCR to record the Papal Mass on NBC at 10:35 p.m. and to record the Midnight Mass from the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. I get ready for Mass; albeit, without my suit. Tracie and I had ran around taking care of errands and cleaners closed at noon on Christmas Eve. We pulled up at 12:20 p.m. Anyhow, I get ready and I come out to the living room to make sure the VCR started. It started, the end of the news is still on. I wait. I see the NBC Special graphic and then bam- I’m filled with the noise of First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls’ Living Christmas Tree. I wasn’t a happy camper. I’ll save you the rest of my rant on that. Anyhow, I went to Midnight Mass and then ate at IHOP afterwards. It was middle of the morning before I got home.
Christmas Day: Wake up way too early (considering when I went to sleep) to make it out to my aunt’s house north of Dean for lunch. They killed and cooked a pig. It was actually pretty good. After dinner, I talked to my aunt’s mother-in-law about her days at UT and in Plan II. Nothing exciting beyond that.
December 26th: I don’t really remember.
December 27th: Again a pretty lazy day. I went to Sevi’s and the Dairy Queen in Holiday with Fernando. That night I went to get dessert with Tracie and stopped by her work (an assisted living center).
December 28th: Church and lunch.
December 29th: I went to Target with Jennifer. I haven’t seen her since the summer. Today, I’m relaxing. Tonight, I’m going to watch to the UT game with Zach and meet up with Tracie following all of that.
Exciting? One of my new year resolutions is to update more!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.
Tonight had both it’s ups and downs. For now though, Merry Christmas and may the peace of Christ fill all of your hearts.

I arrived home around 9 p.m. on Saturday night. It’s now about 9 p.m. on Tuesday night. I’m ready to go back to Austin. I realized something in that time. There are so many resources that I can tap into in Austin that I haven’t. The University is full of stuff for me to dive into. I really shouldn’t waste the chances that lay before me.

Yesterday, I drove from Austin to Irving to drop off Hung and then back to Wichita Falls. It started as the usual trip to DFW then home. I ran by the post office on campus and then dropped by La Fiesta to pick up Hung. We load up everything, say goodbye to everyone else still at La Fiesta (i.e. Marion) and hit IH-35 without looking back. Just a few miles before Hillsboro, we start looing back. Why? We had nothing else to do. Traffic was killer and we were moving at a slug’s pace. Hung and I decide to take a random exit and just follow the roads. We found a highway in Hillsboro (I think it was US 77) and then we decide to forget about the interstates and find our way to Irving on US and State highways. We take US 77 towards Waxahachie. It was a nice scenic route with no traffic and a 70 MPH speed limit.
We stopped to check out their courthouse (Ellis County) and they have a statue to honor the confederates from Ellis County that fell during the Civil War. It was erected in 1912. We went a little further down US 77 and had some chicken for dinner. We see what all we wished to in Waxahachie and headed east. We find US 287 and take that north. We cross under IH-35E and after a few street lights, we keep on truckin. I had planned on hitting IH-20 and taking that to SH 360 to head towards Irving. I don’t know the roads in DFW too well- enough to get to where I want to go. So, when I found out that SH 360 has its southern terminus point at US 287, the dream of avoiding the interstate seemed possible. We take SH 360 north passing by Pioneer Parkway (SP 303). That reminded me of St. Matt’s parish just off of Pioneer. I stayed there a couple of times for different things, namely as part of the core Holy Spirit Crew for Region X Youth Conference 2000. Good youth minister.
Anyhow, we continue north on SH 360 until we reach SH 183. We head west towards Irving. We take SH 356 into Irving and some local streets to drop Hung off. I reverse myself on SH 356 and SH 183. I meet back up with SH 360 and head north. Sh 360 merges with SH 121 and I realize I went from the southern terminus to the north terminus of the highway. Anyhow, I take the William D. Tate exit in Grapevine and swing it over to West SH 114. I took that past Texas Motor Speedway back to US 287- this time north of the metroplex. That brought me all the way to Wichita Falls. I swung over to US 281 and then found my way
That was my trip home. Nothing too exciting but it was nice to go off of the usual path.

I’m back in Wichita Falls for the first half of the break. I have a few projects that I hope to finish up while I’m home that I’ll mention in more detail in future posts. For now, the first project: sleep.