Early Christmas morning I stirred in my (sister's old) bed, hearing the sounds of dishes being done from the night before and breathing deep whatever winter roast was on brew then.  Standard sounds for a favorite morning; I felt warmer already and snuggled down for a snooze before rising.  

Half an hour later I slipped into my fleece pajamas and fuzzy slippers destined for coffee.  Downstairs, instead of a fire and soft Christmas music, I found a cold, empty house.  My little brother was asleep.  Sister in Ohio.  No clue where my Mother just went, but it can't be good especially considering last night.  This isn't what Christmas morning is supposed to feel like.  I give her a call, she says she's at the hospital, can't talk, and hangs up.  Helpful.  This feeling sucks.  Cory's family was starting the party soon and invited me down, perfect I'm on my way, I'd rather look at the lake than be in this house, I'm getting out for sure.  

But I don't want my brother to wake up to that same feeling.  Nor do I want my Mother to come home to it if she is soon, and if she isn't my brother's going to need a ride down to the cousins' place in OC.  I've gotta stay.  Turn on Zac Brown Band's 2nd album, which I'm warming up to a lot more than when I first listened to it.  Throw a Duraflame in the fireplace, make fire.  Right about then Mom calls, she's on her way back.  Eleanor is in the hospital and she isn't coming out.  Dad doesn't remember talking about the fact that she's going to die yesterday, nor does he know that it's Christmas today.  Glad I decided to warm up the place.  

We promptly commenced the creation of a wrapping paper disaster area.  It wasn't the same without my sister and her 300 pounds of dog (which is now 500 because the two grew and her new boyfriend decided she needed a third Siberian Husky).  Instead we video Skyped with her and and it was less disappointing than expected.  Apparently I'm difficult to shop for this year so I scored a bitchin' bottle of gin and REI money.  This makes me think that it's been easy as hell to shop for me for a long time because I'm stoked with what I got this year.  

LOL Sweet timing, Lionel is playing on the stereo.  Cory just walked in and said, "You're easy like Sunday morning."  

I love family afternoons in Orange County, love that side of the family, love the kids table, am sad that we didn't have a bottle of tequila on it this time, and had an excellent time.  Spent some time with the little bro that night, and woke up ready to work the next day.  

I wanted to get everything out of the way before getting back to Colorado because I was importing Cory with me.  We were getting together that night for a family-ish dinner with her friend, and we could go early.  I lasted one hour online before getting ancy and leaving to pick her up.  Fantastic night, to my Mom's place the next day, drop off the green ma-chine, and off to the airport.  Ontario to Denver, shuttle to the truck, 63 bucks for parking, and then dinner with some of her family.  Another fantastic night.  Breakfast, REI, outdoor gear consignment store, Wal-Mart, and grocery store shopping sprees, and home sweet home in Frisco.  It was breathtaking today just existing in the valley, and I'm super stoked to get back out and play in it soon.  Cory's cooking dinner, I'm sipping some Barefoot Pinot Noir, playing $1-2 O8 on UB, and life feels really good.

Peace and good luck,

Devo