How I spent my Christmas vacation

This is a shot of Sarah welcoming me home to Boston or at least the Boston Common.

As I said I headed "home" to Massachusetts. I was born and raised there and have spent 1/2 my life living there. So although the last 17 years were spent in MI, I now call MA home again especially since our home has sold in MI.

Got off my flight to cold weather and a smiling 18 yr old. Sarah and I were pretty excited to see each other after almost 6 months of only skyping. She was actually more excited to see me (I don't want Rachael and Courtney to get jealous). While home I was able to see family to include my brother Tom and his wife Judy in N. Andover. Their home is a showplace for Christmas decorations and Judy showed Sarah and I her 12 themed Christmas trees.

While in MA, I stayed with Mr. Charlie Markey. He is a friend and mentor of 35 years and lives alone in the house he raised his family in so has extra space and doesn't mind having me or the girls around when we're in town. Fortunately for both of us it snowed the day after Christmas so I got to help him shovel the 15" of snow that was dropped on us. I was happy to help although I thought I gave up shoveling when I left MI. Of course when an 84 yr old says he's going out to shovel you better follow and help.

Charlie and his wife Pat kind of adopted me long ago when I dated one of their daughters and I've become a member of the family over the years, essentially like the son they never had. At least they've made me feel that way. They've also treated my girls like their own grandchildren. So here's a shot of us after shoveling. Charlie is the good looking guy on the right.

Christmas Eve was spent at his youngest daughter Susan's home with her husband, David, their kids Dylan and Danielle and David's parents. Sarah came with me and Susan snapped a few photo's there. Susan is the youngest sister of Kathleen who was here to visit in November and also the sister of Mary who is the person Sarah lives with in MA. They are all sisters of Patti who I dated oh so many years ago.

Christmas Day was spent at brother Scott's house eating homemade lasagna (those Young boys can cook). Scott decided since he looked so much heavier than me for this photo that he'd stand on his toes so he could at least look taller. I don't know why we didn't get a picture with his family too. He's not that tall and I'm starting to realize he is developing the same hairline as me, albeit it 20 yrs later than me.

Sarah and I stopped to see Sarah's Aunt Mary and her husband Mark Mayall (my friends too) and we had lunch with them. I did mention this vacation was about family, friends and food right?

Movie Break: On my 15 hr flight to Chicago I watched 4 movies, saw 4 while I was home and watched 3 more coming back here. Of the current movies out that I saw, I would recommend; "The Fighter", "True Grit" and "Harry Potter". I would not recommend "Black Swan" unless you simply want to see some great acting by Natalie Portman, otherwise it was just plain weird and do not go see it with your kids unless you want to squirm in your seat during some scenes.

Now back to food, family and friends. We also stopped in to see my good friend Adam Poirier and his family, Joanne, Nicole and Luke. Adam is like the 6th Young brother. We broke bread with them too, Italian food of course which we love. We know where to go for good food and good company.

December 31st saw us in Boston to preview the First Night Celebration plans and see some of the ice sculptures along with watching people. Temperatures got up to about 50F so it was a great day to walk around the city or as much as my little gang of teenagers could take before they wanted to head home for preparations for New Years Eve parties.

Ice Scultpures were fantastic and here's a sample that was on the Boston Common. The Common and Public Gardens were already crowded with people in the early afternoon, skating, listening to live music, enjoying the sights and sounds, making snowmen and having snowball fights.

Sunday the 2nd found us back at Scott's home for home made pizza (that Young boy can sure cook) along with Tom, Judy and Andrew (their son) and Patti (Scott's wife) and kids Dylan, Madison and Cooper (whom I beat soundly on the Microsft Kinect boxing game). During the pizza fest we did what all good American families do, watch the Patriot's beat up another NFL team.

Monday, January 3rd had me flying back to Abu Dhabi and shedding my cold weather gear.

To recap I got to see family, old friends, new friends, eat some great food, mostly Italian and seafood and sometimes they were combined like the lobster pasta I had in the North End. It sounds like a normal Christmas season to me. Sarah and I did some shopping and she took me to her favorite muffin shop on the way to the airport, The Gingerbread Man in Wakefield, MA.

This final photo sums up what's it's like to spend 10 days with Sarah. She's not quite touching me, but just close enough to annoy me.

It doesn't matter, I love her and her sisters. Rachael went to England for Christmas and Courtney stayed in Hawaii.

QOB: This comes from a young man who quit his job as an engineer in NYC when he realized he wasn't experiencing life as he wanted to. So he left work sold everything and walked across the country and it has stuck with me..."What's the point of living the majority of your life preparing for the last little bit?"

I know it's an easy philosphy for a young person with little responsibility, but it sure resonates with me. How are you living? You know, there are no guarantees in life.