What Not To Do:

Kim left China for Dallas on Thursday, leaving me alone for a week until I board my flight back to Dallas! Yes, I’m finally coming back to spend the Holidays with the family. I managed to make it through Thursday and Friday without my better half at my side, but today was really difficult. Saturday started off great with me sleeping till almost 10 this morning. I decided to stay busy today so I stared with washing some clothes, taking some clothes to the dry cleaners and some others to an alteration shop for some basic hemming. What a deal, just $14 for 2 suits, 6 dress shirts and a pair of slacks and only $3 to hem 4 pair of pants!! This was followed by a much needed haircut. What a treat, this time the young lady washed and massaged my head for about 45 minutes. The massage included a new twist; she ran warm water over my forehead and my eyes for about 5 minutes. This felt great, but the hot towels she draped over my eyes and the back of my neck was even better.

All of this running around only got me through half the afternoon. So you might ask what I did for the remainder of the day. Well, here’s where I tell you what not to do when you are alone and have been away from your family for 6 months and the only daily contact with family over the past 6 months just left to start her Christmas in Texas. As I was saying, with the remainder of the afternoon free I thought a DVD movie would kill a few hours before dinner. It didn’t take long to scan the few choices available too me and realize none of the titles interest me. Then I saw the DVD of Kelli and Doug’s wedding. Yah, I know I should have passed on that one too. However, I have never seen the DVD and I thought it would be great to look back at that special day.

I starting with the “Pre Ceremony” video and followed that with the “Reception” video so far so good. It was nice seeing family and friends again. I mean I saw everyone and really enjoyed reliving the great time we had. Well I just couldn’t stop there, so I followed that with the “Rehearsal Dinner” video. I should have stopped! It didn’t take long for the emotions of being away for 6 months to hit me. The video was full of great moments, starting with Pam and Kim’s emotional toast to Kelli & Doug. That was followed by Ashley, Jay, and Paul’s heart felt congratulations. Their stories were priceless. Although it was nice to relive the moments of the most expensive party I ever threw, I wish I would have waited until I was back in Texas!

When you’re away from family for a long time you sometimes don’t realize how much you miss them until you happen to glance at a picture, talk to them on the phone or see them on a video call. Each time I have one of those moments I smile and thank God how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family and great friends!

I can’t wait to see all of you on the 18th; I’m ready for a thick Texas steak dinner!