Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Tammy and I are thankful for having such a wonderful year and for having such loving and supportive family and friends. We received our Christmas presents early, being blessed with expecting a child and with buying a new house.

We wish everyone a happy, safe and wonderful Christmas spent with loved ones.

Company anniversary

Today is my 10 year anniversary with the Orlando Sentinel.

Wow. Ten years. A decade. Nearly a third of my life. It's gone by in a flash. It seems like just yesterday that my sister, Tiffany, helped me move to Orlando. Two weeks after moving here, I got engaged to my lovely wife Tammy.

What a wild, strange trip it's been. :-)

Christmas Entertainment

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. One thing that's great about it is watching all the great movies and TV shows that have become Christmas classics.

My favorites shows are "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the animated version--not the movie).

As for the movies, my favorites are: "Christmas Vacation," "Scrooged," "Home Alone," "Miracle on 34th Street" (the original) and "It's A Wonderful Life."

And my favorite Christmas albums are: Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," "Elvis' Christmas Album," Harry Connick Jr.'s "When My Heart Finds Christmas," "A Very Special Christmas," and 98 Degrees' "This Christmas." (Yes, I know they are a boy band, but it's really a good CD.)

Each one of these takes me back to my younger years when we decorated the tree and put the lights up around the house. And then we waited for christmas. And waited. And waited. (Remember the string of 25 candy canes, and you would pull one off each day in December until Christmas? And going to church--if you're Catholic--and seeing another candle on the Advent wreath lit up each week?) Ahhh...the good old days.

Video Games

As we enter the Christmas season and start decking the halls, it always gets me in the mood to play video games. I guess it's because Santa has left most of my new video consoles and games under the tree. One of my fondest Christmas memories is getting my Atari 2600 in 1980 and having my Dad hook it up and play some games with me.

Anyway, I've always been into console video games (Atari, Nintendo, Playstation, etc.). But Chris has introduced me to some multiplayer PC games that are awesome. We have a "game night" every Tuesday night where we hook up with one of Chris' friends from New Jersey--Sean--and his buddy, Bill for a few hours. We've been playing Unreal Tournament 2004, and it's a blast! It's new for me to be playing against actual humans, and it's a heck of a lot of fun, because it adds a whole new dimension to the game. And Sean and Bill are great competitors, so it's great to play against them.

Thanks for getting me hooked, Chris! :-)