I am Here.

Where do I start, right? After over a week of not blogging, I feel like I'm trying to reconnect with an old friend. You know how it is, the conversation is awkward at first, you don't know where to start, where to end, what to tackle first. But then it just comes out.

So here you go.

The Spewing Blog.

The most appropriate thing to start out with is: how was your Christmas?

Mine was fabulous. My family (mom+three siblings) arrived the Friday before Christmas and spent a glorious week together. A week?! Can you believe it?

While I was abundantly thrilled to have them, I think my house was happier. While I worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Mom and the others were busy weather-proofing my house.

That's right. I think you know you're an adult when WEATHER STRIPPING excites you.

Anyway, they stretched this awesome plastic over the windows (the kind that you blow-dry and it stretches tight, sealing off any air coming in or any warm air leaving.) Then, they bought blinds and hung matching curtains (the wonders!) and bought another heater.

What could have possibly been the Greatest Christmas Disaster, was avoided when Propane Man arrived on Wednesday, Christmas Eve Day. Mom called me at work and told me he was there.

"Go see what he wants!" I said. "I just bought propane!"

Yeah, I had 7 percent left in my tank, which means that one more day and we would not have had anything...no water, no oven, no stove, no heat...nothing. Nada. And Christmas dinner would not have been.

But thanks to the quick-thinking Propane Man who said he was "just in the area" and "thought he should stop by," our Christmas Dinner Extravaganza carried on.

There are three notable things that we all will not soon forget about our Christmas Week together. Those are:

Neighbor's Geese
Neighbor's Howling Dogs
Puppies

All three combined made for some rough sleeping. Especially the geese. We'd all congregate in the kitchen the next morning, eyes bloodshot, hair a-mess, saying to each other, "Damn geese." (no, not really...but there were plenty of times we thought maybe geese would be a better option for dinner then the silent ham in the fridge.)

We played a lot of games, watched a lot of movies, opened a lot of presents and ate a lot of food. It was pretty perfect and I hope yours was too.

Now it's Saturday and I'm left with the feeling of luck that on the professional level, we made it through Christmas. Now it's Death Valley for newspapers - the week between Christmas and New Years...nothing is happening. NOTHING.

On this Saturday, I'm sitting at my desk, finishing some things up for Monday and then it's off to home again, which I'm pretty much looking forward to.