See you next near — that inane phrase that everyone dreads but, someone always utters before you take one last walk out of the office for the holidays. You may have done it yourself — you know who you are!

Well now that they're officially over, I hope everyone had respectively pleasant holidays. Beth and I spent ours out in California as guests of the Beth's parents. Joined by my mother, we made our way out to Sacramento on Christmas Eve and spent the following week visiting with friends and the immediate family.

Beth's parents are in the middle of remodeling their house and I have to give props to Betty for getting everything together in time for Christmas. It was a monumental undertaking and it did not go unappreciated by Beth, my mother or myself. We had an excellent and loot-filled, if not interesting time. Everyone got to chase Seamus the family dog around while he attempted to make chew toys out a stolen personal items (Christmas gloves for Beth and a cashmere sweater for my mom). We went to a midnight mass where the priest berated the congregation for not responding loud enough. And Beth's father had a blender full of cocktail blow up on him. And now for the interesting moments... Actually, the only real tragedies were the unrelated illnesses suffered by Beth and my mom on the trip home. They're getting better. See you this year.