FRIDAY (Christmas Eve Eve): I drove down to Chicago and left my car at Brian's apartment. From there, I took the El to Archer's brother's place in Wrigleyville, where there was a party going on. My vibe from the party at first was mixed. It seemed like everyone there knew everyone else. I only knew Archer and Amber (and Archer's brother, who I met once more than 2 years ago). They kept me company much of the night which was nice, but I felt bad because I knew there was a bunch of other people who they probably wanted to mingle with. But after several of Arch's homemade Long Island Iced Teas, I was talking to anyone. Archer and Amber were free to mingle as I made my way around the crowd listening in to conversations, eating meatballs, and talking to people I just vaguely remember. I had a pretty good time. But later on in the night, Arch knew what was good for me. He walked me down the street and hailed me a cab back to Brian's. I tipped the driver some ridiculous amount and stumbled up to Brian's place. From the time I opened up the front door, til the time I plopped down in bed, I have no recollection of. According to Eli and Sarah, I couldn't walk in a straight line and was speaking in broken, incoherent sentences. That is probably why I woke up at 6am in my clothes, my contacts still in, and feeling like shit.

SATURDAY (Christmas Eve): It was a very rough morning for me. Since the XMas party was here tonight, I was going to help them clean up the apartment. But I just layed on the living room floor as people cleaned around me. I got up around 1pm and ate a few crackers, hoping to feel better. I did not, however. At 1:20pm I was in the bathroom vomiting. Talk about a delayed reaction. I wish I had puked the night before. Anyways, with the nasties out of my system, I now had the energy to do things such as vacuum, as well as explore the abandoned apartment building next door with Tom. Before we knew it, it was time for the party to begin. As you might have imagined, I made the decision to make it an alcohol-free night. It was kinda strange, but the booze wasn't as freely flowing at this Christmas party compared to past years. Maybe it's because Tim wasn't there. He's usually the ring-leader, making people do Yagerbombs and shit. Well, alcohol aside, the food spread was above average. Sarah made tons of croissant sandwiches which were excellent. There was also double the amount of Aunt Cathy's famous meatballs. So good. Uncle Bill played Santa this year, and because of this, he delegated the responsibility of filming the action to me. When he walked through that front door in that Santa suit, it felt like being in a mob of paparazzi. There were so many freaking video cameras and still cameras, it was madness. I had to get on my knees and crawl through a dense wall of people just to get a good shot of Santa. It really took me back to my news photographer days. Speaking of photography, after the El Famous family photo shoot, it was time to debut the trailer for the upcoming Glencoe documentary. This was my second time showing my work in a large public forum (the first being Freund's wedding) but I was still nervous. Everyone loved it though. I got so many complements of how good and professional it is. I'm not used to so much praise from so many people. The reaction was quite the same after showing Freund's wedding DVD too. So the party winded down, but was not complete without one final trip next door to the abandoned apartment building. If you thought it was spooky in the daytime, try going at night.

SUNDAY (Christmas Day): Up about 9am. Things were done out of order this year. Gift opening usually comes first, but this year we ate breakfast first. The gift opening session was abnormally brief. Probably because dad had less to spend on us this year. And Tim wasn't there. I got the Doom 3 Expansion pack, a Dave Matthews CD, Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits, and a pair of vice-grips. It was a small spread of presents, but satisfying none the less. After a watching a few scenes of "A Christmas Story", it was time to drive up to Waukesha to meet up at Colleen's parents house. I was just in time for an untraditional Christmas dinner of pasta and garlic bread. But it was damn good. When Susie came over, she brought an old film projector she got off eBay. Their grandpa had all these old 8mm films that people wanted to see. Some of them had a baby Colleen in them, so I was excited. Me and Mike struggled for an hour trying to get the thing to work. But we were unsuccessful. It's like the film was a hair too big for the projector, so it did not line up correctly. When Cathy and Kerry got there, it was all about the baby Kaylee. Everyone wanted to hold her and there were pictures going off left and right. Cute kid. When the football game started, it was nothing but women left in living room, all the guys were in front of the TV. The Bears ended up beating the Packers, which I found humorous since I was in an entire household of Packer fans (with the exception of me, of course). I exchanged my gifts with Colleen later on. From her I got some iPod accessories and a picture frame. I bought her some chocolates, a scarf, and a stuffed Choco-Cat. My final gift to her was a good one. Since her car CD player hasn't worked in some time, I thought I'd be sweet and buy her a new stereo and eventually install it for her. But when she opened it, she acted like she didn't really want it. She was determined that her CD player could be fixed. There was a CD jammed in there that refuses to come out, but she thinks it can be saved. So much for that great gift idea. The night ended in a really strange way. We went over to Susie's friend Tracy's house. We ended up hanging in the basement to play pool and ping pong. It eventually turned into a rave when Tracy's husband hooked up the laser light show, the fog machine, and pumped some electronica from his 8 speaker system. Colleen moonwalked and I techno danced. And with that, we began our trip home, another Christmas for the books.