Wow� what a great Christmas. Beginning with a friend in town from Orlando, Thursday we met with The Young Couple at After Dark for drinks and festive holiday chat. Some of that holiday chat included Half of TYC explaining how his �domestic partner benefits� at work are taxable to the highest extent, meaning he has to pay nearly 5k in taxes that a heterosexual married couple would NOT have to pay. In essence, a gay tax. Yay Bush. But there are plenty of political blogs out there who could delve much more heatedly into the aforementioned. I�ll continue my light-hearted, surface-oriented highschool-girl writing instead.

Christmas Eve found Orlando Buddy and I at a quaint, wine-a-plenty get-together at The Guys With The Cool Cat�s house. The following morning, Christmas day, Orlando Buddy and I headed to his family�s ranch, about 20 minutes outside Fort Worth. A comfortable 50 degrees with sunshine, we mounted our horses and proceeded across the countryside. 2200 acres of beautiful, silent, cattle-filled Texas landscape. It felt like something I should�ve been paying to experience, or something from a movie. So different than my computer-tethered daily routine -- amazingly refreshing and relaxing. We rode until the sun set, which was actually a little long, as the temperature quickly dropped.

Taken near the end of the day, this pretty much captures it, I think. Most of the land in the background is theirs.

Later, I joined his family for their Christmas feast and festivities, feeling much more comfortable and welcome than I ever expected. Taking time to call my family back home, they were relieved I was having a nice time, and not alone during the holiday. Later, there was a �Chinese Christmas� gift exchange (I believe this has numerous names)� but all the gifts were alcohol, and you could steal from other people. Preparing only to watch, I was informed that a gift had been purchased and added on my behalf so that I could participate. It was a wonderful feeling to be included and welcomed by the house full of strangers.

Other than a miserably aching back (the galloping seems to have compressed the hell out of my spine) and the disappointment of not gaining a single pound last week, I�m still riding my high from the weekend, and hoping to start this week off with a bang. Life is good stuff sometimes.