random thoughts... My name is Aaron, sometimes called Max because it's my middle name. I recently married a beautiful woman who just so happens to be the love of my life.

Okay world, so this is what's been happening with me over the past two weeks.

Have I been focusing my ADD and making cool crafts and awesome ways to hold partner-less socks? No.

Have I been recapping the favorite moments of the previous year? No.

Have I been Christmas shopping at 11pm two days before Christmas? Well, yes, actually, but it wasn't MY Christmas shopping.

The festivities leading up to Christmas were awesome. Friends and family gathered around for a game of White Elephant. I was all about gift wrapping a collection of massage oils, but my wife thought it might be a bit inappropriate, children were invited. The next time there's an adult only White Elephant party, you know what's going in there. I later told this to the pastor who held the party. Although he loved the idea, his face also turned bright red. I'm thinking it's a win-win situation for next Christmas.

Leslie and I had Christmas Adam steaks; very good. Christmas Adam = Christmas Eve eve. Unfortunately I was bitten by the “clean bug” and insisted on cleaning out the black hole of a spare room in our apartment. She cooked, I cleaned. At least the room was recognizable after I was done.

We spent Christmas Eve with our friends, the Moreno’s and their baby. We ate junk food, played Wii sports, and opened presents. Baby Ricky G. got to open his gifts at 9pm. Apparently babies eat, live, and breathe on a schedule (I’ll have to remember that for when my wife and I start to procreate). The adults barely made it to 11:30pm before we opened our presents. I think it was a mixture of impatience and sleepiness.

Christmas Day was spent with our separate families. We went to Leslie’s fam first. Tamales, Mexican rice and beans, and some more gifts = a great lunch. Leslie told her family that she was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 (it runs on both sides of her family). Most of the people there were card carrying members and welcomed her to the club.

Then we went to my family’s party. More food, more presents, and singing = two very tired newlyweds.

We came home and fell asleep. Very uneventful…until my younger brother calls me at 2am to freak out about losing his new camera at the beach. I did my best to calm him down and get him to go home. I prayed for him and went back to sleep. Around 6am, I get a text from him saying there had been some sort of accident. I didn’t think much of it, things of that sort happen with my family. I wake up, Leslie leaves for work, and I’m bumming around the house when Adam calls again and lets me know my older brother, Abel, is in the hospital. Apparently he had accidentally been stabbed earlier that morning. Stabbed. Yes, stabbed. I don’t know how someone is “accidentally” stabbed, but if it can happen in this world, it can happen to my family. We spent the next few days figuring out what had happened and visiting my brother in the hospital.

A week later, Abel is still in the hospital, my younger brother is still in town, my parents are back to normal, we spent New Year's Eve/Day in a hospital room, and Leslie and I have never had such a crazy Christmas/New Year season in our lives. Welcome to the family, Leslie!

I’ll update more later.

Ladies, if you're looking for a few more details, visit my wife's blog.