Ketchup and Chistmas.....

Ok, so nothing about actual ketchup, but instead I will catch you up (I just wanted a catchy title for my blog today) since I haven't blogged in a while.

I haven't been playing much poker lately and have been treating my time away from Vegas more like a vacation than I normally do. I always feel re-motivated and usually go on some good runs after I take some time off. Of course I will play PLO tomorrow down at Aztar after we have our Christmas with my Mom......other than that I won't be playing much outside of a few online sessions here and there.

I did play a little over 1,000 hands yesterday and won almost $800 playing mostly 2/4 NL and a little bit of 3/6 and 5/10 NL. I am going to be traveling until the middle of January so I should be very well rested when I get back to the full time grind.

The last few days....

We had Christmas with my Dad, Trudy, Nat, and Sharon. Trudy made her famous Lasagna and of course it did not disappoint. We got Dad and Trudy a DVR box for Christmas and I know once they get used to it they will be much happier/efficient TV watchers. Actually, I couldn't get the actual box for them, because my name wasn't listed on the bill. Therefore, I just went to the cable office and paid for a years worth of service so that all they had to do was go pick one up.

Dad and Trudy got me John Daly's new book and it will be an interesting read after having met him when I caddied for Jeff. He told us a story about how he lost $120K on one hand of blackjack the night before and I am pretty sure he says in that book that he has lost in the neighborhood of $60 Million gambling in his lifetime. $60 million seems soooo inflated, but when you are playing high enough to lose that much on one hand and you gamble as often as he does, it certainly is not out of the question. Not that his caddie keeps tabs on his gambling loses, but he told us the same figure and I actually believe it. Also, Dad and Trudy sad they were going to donate some money in my name to the Humane Society. I told both of my parents that I didn't need anything for Christmas and that whatever they were planning on spending on me I would prefer that they donate it to something instead. We also played an insanely long game of dominoes where Trudy crushed us all even though she seemed to start every round in the worst shape. Dominoes shouldn't take that long, but my brother, Nat, spent everyone of his turns hamming it up for the TV cameras and showing his dominoes to the viewers at home....oh wait....there were no cameras! Seriously, EVERY TIME it got to him we had to wait for him to make a decision....the worst part....there wasn't even any money being gambled! Oh well, we had lots of laughs and all had a good time playing.

Last night Justin, Leah, Kevin, and I went to the midnight service at CFC on Christmas Eve. It was a nice service and Kevin thought the people that worshiped by holding their hand up in the air while singing were out of their mind (apparently, people never do that at the Catholic churches he is used to attending). Afterwards, we went to Justin's house and ended up playing Euchre until about 4:00 am.

This morning I went to Justin's parents house for a Christmas breakfast and tonight we are going with Leah to work at a soup kitchen at the rescue mission downtown. Some of Mom's family is coming over this afternoon for a Christmas dunch......yeah thats right, dunch a meal served between dinner and lunch.

Tomorrow, all of my step-siblings and there spouses are coming over for our family Christmas.

Time to go hop in the shower and either squeeze in a nap or a few hands before Grandma and crew arrives for dunch.