Christmas Eve

If you ask me, there are few things more ridiculous in the suburbs than the ludicrous names given to streets in new subdivisions.

On Christmas Eve, Miguel and I went to visit his older brother, who lives in the farthest outer reaches of the Maryland burbs in a brand new neighborhood chock full of evil McMansions built on what was once pristine dairy farmland. If there's one thing I hate the most about the exburbs, it's enormous brick front houses with tacky vinyl siding covering the other three sides of the structure. As in... we can afford brick, but only on the side that visitors see... then we had to cut costs so we stuck vinyl everywhere else. It looks ridiculous.

Here is the view coming into the neighborhood...

I was visibly cringing.

Then we started seeing the street names, which were so ludicrous Miguel and I started to laugh out loud and had to pull over to adequately photograph them:

Any idea what an Inkberry is? Or a Serviceberry for that matter?

This one is charming too:

Very Bed, Bath, and Beyond...

All urban bitchiness aside, M's brother does have a very nice home once you get past the brick/siding combo and picket fence.

Here is Miguel with his 7-year old nephew in the family room...


And here I am with the newest little member of the family, Gabriel...

... who is six months old and really really cute!

Here's M's brother playing with Gabriel and his new gift...


We stayed for a few hours, ate some Christmas cookies, watched some E! television shows, and chatted with M's brother's in-laws who were visiting. Then it was time to hit the road back to the urban reality that we live in.

We spent Christmas eve night with Nichole, Luis, his parents, and my mom, which was an entertaining affair and then we hit the hay around 1am.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, and this is turning into a long, boring blog entry that I must end now in order to go get a drink.

Look forward to Christmas next time, and then we'll be all caught up!