Yes, we’re back in good old Melbourne and loving it. We’ve actually been back since Monday but four days onward I’m still feeling a bit sluggish. Our three-week vacation over the holidays in the Philippines was okay even though it didn’t exactly meet my extremely high expectations.

Let me explain. I left for Australia in November of 2000 and I haven’t spent Christmas in the Philippines since the last one. That’s six Christmases spent abroad. I have very fond memories of Christmas and New Year’s Eve growing up. Whenever the Christmas season rolled in, I would look back on those fond memories and think of how I’m missing out on all the fun.

And so, I was very excited to spend Christmas at home again after all this time. My expectations were unrealistically high, in fact. I guess, in retrospect, I was just setting myself up for some bit of disappointment. It’s like I’m expecting that this recent Christmas should match or trump the best ever memories I have of past Christmases. Not to say that the recent holiday season was bad, though. It just didn’t feel more fun than past ones.

Maybe it was because there weren’t as many street light decorations as before. Maybe because not all of my closest relatives were in the Philippines to celebrate the holidays with us. Maybe I’ve just grown too old for it all. Or maybe, I unrealistically wanted a recreation of a cherished memory of Christmas and didn’t get it.

However, I still loved that fact that I was able to spend the holidays with my Dad, Mom and little brother (who isn’t all that little anymore). I missed them being away from home for so long and I was glad to have been able to spend those few precious days under the same roof with them again.

Although my overall trip home had been somewhat stressful and had not meet my great expectations, I was still glad to have spent some time with my family again.

I’ll write up the more interesting experiences we had during our vacation in later posts. And thanks to everybody who had wished us well on our trip.