End of the year

This felt like another short weekend, something like the 'short year' feeling that I have had since summer this year. Inspite of having the most 'me' time in the last 4 years, I feel kinda time cheated. A fairly decent balance between travel, work, wife and life. No tearing deadlines, no foul speaking bosses turning up the pressure, very little cramped travel, no cancelled vacations and atleast a full week of lead time prior to business travel. Now for the not so great part, I have fallen sick 3 times this year almost matching record of not having fallen sick for as many years. Mystically all my bouts of infirmity seem to start right afterI get off a 12 hour overnight flight.  My sarcastic colleagues are quick to point out that I am not as young as I used to be. Christmas time usually means vacation time, I am so ready to hit 'shut down' on my PC for the rest of the year and then some. Come friday, I will execute that plan. Christmas time also means family time. Since we lack family in this part of the world, we have decided to import some of our American brethren to warm our otherwise frigid christmas. In return, we had to bribe with promises of trips to Italy and other exotic European that are otherwise generally out of reach.  Munich continues to reveal its frozen charm. The city is packed with christmas shoppers and Gluwein drinkers. I am currently experiencing an exodus of friends moving out. Typically you have people who live here for a few years and then they move on. At this rate I am going to feel like the Oak tree that everyone comes back to see.