Last year I was in Nazca, Peru for Christmas and Arequipa, Peru for New Years. This year, I was back at home with my parents, sister, friends and family in Camarillo, California for the holidays. Despite owning my own condo in Park City, Utah for more than six years now, I have yet to spend even a single year in the snow during the winter holidays. It is always so strange to be celebrating Christmas in 80 degree weather.

I flew back to Camarillo on the 22nd of December (after sleeping through 3 alarm clocks and nearly missing my shuttle to the airport).

The day after arriving there, I attended Travis and Kelli Miller’s Christmas party. I didn’t know many people at the party, but I did have fun talking to Travis, Kelli, Travis’ little sister (Katelyn), Josh and Kristen Miller, and the Miller’s cousins (Shane and Luke).

On Christmas Eve we had the entire family over at my parents’ house. My cousin, Casey, came in his traditional Santa Clause costume and my 95-year-old grandmother, Helen, was as spunky as ever (despite me beating her and my mom at a game of Boggle).

On Christmas morning it was just me, my sister, my parents, my grandma and my aunt and uncle (Tom and Christi) who celebrated in the living room of my parents’ house. My parents got me an LCD screen for my GoPro video camera (along with a bunch of other cool things) and Tom and Christ got me a new 1-man tent for my upcoming trip around the world.

One day after Christmas my dad and I went hiking out at the “Scary Dairy” near the old Camarillo State Hospital and took some pictures with my two cameras.

While we were out hiking we stumbled across this old rusty play-set that had been dragged way out into the middle of nowhere. Upon seeing the play-set, I knew in about half a second that it was the same play-set (not the exact same one, but the same model anyway) that I had had in my backyard as a child. Seeing it certainly brought back some memories.

Another day my dad and I went to see Daniel Schoenewald’s private motorcycle collection. Daniel is a friend of the family and he has more than 100 highly-collectible motorcycles in his possession. He spent nearly 4 hours telling us the story of his bikes. Each one had a story! He even let me sit and scoot around on a motorcycle that was made back in  1930 and is worth close to $500,000 USD. I was so afraid I was going to knock it over.

Then, on my last day in town, I went on a hike in Simi Valley with Ryan Nakashima. In fact, I met up with quite a few of my friends (Leslie Parr, Jason and Danielle June, Aaron June) while I was in town and it was good to reconnect with old friends and hear about their lives.

I had a good time in California. But my time there also made me realize that my ties to the place are slowly unraveling and that I now have a new home and a new life in Park City. It may have taken me six years to finally figure that out, but it is something I have only now come to terms with. Being in Camarillo also made me realize that when I leave to travel around the world later this year, my home will no longer be this place I have built for myself in Park City, but will be the tent that I carry with me on my back and the attitude I create inside my own head.

Overall, I had a great little stay in Camarillo.

More than anything, I had a great year in 2011 and I am looking forward to 2012 more than any other year in my life!