It's the 27th of December and I'm sitting outside of a coffee shop under blue and sunny skies in a light jacket and jeans - it most certainly doesn't feel like winter. At least not the Midwestern United States or Yangtze River Delta winters I'm used to. 

In Taichung, winter comes slowly and almost with a certain trepidation. It goes from hot, to mild, to cool, to brisk, to pretty much cold, then back to brisk, back to almost cold, back to mild, all of the sudden back to slightly hot, then brisk again. All the while the nights are always at least slightly chilly, yet the sun is never too far away to make you forget all about it by noon. It's as though all the time the sun seems to go missing in Michigan, it's actually hiding out in central Taiwan. Makes me wonder where it goes after it sets on Taichung. Probably the Philippines.

This year will be my 5th abroad and away from the West during the holidays. Being abroad in a place so relatively different than one's own home has a certain effect on how one sees 'home' in their mind's eye. The experience acts something like a filter. The longer you're away, the more the weaker memories, feelings, and associations you had about certain things back home are washed away into obscurity. They're still there - but they're just so less relevant and don't surface unless specifically summoned. They're replaced by new associations and new sentiments that are similarly less relevant back home.

The holidays are a pretty good example of this. With each year away, the lack of most physical and aesthetic manifestations of any 'holiday spirit', means less distractions and more time to really just think about friends and family. It may be convenient to be bombarded by reminders to appreciate things - but when you find that you have to actively do it yourself, you probably do it better. Even gift-giving stops feeling like an expected ritual and more like a truly enjoyable, and much simpler process. It's nice. 

It also makes you realize how 'home' is a feeling. A mutual understanding and a natural expression of love - not a place. The same way friends can become family, those same friends and other loved ones can become home as well. 

All that being said, I'm still away though. I'm not living where I grew up or surrounded by the people I experienced that with, and it's a good time to think about it. So - here's to love, family, and of course homes - whether they be old, new, dead or alive.