Kansas City, Mo. ? Brandon Moon can’t remember what he had for Christmas dinner last year. In prison, he says, “Lousy food just all blends in together, and you don’t pay attention day to day.”

The food was decidedly better this holiday season for Moon, freed from a Texas prison on Tuesday after spending nearly 17 years behind bars for a rape that DNA evidence proves he didn’t commit.

“I’m used to cold food, and this is really confusing my mouth,” Moon said while eating a steak smothered in cheese, onions and mushrooms. “I guess that’s something I’m going to have to get used to.”

Moon, 43, spent last Christmas in a Texas prison, serving a 75-year sentence for a 1988 conviction on three counts of sexual assault. But he always maintained his innocence, and DNA testing recently confirmed it. Amazingly, he insists he’s not bitter about the tragic mistake.

“I don’t have the capacity, I guess, to stay angry that long,” he said. “I’m hurt, and I don’t know how to describe any of the rest of it, but I don’t stay angry long. I also found that there’s enough anger in prison. Everything’s anger. I’ve had plenty of that. I’m ready to go on past that.”

This year’s Christmas dinner was planned for the Kearney home of Shelley Bishop, one of Brandon’s sisters. Along with the traditional fare of turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, Bishop planned to recreate a part of the family’s past to celebrate her brother’s return.

“I’m making mother make the peanut brittle because I don’t have time,” Bishop said. “But I’ve made the fudge and peanut clusters and all the candy that we used to have as kids. I’m going to try to make all of the sweet stuff that we grew up with.”

The experience of reuniting with Brandon was “kind of like having him return from the dead, because I never thought I’d live to see the day he was released,” said his father, Frank.

Along with eating regular food, listening to his own music is an experience Moon is treasuring since his release.

Brandon Moon, left, enjoys lunch with his sisters, Sheralyn Moon-Rea, second from left, and Shelley Bishop, and his father, Frank Moon, Friday in Kansas City, Mo. Moon-Rea is from North Carolina and flew in Thursday to visit with her brother who was just released from a Texas prison. Brandon Moon was wrongly accused of rape and spent the past 17 years in prison until DNA testing confirmed the innocence that he had always maintained.

“I borrowed a little portable CD from my brother, went up to the house, put the headphones on, turned it up full blast and cried my eyes out,” he said.

Moon was studying journalism and political science at the University of Texas-El Paso when he was convicted, but plans to make a career in crafting buckles and jewelry, a skill he learned in prison.

On the advice of his attorneys, Moon isn’t talking about whether he plans to sue the state of Texas, which did not release the results of a 2002 test of Moon’s DNA until October.

He’s also considering contacting his 19-year-old son, who has had no contact with Moon since he went to jail.

“I will call him,” Moon said. “I’ll look for him, let him know that I’m out. It’s his decision as to where to go from there. I was really thinking about calling on Christmas, but he might not be home on Christmas. He’s 19, but I don’t know if he’s still living at home.”