I want to clarify the post about my wife's "retirement". She retired as a partner, working at their home office. She is now back running her own office, like she did in Littleton. She loves it and has flexibility to spend much time with our kids.

This has been a memorable weekend. To begin with, I met an inspirational dad named Dick Hoyt. He is a hero in many senses of the word. He has 3 boys. One of his kids, Rick, has Cerebral Palsy. You see, his umbilical cord was wrapped around him at birth. Despite this impairment, Rick's Dad made a decision to never let life pass his son by. He did not want Rick to live in an institution or be pitied... Dick learned to swim and bike and never looked back on an amazing journey that has led to him and Rick competing in appx. 1000 sporting events.

Their website is www.teamhoyt.com



Another event that helped make this weekend memorable was a retirement party we went to last night. I have a friend that in many respects has been at the "top of her game" in her chosen profession. She works for a privately held company that has appx 25,000 employees worldwide. Their ownership structure is one that is privately held. There are approximately 400 General Partners in this company and my friend has been one for the past 5 years. Much is demanded for these partners. They all work hard across the board. In my estimation she excelled at the tasks given to her. She loves her company but decided make a lifestyle choice that gave her flexibility with her kids. That meant stepping down as a partner. They officially call this "retiring". That friend is my best friend...my wife. Congratulations. I am very proud to be married to an old, retired woman. You had the courage to make changes that will benefit our family for our lifetime. I love you for it. You are another hero to me.

I also want to let our wonderful friends Kelly and Aaron know that we appreciate you taking care of Benny and Everlie last night. We love you...but are smart enough to know that the payback will be coming soon enough.

After all the time we have spent in Spanish class...Benny's favorite foreign phrase is "Bella Luna". The other night we were treated to a Bella Luna. If you took a peek in our house at the same time, you would have been treated to our Bellissimi Bambini..beautiful children.

The forecast indicates an incredibly cold, coldfront. I'm thinking about hitting the modest Hidden Valley ski slopes Thursday night after a CFS board meeting. Maybe I'm loco.

Everlie is clearly addicted to texting and Nick Nolte movies. It's a shame isn't it?

It's always fun to pick Benny up from preschool. Especially when learning from the teacher that he informed his class that Daddy threw up last night. At least he delivered the newsworthy occurrence with a note of reassurance..."but it's ok, he did it in the toilet". Food poisoning is not fun. Fortunately Geri was a trooper with the kids last night. I will not be going to El Indio and/or ordering Huevos Rancheros anytime soon.

Here is a video of the kids hamming it up this week. It would not suprise me if Benny were to be an actor or make a living in front of the camera. Benny has comic timing and Everlie is happy to play the sidekick.

Put a fork in it. The celebrating is done and the new year is here. Geri and I enjoyed waking up in our own beds on Christmas morning, watching the kids open their gifts and playing. While I didn't officially ask for (or expect) any presents, Geri got me photography lessons from Michelle Ross (Under Grace Photography...Check her link out on the right side of this blog). I am excited. For a long time I have an itch that gets scratched from writing and taking pictures. This is something I've mainly ignored in the past, but will earnestly work on in 2009. One of my individual goals for the year is to start a book. Anyone got any ideas? I have a passion for military history.

This is a cross-section of pictures from the past few weeks. One is of Geri and Everlie just before going to Church the Sunday before Christmas. The other pictures include Christmas in Yukon, OK with my family and Woodward, OK with Geri's. There is also a picture of New Year's Day with Everlie, Jonah and Benny. The last picture is of Everlie smiling as Benny is taking a bath.

I hope you have reason to be thankful this year. My blessings include having a family that is a Team, working with Tony, building up my business, having a wide range of friends that I truly love and can spend meaningful time with (ages 70 on down...you know who you are). Scratching my creative itches. Walking a closer walk with God. Maybe even starting paperwork for 3rd kiddo. Come to think about it...the celebrating is not remotely done!

Geri and I are working hard to implement activities to make our holidays fun and meaningful as a family. Tonight we built a gingerbread house. We started doing this with our gang from Golden about 10 years ago. Our lack of construction skills are still evident. The roof keeps sliding down, but the kids don't mind as long as the candy keeps comin'.

Tomorrow we are going to Christmas Eve services at The Journey Church at Tower Grove, then coming back home to open one gift. After Benny sprinkles Reindeer Food on the front lawn, we are going to bed, hoping that Santa will find his way down our chimney.

Life is blessed and we have no room to complain or bicker about it. I hope you are ready to make sure your respective families have some meaningful times this Season.

This is my favorite commercial these days. There's also another one with LLCoolJ.

As this year comes to a close, I'm realizing a desire to post more stories/photos of our family here on the blog. I've been sidetracked since joining Facebook. Also known as FB to the non-FB'ers in the audience.

Maintaining a blog is definitely more satisfying than being on FB. The whole FB experience reminds me of Charlie, my friend in CO. Charlie is a great guy with a wonderful personality, but years ago he never was one to stand around after Church and socialize (this has changed). His goal was to talk to a few friends then hustle out to the car without being cornered by the folks he didn't know very well. He called it "running the gauntlet". On FB that's called a lurker. It's too easy just being a lurker on FB. I'm generally a lurker. I will say this though...the ability to find out who is online, and instant message them on FB is a great feature. This is something Nancy (my cousin) and I have done a few times, and it's been nice. She actually types full words as opposed to the texts she sends me. She can manage to speak a chapters worth of words with approximately 17 CAPITALIZED letters. She's hip. I'm not (LOL).

We tend to joke that time stands still when we go to Woodward. To an extent this is the case. It can drive you nuts if you let it. You go to sleep, and who knows when you wake up. There is no clock around. You wake up at 3am and someone is in the living room still watching TV. You realize you are hungry because it's 7pm and dinner is almost on the horizon. Experiencing this time-warp phenomenom, I tend to make excuses to make the 5 minute drive to WalMart. Oh I saunter around looking at the OU stuff, but the highlight is making my way back to the deli section and ordering fried okra. Now that is good stuff (unlike Cracker Barrel's sorry attempt).

On the other hand, what I love about Woodward is that time stands still. We are blessed with an incredible array of kids that come over to visit. This Thanksgiving was special because Benny and Everlie were constantly playing with their cousins; who were defacto babysitters for G and I. Having time on your hands just to absorb the kids playing-listening to the laughs and constant commotion is priceless. Yeah, we make fun of time standing still...but wouldn't trade it away for anything. This won't last forever and we are blessed to have a great extended family.

Our Greatest Fear

It is our light… not our darkness that most frightens us
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
People won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of
 God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people
 permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson