Christmas Letter 2006

If you judge a family by the friends they have, then we are a truly blessed family. Thank you for being our friends.

In this age of spin, it is now more important than ever to remember the true meaning of Christmas was that Jesus was born to save us from our sins. Keep fighting evil when you see it and get to know your neighbors.

Below is the family update. (Keegan is last only because I couldn't change the order after I posted.)

Katie had a great year in 2006. We were most proud of her when she decided to donate 10 inches of her hair to a program called "Locks of Love" for kids who have lost hair through medical conditions. She was also selected as a gifted student for the GATE program and through hard work, made the honor roll. She played AYSO soccer again and even had a game in which she scored two goals! She is quite the snow bunny and we have to drag her off of the ski slopes. She enjoys singing in the Christmas Choir and acting in plays.

Laura keeps busy with part-time accounting work, volunteering at the church and the pre-school, playing soccer at least twice a week (seems like 4 times that), assistant coaching the kids' soccer teams, and keeping the family healthy (we didn't miss a day of school nor work this year!) She now has her own kayak and we even went out on the lake on Christmas day, with snow and every thing! Our favorite time, however, is our full moon trips on Lake Arrowhead (Who can live anywhere else!) She skis regularly during the season up here and we took a week to visit Mammoth!

I am the recreation supervisor for the City of Victorville in charge of sports and the City's Recreation Brochure. It's a great job. I manage about 200 softball teams and 100 soccer teams each year and our Rec Brochure has a publication of 37,000. This was my first year coaching t-ball with Keegan, and it was a blast. I am a church "elder" which means I assist with Communion once a month and cook scrambled eggs for the church breakfasts (aka the Eggman). I am entering the 22nd year of my strat-o-matic baseball league which started when I was in college. (It took me slightly less than that to finish my degree!)

Keegan played his first season of t-ball and dad was his coach. With a little encouragement, he was a left-handed hitter and sprayed the ball to all fields. The hi-light of the season came when he hit a homerun with runners on first and second - and scored ahead of the two runners! (pictured above) Now that's coaching! He 'graduated' from pre-school to kindergarten where he is a favorite. He started skiing this year and is a blur down the mountain. Apparently turning is for sissies! He was tall enough, with help from some extra thick "socks" to ride Indiana Jones at Disneyland for the first time! However, as perhaps a punishment to the 'enhancement' of his parents, the ride broke down in the gloomy Spear Room for about 15 minutes. For our trouble, cast member offered us a second ride with exiting the vehicle, which Keegan declined! He played soccer again and sang in the Christmas Choir.

First Snow!

We got our first snow of the season, and just in time, since I hadn't sent out our Christmas cards yet! 

Indiana Jones, Finally!

With a little help from some well placed gloves, Keegan was finally tall enough to ride Indiana Jones! That was the good news. The bad news was that it broke down in the dark spear room for about 15 minutes, when they finally got it going again he was not interested in riding it over, even though they offered us a chance to stay in the vehicle for a second lap! Hopefully he won't be spooked. We were supposed to go to DL again on Dec. 14, but I found out that I have to have an emergency oral surgery instead! Lucky me.

I'm not really nervous about the actual procedure, but the recovery. They have to put me to sleep. The last time I was put to sleep was when I was about 18 for wisdom teeth removal. I remember seeing double for a couple hours afterwards and being very grumpy. The doctor told me to have scrambled eggs and pancakes when I got home. When I sat down at the table to eat, still seeing double, my mom had made pancakes, eggs and bacon. She cut them up for me and I was mad that there was bacon when the doctor just said eggs and pancakes. I closed one eye, picked and ate only the eggs and pancakes, leaving the chopped bacon untouched. I can't wait to get home this time and start screaming at people! 

Lightning McQueen

We finally got to meet Lightning and Mater! After the "Doodle Bugs" mishap at MGM it was great to "meet" them. Lightning was reving his engine the whole time. He also had a little camera in the back and a special magic button... 

The magic button!

So what does this button do? We may never know...

What I am reading...

I actually have a few books open right now, depends on my mood.

On my pda, I am reading Luke, the third book of the New Testament, the big put down in Biblical times had to be "you brood of vipers!" Perhaps I will study Bible putdowns someday. I will be a hit at all parties!

(TMI Alert) In my throneroom I have "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" It's about our global economy. I haven't got to the Lexus part yet, but in Roman times, the olive tree was king.

Bedside, I have struggled to read "Great Good Places" It's horribly long-winded, but I feel obligated to read it...I don't know why. It's about how much better your life is when you have a third place in which to gather. This was mentioned in a book I enjoyed "Suburban Nation" but has failed to live up to the hype... so far.

On deck is:
"More Guns Less Crime" How having guns available to us lessens crime.
"Back to Mayberry" How the morals of Mayberry are important.
"Bowling Alone" Robert Putnam's book about developing social capital.
"The Disney Way" Just how they do it.
"Fast Food Nation" I haven't seen it in a while, but it should still be there. It should turn me against fast food forever, I'll start reading it AFTER they stop serving McRibs again...

I have purchased a few more books that I cannot recall right now, but they sounded good at the time.

I actually would like to re-read these books because I like them and want to absorb more:

The Tipping Point
Freakonomics
Suburban Nation
Dennison Iowa
Do Fish Drink Water?

First Time!

Katie is now tall enough to ride autopia by herself! This is something that I remember vividly as a kid. We would go to Disneyland once, maybe twice each year. I can remember the first two years running up to the measuring post only to find out that I wasn't tall enough yet, but the year I was finally able to ride! Wow that was great! One of the things I remember most when I was a kid, was that the smell of exhuast fumes reminded me of Disneyland! Autopia was one source and the busses that used to park close to the entrance of the old parking lot was the other. (where California Adventure is now) We would always walk by them to go to the gate. So I knew we were close when I could smell the fumes! Kind of Pavlovian. I wonder if they will start adding "Cars" characters to Autopia? Perhaps it will happen at WDW first since DL's Autopia had a major upgrade a few years ago with the Chevron sponsorship. By the way major contruction is happing at the submarine lagoon. It's totally drained and shielded from view. I wonder if the Monorails are not operating just to hide the work going on? 

Last Game for Keegan

Saturday was the last game for the Huskies and Keegan scored his first goal of the season! 

Year of a Million Dreams

We were winners again! This time the Dream Squad surprised us with special Year of a Million Dreams Mouse Ears! 

Jedi Training Academy

Darth Vader arrives to taunt the young Jedi 

Disneyland Halloween

Jack-o-lanterns were everywhere! 

Disneyland Halloween

Mike Wazowski! 

Disney Halloween

 

Disneyland Halloween

Love the details 

The Real Great Pumpkin?

The new Halloween display on Main Street 

Master Jedi Katie

Katie smiled a lot more than Keegan, but she did well in her battle with Darth Maul 

Master Jedi Keegan

Back at Disneyland, Keegan and Katie graduated from the Jedi Academy. Keegan battled Darth Vader and Katie Darth Maul, both held their own. It was fun to see how serious Keegan took his training. 

Aqua Boy

Meanwhile, back at Super Friends Headquarters, Aqua Boy continues his ability to seek and find any way to get wet.

PS- Did you know that if you click on any picture, you can see a larger version? I got a few comments during our trip the the pictures were too small... now they are not. 

Disney's Fastest Ride

This is Disney's fastest ride, Test Track. We were cruising by at around 64.4 mph.

As I review our trip pictures, I realize that we did not appreciate the sky and clouds enough. They actually have weather there in Florida. (We do, however, get more weather up here in Lake Arrowhead than I remember we had down the mountain.)

It was usually in the mid 90's during our stay, which seemed to be both the temp and the humidity. When we went during our honeymoon, I didn't notice it being so hot and humid, it probably was, but I didn't notice. 

Everest

The View from the top. Hard to believe that you are looking at the heart of Disney's Animal Kingdom. It's so green, doesn't look like a theme park from here. They did not clear cut the environment when constructing this park. 

How about these kids?

They are growing up so quickly. At least I have been able to pass my fashion sense along to Keegan. 

EPCOT at Night

If I ran Disney, this is where I would live. 

Clock Store

Well, not well placed on this blog, but here is the outside of the clock store. It was in the German pavillion in the World Showcase in Epcot.

EPCOT itself is actually a sore subject for many. Walt's plan of Epcot was for it to be an Experimental Prototype Community Of Tommorow. While I think Walt would be happy with this theme park, it is clearly not what he had planned for Epcot. It was actually supposed to be a designed town with housing, employment, recreation and transportation, but it was supposed to be real, with actual homes, people, soccer games etc. He was on the cutting edge of the Neo Urban movement. I love neo urban or neo traditional ideas. Cities should be walkable, but that's another blog... 

The Sky Was Angry My Friend

This is a shot of Disney's Boardwalk from the Beach Club. About 30 minutes later it poured!