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...