Post Christmas Ramblings

The Monday after Christmas. The roads were empty and the traveling was quite easy as hundreds and thousands of workers take the post Christmas week as a final week of vacation. Darla is living that dream this week as I toil away at work. The roads were a little slick due to an incessant rain that held off over the weekend, but greeted me as I left the garage at 6:30 this morning. I hope all of you had a wonderful family time over the Christmas holiday and were able to concentrate on the true meaning of Christmas. Darla and I enjoyed the Christmas Eve service at church as each of the pastors and their families were on stage at church and read through the Christmas story in the New Testament. There were Christmas hymns and some tremendous contemporary songs that made you realize what Joseph and Mary were going through as Jesus was to be born and the scorn that they had to endure simply for being chosen by God to deliver his Saviour to a needy world.

We talked to Jennifer on Christmas Day. She actually had to work on Christmas, but was able to enjoy a Christmas repast with her unit on the night of December 24th with a gift exchange and some good food. It was great hearing from her, but she is sure missing home right now.

Darla, Alicia and I were able to make the trek up to Reno on Thursday night for the party. It was COLD in Reno with overnight lows in the twenties and highs only reaching the upper thirties. (For those of you in Canada, that is in the Fahrenheit scale and just barely creeping above freezing.) The party was at some friends' house in Sparks. I don't know the people well as they are friends from Lake Almanor and I only manage a day or two up at the lake every Summer. The house was literally packed with people when we arrived and Darla and Alicia got stuck in the coat room talking to people as I stole away to the garage and a spot by the tv for the Wyoming-UCLA game. I found a cold bottle of Samuel Adams and a vacant chair and visited with the host Bob's father, who lives in El Dorado, a small town up near Placerville in California. We never really had a chance to visit with our hosts as the party was too large and we made plans to have breakfast with them the next morning.

We stayed at the Atlantis Casino, which is our favorite casino. They offered us a free tower room and Alicia was able to get a tower room for $39. It helps to be members of their frequent player club and we receive offers from them about every other month. The nice thing for us is that the Atlantis is located away from the grunge of downtown Reno out near the Peppermill west of town. We met up with Bob and his parents the next morning at the Silver Club in Sparks and had a great breakfast. I won $30.00 on a nickle machine with four threes as we waited and it paid for our breakfast. Bob's father, Frank, and his wife, Joni, invited Darla and I up to their home in El Dorado in the New Year and we will probably take them up on it. El Dorado is an old gold mining town and is rich in the history of California.

This was a bit of an odd Christmas for me as Darla took control of the gift buying, even to the point of buying her own gifts. She told me that given my new responsibilities at work that she'd take that burden from me and she had our Christmas shopping done by December 1st. I had the joy of not only being surprised at opening my own gifts, but also by finding out what I'd bought Darla. I was quite generous this year and bought her a new set of Pampered Chef cookware, several outfits and a new robe. Cheryl bought me a golf shirt as well as a personalized golf hat from their country club, Berrywood. It has my name on the back. Darla received a makeup case and a coat from Darryl. We are still involved in the gift exchange with family and we had Darryl and Cake this year. Darla bought Darryl a new sweatsuit and I bought Cake some handmade Jewelry from the Darla Lyon line. The boys came over about 11:30 on Christmas morning and we opened gifts before hosting a dinner for Darla's Mom and Dad, brother and his family and her sister, Alicia. We had a nice family day and relaxed and talked after a huge meal of turkey and all the trimmings.

We have no great plans for New Years and will relax at home on both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Our tradition is to have a few families over and have a game day on New Year's day.

My staff surprised me on the 23rd by calling me into the conference room and serenading me with "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and giving me a gift certificate to my favorite Lobsterhouse in the Sacramento area. The song and gift were very special, but the words that they wrote in the card that accompanied it were priceless. The staff is happy and looks forward to coming to work and you can't put a price on that. I have a great group working with me and for me and 2005 will be one for the books.

I was contacted last week by the business editor of the Sacramento Bee, Jack Sirard. I entered a stock contest last year and finished sixth in the contest. I had chosen a stock called Waste Industries USA. If you ever have to pick a stock for an annual contest, pick a well managed waste hauler or funeral service or utility, all things that are fairly recession proof. Anyhow, Jack called to see if I wanted to enter a pick for next year's contest. I told him I'd give it some thought and send him an e-mail. This year I picked KKD, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. It is currently trading at $11.75, down from a high of $40 a share last year. The Atkins craze of 2004 is to blame and I see the stock rebounding nicely in 2005, perhaps even doubling in price. Jack called back and said he wants me to come into the Bee's photo studio tomorrow for a photo session as part of his story on January 2nd. They will have plenty of Krispy Kremes on hand and I'll be there. It should be a fun experience. I'll fill you in more next week.

As this year slowly closes this week, it was really a good year for the Lyons here in California. I had some great success professionally and Darla is continuing to excel at her job and to make life better for so many of her clients that can't do for themselves. The boys have both shined not only academically, but in sports as well. Jennifer is literally reinventing herself as a person and as a citizen and she has my utmost respect for her sacrifice for this country. I couldn't be prouder of her and I look forward to watching her progress in life as she finishes her military career and carves a life for herself in the private sector. Her prospects are very bright for her future. David is looking also to his future as he works toward his college plans and decides what he will do with his future. It is an exciting time. 2005 will bring our family trip to Hawaii and we look forward to spending time with the boys in Kauai. 2005 will also bring Jennifer home and in 2006 Darla and I have promised Jen a vacation in Puerto Vallarta at our condo and we have that to look forward to. And all of that is by the grace of our Lord and Savious, Jesus Christ. Amen?

I wish each of you an interesting and exciting New Year with all of the blessings that our Lord has in store for each of you. Take care, be good to each other and I hope to see all of you in the New Year. Ciao.