Christmas 2010

Jennifer sent on pictures of Samantha's Christmas. Times are tight for the kids in Vegas, but they both now have jobs and Samantha will soon start in a three day a week pre-school. It will be a great thing for Samantha as an only child and because of the difference in Jennifer and John's work schedules, she will only have to go three days a week. That said, a private pre-school is $600 a month for three days a week. Jennifer's boyfriend Michael got some deals at the dollar store and had Jennifer wrap them, so Sam had a lot of toys to open. She got clothes and a remote control car and other things to amuse a 3 year old. We talked to Jennifer today from her work and she said this was Sam's best Christmas ever and it will only get better. I think it was special this year because Jennifer was out of work and got to set up the tree and house for Christmas with Samantha.

More good news in that I was able to get the flights changed for Sam and Jennifer and they will now fly in on Monday night, January 10th and stay until Thursday January 13th. It will be a short visit, but Jennifer can't afford to take much time off right now and she will only have to miss one day as I set her flight up after work on the Monday night. Our plan is to take Tuesday and Wednesday off while they are here and head up to the snow on Tuesday. We may get a condo up in Lake Tahoe on Tuesday night and come back on Wednesday. Darla's parents will have dinner with us Wednesday night and Lucas and his parents will also join us as Sam wants to meet her second cousin (Lucas is actually Jennifer's cousin).

Our holiday was full of family and a recuperating son. David had his oral surgery on Thursday and is actually doing great. He doesn't remember much from the day of the surgery, but has been remarkably pain free and even ate a small helping of prime rib on Saturday night. The boy is a trooper. We had the boys join us mid day and opened a few gifts (they are both going clothes shopping with their Mom this week). Darla's parents and Alicia, Don and Lucas then joined us for Christmas dinner. We fixed an 11 pound prime rib that although it was still frozen in the middle when we put it in the oven, turned out great. The middle was rare and the sides well done and there was plenty for everyone. Darla and I even had prime rib sliders with aus jus after everyone left Saturday night. We played pool, cards, and relaxed and visited with the family into the early evening when everyone packed up and headed home. Darla and I were able to relax in sweats and slippers for the rest of the evening.

I made it out on Friday with a nice break in the rainstorms and played golf with Boyd. I struggled after the week off on the front, shooting a 43, but rebounded on the back with a 39 for an 82. I was actually even par through six holes on the back and finished with three straight bogeys. Boyd said it is amazing how I always manage to finish with an 81 or 82. I guess I found my number. I plan to play on Friday again this week and hopefully one other day. Tomorrow is dry with another round of rain coming in on Tuesday.

We are poised at work to finish the year strong. We are already (as of Thursday) ahead of our December 2009 in both gross premium and retained net income, so the party continues. We will have to work hard in 2011 to match the strides we made in the office this year. I have the chief underwriting officer of our company owned insurance company coming out to visit us in January. This is the guy who choked on a piece of meat and ended up with a tear in his esophagus and spent two weeks in the hospital in Folsom on his last visit. I told him that we'd bring the food processor with us to dinner and whatever he orders will be made into a delicious shake,

I was able to get out over the weekend and clean up the yard of the last of the leaves and debris and to clean out the pool. I also washed the car for the first time in a month. I go to the car wash, but it is a poor substitute for rolling up your sleeves and washing the car. The front of the car and the grill are what needs attention as the soft brushes that the car wash uses doesn't scratch the surface, but also doesn't do a very good job of removing bugs.

Darla and I had a lite Christmas. I bought her a Wii Fit and a new lens for her camera and she got me some clothes. We both decided to plan a weekend away in late January or February as our gift to each other.

Darla will cook another prime rib next Saturday as we have our annual New Years' party for our friends. We will play pool, dice and card games, watch some football and eat ourselves silly and all start a diet plan the next day. Our friends look forward to the gathering as do we.

Well, this is the last blog of 2010. I will return with more epistles in 2011. Ciao.