HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008 WAS A GOOD YEAR!

In review the year went by very quickly. I achieve a lot of short term goals and I am basically a very happy old man! I could be happier if I won the lottery but I would only give it to my kids to make their lives just a little bit easier. I spent the last two weeks of the year visiting with all of them! My son Travis and his wife, Amy, hosted the reunion and Christmas celebration! It was wonderful. The visit went by way too fast but we manage to create a bunch of new memories as we caught up with past memories.

The highlight of the visit was getting to know my 5 grand children a lot better then I had before the visit. The oldest boy Joel is a wonderful game player that took way too much pleasure in "beating" his Grand Popsie! The youngest, Meghan, is a beautiful little girl that her Dad will have to watch closely as she grows up! The other three boys, Nathan, Logan and Troy, all have wonderful individual personalities. All the kids love music and many hours was spent on the electric piano or on the X-Box 360 playing "Rock Band"! All four of my kids "play"instruments so it was a pleasure listening to them form a band! I still enjoy listening to my XM radio station playing the 60's music.

We built a 12 foot tall snowman as Portland area was shut down by a major snowfall. I will simply say that it "never" snows in Portland! When it does the city and schools are shut down. When a 12 inch snowfall hits, the city becomes paralyzed. A number of days the traffic on the streets was limited to vehicles with chains. We went sledding in a nearby park. We built a snow jump (made me think of those days as a kid) on which to test our tail bones. We practiced emergency stops to keep from falling into a deep ditch. Everyone had a blast. The hot chocolate after the sledding tasted pretty darn good!

Every night the family played games until it was time to put the 5 grand kids to sleep. Board games, puzzles, video games and shopping on the computer made the time fly by. After the kids went to bed and was dreaming about sugar plums and reindeer, the big kids went right back to playing games and telling stories about adventures from the past and made plans for new ones in the future.

I treated myself to a Christmas present . I sent in a batch of my old super 8 film and had them transferred to a DVD. It was an hour of pure laughter as we watched the kids grow up, friends visit and other major events of our lives. It was a blast and I have sent the remaining film reels in to be transferred. I now need to figure out my Adobe Premiere program and get several "clips" extracted from the DVD and sent to old friends. I am sure that they will be amazed to see themselves so long ago.