Christmas Newsletter 2007
Friday, December 21st, 2007
I consulted last year’s web posting to see exactly what date I had my 2006 newsletter prepared, and found that the date was December 18. So I shot for that date again…and made it! Ashleigh and I finished printing, folding, signing, stapling, and mailing them out that evening (also known historically as the day that my garage door opener stopped working and I had to plunk down a few hundred to have a new one installed). In truth, this could have been completed much quicker if I hadn’t procrastinated. After all, I merely had to pull photos from this site and then recap the events already covered here. Briana can also be to blame, as she delayed getting me her write-up until Sunday the 16th. She nearly backed out of getting it done at all – until I yelled at her. Read the rest of this entry »
I have long wanted to find an affordable and legitimate autograph of President Bill Clinton. Although he is one of my favorite Presidents, he is not a very generous signer through the mail and his autographs usually go for quite a pretty penny…and that’s assuming you trust the source in the first place. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to make a donation of $100 to the Bill Clinton Foundation with the promise that I would be awarded a copy of his new book Giving, which included a personally signed bookplate inside. All money over and above the cost of the book is tax deductible, the autograph is guaranteed to be the real deal, and I got to donate a cause that I find worthy - all in one swoop. 
It always seems that there is going to be a long stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so as usual, I delayed even thinking about preparing for Christmas until we got a week or so into December. Then time really begins to fly as I scramble around trying to get everything in place. This year has been no exception. Ashleigh was on her game and went shopping with my Mom and Denise on ‘Black Friday’ (while I worked) and then did more shopping with Derek that weekend, wrapped her gifts, and was pretty much finished with preparations by the end of the weekend. The two of them even got the tree out and put it up on that Sunday, November 25. It wasn’t hard to get to as it had never been put away from the basement the year before. 
The main purpose of this posting is to share these fun and silly photos that Lisa and I took of ourselves in front of our first Christmas tree together, but I also have some vivid memories of the preparations we made for Christmas 1995. Although we had spent Christmas ’94 together, this would be our first one while officially living together in our apartment (with my roommate Larry now gone). So we decided that we were going really dive into this season’s festivities and put up a tree.