This is my brother Kevin.  He lives in Vancouver with his dog Hudson.

Just in case you are wanting to get away for a ski weekend this winter let me give you some valuable help.  Why not travel to the great state of Iowa and try out these slopes?  I am not kidding–people do ski these hills every winter.  Why drive to Colorado when you can go to Iowa?  Oh, and be sure to send me a post card.

Hope all you fathers had a great day and you took time to celebrate with your family.  Today we went over to my parents’ house to celebrate with my dad and then went home and celebrated with my kids.  The kids surprised me with a beautiful lace bark elm tree and my wife got me a shop vac, which she is using while I am typing this!  Nothing like the roar of a shop vac inside a house.  But it is sometimes necessary when you are in a remodeling project.  The picture you see is me with my kids and also if you look behind us you’ll see the mantel that Nate designed and built for Debbie and me.  I just love it!  Not only is it beautiful but it means so much that Nate took the time to design and make it.  Now we just need to get the rest of the fireplace done.

My son Danny is celebrating his 13th birthday this Sunday and he has been “hounding us” to get a dog.  So we headed out to the KSHS to check out all the puppies.  Look what we found. This is Mya.  She is a Golden Retriver/Shepherd mix.  She is very laid back and doesn’t bark a lot (yea!).  My daughter, Sarah, is an aspiring photographer and she loves taking pictures.  (She even has a name for her hobby, Sarah Jane Photography.  No Jane is not her middle name but close friends do call her by that once in a while.)  Anyway–back to the dog–she has already captured the hearts of everyone in our family.  She probably won’t be little for very long though and Danny seems to be just fine with that.

I ran across this picture today as I was cleaning some files off my computer today.  We haven’t changed much at all!!  Life sure goes by super fast.

On Sunday a boy came up to me and asked, “What did you look like when you were my age?”  I told him I would post a picture on my blog for him to look at…and giggle.  I am second from the left in the first row.  I know what you are thinking…what a pretty cool kid.  Check out my sister Jerrilyn with the awesome white gloves!  This was taken in Florence, Colorado in 1968.

Debbie and I were driving through Indiana on the way back from attending my grandma’s funeral and we were so surprised but happy to see this sign.

Last week my dad called me and told me that my grandmother had passed away.  Grandma Kubish was 100 years old and had a full good life.  She had 10 children. my dad being next to the oldest.  So Friday after Christmas Debbie and I drove to Jackson, MI to attend her celebration service.  To see someone’s life affect so many others is such a blessing.  It reminded me how we all have a circle of influence and that we can make someone’s life better because of spending time with them or just encouraging them on a regular basis.  As we look towards 2009 let me challenge you to make a extra effort to be the person that takes time to help and encourage others.

Usually at our house we put up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving or the day after.  But here it is Dec 8th and we just got our tree last night.  Now, I should say that for the first 15 years of our marriage we had a live tree.  In fact, if you were to ask me about a “fake” one I would have  told you that it was “unscriptural” to have a “fake” tree in your house.  Just kidding of course!  After we moved to our current house 9 years ago and had new carpeting, I said, “Let’s get a fake one!”  No need to get sap all over the new carpet. 

But now we are in a remodeling project and we decided since we have no floor covering down we would get a live tree this year.  Soooo last night at 10:30 p.m. Sarah said, “Let’s go to Wal-mart and get one!”  The whole family piled into the truck and off we went.  Nothing like family togetherness.  Philip and I stayed in the truck, mostly because of the way we were dressed…I was wearing black socks, slippers and shorts!  Needless to say I was making a fashion statement and I think the statement was “don’t go out in public.”  Debbie and the kids went in a got a tree. We threw it in the back of the truck and headed home. Now we just have to find time to decorate it.  We still have 17 days before Christmas.