Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you and your families have been blessed with great health, happiness and prosperity as the year 2012 starts to unfold. The Yates family is having an awesome year so far; very busy with family, holidays, birthdays, weddings and of course Jim has been extra busy working with A.J. and the team getting ready for Pomona – which is only 23 days away!

I guess you are wondering why I am once again filling in for Jim's blogging. Well, since Christmas he has only been home six days and presently is in Bradenton, Fla., testing with A.J. and most of the other NHRA Pro Stock teams. I did get a report this morning that A.J.'s Dodge (with Richie Stevens behind the wheel) went a 6.48 so I know that the guys were pretty pumped up about that. Those numbers make everyone excited to get to Pomona!

While Jim is working hard on the race team I have been holding down the fort here at home and the shop. In my free time I did get a chance to go through my 900 pictures that I took the weekend of the wedding – hey one cannot have too many pictures to look at! The wedding weekend was amazing. Melissa had a four-page schedule (she is her father's daughter, that's for sure!) and thankfully every day and every event went according to plan. Whew! The weather was awesome, the church was beautiful and the newlyweds were just glowing with love and happiness. Add to that all the special friends and family who were able to share in Melissa and Joey's special day and the weekend was just perfect. It makes me teary to just think about it. LOL

After the wedding we stayed in Charlotte an extra day to attend the Civali's New Year's Eve Party and then headed home on New Year's Day. I had just enough time to get unpacked, get some laundry done and repack Jim so that he could head to A.J.'s shop to work for the week. His schedule has been pretty hectic – working during the week with the race team, home for a couple of days and then back on the road again. Of course, you know Jim, there is nothing he likes better than working, racing, analyzing and tuning a Pro Stock car – well other than maybe driving one!

So now you have been brought up to speed on the crazy, wonderful year that the Yates family has been having. I am looking forward to hearing some more testing results but unfortunately, Bradenton and Jim's phone are rarely compatible – when he arrives at the track it is like he enters the "dead zone." Hopefully I will get a full report when he gets back to the hotel tonight.

With Pomona almost upon us, Jim will most certainly be busy for the next 23 days but I will make sure that he writes next week and fills everyone in on their Bradenton test session. I think that the team will be home for a week before they load up and head west to Vegas for the "Superbowl" race and then Pomona. I will be going to Pomona and then Phoenix and I can't wait. Enough of this "off season" – I'm ready for NHRA racing to begin: 23 days and counting!!

Happy Holidays everyone! There are only three more shopping days until Christmas and are you ready? I am usually one of those people you see running around like crazy Christmas Eve morning picking up all of the things that I realized (in the wee hours of that morning) that I had forgotten. But this year, things are surprisingly calm, all of the presents are wrapped, the house is decorated and I only have a few things left to do before hosting our Yates Family Christmas Eve celebration on Saturday night. Gee, Jim has only been home a couple of days during the last two weeks and things around here are calm – Hmmmmmm I wonder if there is a connection? LOL

As Jim told you in his last blog, he has been testing with AJ and the team in Bradenton, Fla., all week and it sounds like things have gone very well. I know that they had a long list of "things to do" which encompassed every aspect of the car from the engines and carburetors to the chassis and car setup. Since AJ is still recovering from the surgery on his right arm and can't drive, they have enlisted Ritchie Stevens to take over the driving duties and Jim said he could not be any happier with their results.

Unfortunately Jim's phone is not a happy player in Bradenton and he has almost no phone service so I have had to catch up with him on his way to and from the track. (This is usually at 6:30 a.m. or 10 p.m.) I can’t tell you how many runs they have made but it sounds like they have been running consistent low 6.50s. He was really happy with the 6.51 pass that they made yesterday afternoon and was looking forward to trying a few more things today before they had to pack up and head home. I haven't heard from him yet today so I am assuming that no news is good news. I do know that a successful test session is exactly how this team wants to start their 2012 season.

Jim will return home late tonight and we will look forward to a pretty quiet Christmas weekend – well, quiet by Yates family standards! Our usual crazy Yates Christmas Eve celebration will only be attended by 12 of us this year. It is just one of those years - most of the kids are visiting other family members this holiday. We actually celebrated Christmas with Jon, Alli, Jamie, Cynthy and the kids last Saturday because they will all be visiting their in-laws this year for Christmas and won't be here.

I am really looking forward, however, to Melissa and Joey arriving tomorrow evening – even if it will be a quick trip and of course my Dad will join us for Christmas day. After that, let the fun and excitement begin! Eight days until Melissa and Joey get married in Charlotte and I am so excited for the big day to finally arrive. I will leave on Monday evening and fly down to help them with the final preparations and Jim will join us on Wednesday.  Melissa and Joey have done all of the planning for their big day and it promises to be a wonderful celebration. I can't wait for the 30th to arrive! Maybe having a quiet Christmas is just what we will need to get us ready for what promises to be an amazing wedding weekend – right?

Well, I had hoped to hear from Jim before I finished writing this, but still no word so I will have him give you more details of testing when he writes his next blog. We may be a little busy next week so we probably won't have a chance to write again until after the wedding and New Year's but we will be sure to write soon and share lots of pictures of Melissa and Joey's big day. Before I close I want to wish everyone a very joyous holiday season. May peace and happiness be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through. Merry Christmas and Happy 2012 from our family to yours!!
 

Dashing down the road
In my race track Chevy Blazer,
Thinking to myself
Could things get any crazier???

Happy Holidays everyone! Tis the season, right? Well at least around my place it is! I have been caught up in a non-stop whirlwind since Thanksgiving with lots of things going on for the holidays as well as getting things geared up for the 2012 racing season. Did I really just see on NHRA.com that we are only 54 days away from Pomona. Yikes!

Well, after celebrating a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with my family it was off to A.J.'s shop for a week to work on the rig and race cars with Mark and the crew. After a year of non-stop racing it is amazing how unorganized things can get in a trailer. We spent a week unloading, cleaning, organizing, repacking, shipping out parts and ordering parts in anticipation of our upcoming test session.

I got home just in time for Toni to leave for a weekend trip to Key West with Melissa, Alli, her friend Callie and Aunt Loren. They called it just a "girl's trip" but it really was Melissa's bachelorette celebration. Every time I got a picture from them they were lounging by the pool or watching the sunset. Should I mention that it was freezing here at home. When I asked Toni what they did all weekend she told me they laid by the pool, read books, went to dinner and just relaxed – just what they wanted to do. That sure doesn't sound like my weekends spent in Key West!

Well, with Toni gone what was I suppose to do with myself? My brother and nephew decided to decorate their house for Christmas to surprise Aunt Loren when she got home so now I was really going to look bad when I told Toni that I had to work at the shop all weekend and didn't have time to do anything around the house. This certainly looked like a trip to Home Depot was definitely on the list of things to do. I surely wasn't going to sit around the house and do nothing and it was way to cold to wax the boat (besides it isn't docked behind the house during the winter).

I couldn't let my brother make me look bad either so I decided to decorate the front of the house and the yard. Fifteen boxes of net lights, several feet of lighted garland, a door wreath along with a big red bow and the yard was done. I must say, I was even proud of myself! Unfortunately, it was only noon, now what was I going to do? Luckily my brother was bored too so he came over, picked me up in his new car and we spent the day driving all over the city, stopping for an occasional snack and just having a fun day as brothers.

By the time Toni got home, (and she totally was impressed with my decorating skills), the only thing left on my Christmas "to-do" list was to get the Christmas tree. Not a problem! It was off to see my good friend Carrie Nalls and before Toni got back from the shop I had the tree at the house.  Well, technically it was still in the van because it took both of us to drag that tree in the house and upright it. Toni said that it wasn't any worse than carrying a transmission but I think she has been away from carrying her transmissions way too long. A twelve foot tree with a trunk diameter of 10 inches is way heavier than any transmission that I have ever carried.

Once again, it was time to impress Toni with my decorating skills. I offered to put the lights on the tree while she did some shopping. How hard can that be? Of course I had to run back up to Home Depot to pick up a few hundred more lights but that should only take me a few minutes, right? Ha! The only lights on the shelves of 5 stores were LED lights and I was told that those were not going on our Christmas tree. Oh boy, what did I get myself into now? Finally, several more stops and a few hours later, I had bought every regular little white light set that I could find in the area. Now it was time to get them all on the tree.

Well, as they say the rest is history. The tree got decorated without any more problems, Toni finished decorating the inside of the house and though she still has some shopping to do, I definitely made some points with the elves this Christmas.

I didn't get to enjoy the tree for too long as I had to hit the road again and head back to Greeneville, TN to spend this week at the Johnson & Johnson racing shop. This time we were getting engines in the race car and getting everything ready for our first week of testing. We finally got the last part loaded yesterday evening, everyone loaded up and drove home for the weekend…well at least part of it.

I got home about 1:00 am this morning, have spent today in the office, will celebrate an early Christmas tomorrow with Jamie, his family and Jon and Alli and then will fly to Bradenton, Florida early Sunday morning. Our plan is to get everything set up in Bradenton on Sunday and officially start testing for our 2012 season early on Monday morning. We will test Monday through Thursday and then fly home in time for Christmas and then Melissa's wedding on December 30. Fun times ahead!!!

Thanks to all of you for your patience in waiting for my blogs. I will be pretty busy next week but Toni has promised me that she will write a blog and let everyone know how testing is going and fill you in on our early Christmas celebration with the kids. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season and I really hope that those of you that don't want LED lights on your trees already have regular lights bought. By the way, do you know what is even better than catching the Christmas spirit? It is allowing the Christmas spirit to catch you! Enjoy your holidays everyone because after all…Tis the Season!
 

Wow! I guess time flies when you are having fun, right? Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! I just realized that it's time that I finally cleared off my desk and sat down to write a long overdue blog. At my last post I was on my way to Vegas where I was very optimistic about our chances of running well and luckily we were not disappointed. Another final round appearance was just the momentum that A.J. and this entire Mopar team needed as we headed to Pomona for the final race of the year.

Jim and Bob

Toni and Bonnie

What an awesome final race it was. Can you say nail-biting excitement? I know that the Pro Stock champion, Jason Line, was already crowned but in all of the other professional categories the championship and the final points order came down to the last rounds of elimination. A.J. was well on his way to his third straight final when his Dodge Avenger hit a slick spot on the track in the semi's and he was forced to lift. Though I know that he was really disappointed, we were all very proud that he had moved into fourth place in the points standings. Congratulations to A.J., Roy, Mark, and the entire Mopar Team for a great season. I was really glad that I could be a part of such a talented team even if it has only been for three races. All I can say is I can't wait until next year!

After the race in Pomona, Toni and I spent a couple of extra days enjoying some of our favorite places in and around the L.A. area. Of course a couple of relaxing days to Toni equates to running on the beach every day and. oh yeah, let's don't forget our 20-mile bike ride we had to go on. If it had been up to her we would have biked the entire coastal bike path so I guess I am lucky that we only had time for 20 miles! I will grudgingly admit that I couldn't beat the view – I mean how often do I get to bike along the Pacific Ocean? Just saying!

After our two days of relaxation – I think that she got even with me for the boat waxing day – we headed home. Since being home we have taken advantage of some nice weather, had time to clean up our yard, play with our grandkids, and catch up around the shop. We also had time to meet up with some of our old high school friends, Bob and Bonnie, who were in town for the weekend for a nice relaxing dinner. And this time I mean relaxing! LOL We met at National Harbor for dinner and then found a quiet spot where we sat and talked for hours trying to catch up on the last 20 years. Now, between us we have seven kids and seven grandkids so you can only imagine what we talked about. It's funny how that happens, huh?

Anyway, now is the time to start preparing for the holidays – yikes I can't believe that it is that time again! This is one of my favorite times of the year and I can't wait for the festivities to begin. We are hosting a big Thanksgiving Day at our house this year and at last count I think Toni said that we are going to have about 19 family and friends joining us. This year all of our kids are home for Thanksgiving which only happens every other year – I'm sure many of you can relate to that – and I am so thankful to have all my kids (and grandkids) together along with Toni's dad, my brothers and their families, my nephews, and also Alli's mom. It promises to be a really awesome day.

Well, I promised myself that I wouldn't get too longwinded in my blog today but before I close I want to wish everyone a very blessed Thanksgiving holiday. May the bounty of the season fill your heart and home and may you not gobble till you wobble! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!