Ho, ho, ho! Happy Holidays everyone! Are you as busy as I am right now? Gee, you think that as soon as the season is over you are going to have lots of free time to do lots of things that you haven't been doing during the year and then before you know it the holidays are upon us and there aren't enough hours in the day! Of course it is a fun time of the year so it really isn't that bad.

Before I left to go to the PRI show Toni and I spent two days decorating the house and putting the tree up. I think this is a record for me! First off, I usually escape the decorating by testing, going to PRI or just "having to work extra hard in the shop." I think after all of these years, Toni has finally got all of my excuses covered. She wanted to get the tree over Thanksgiving weekend but I talked her out of that so she settled for last weekend. Of course before we got the tree we had to put up the outside lights and then I had to help her with some of the garland hanging. All in all, it really wasn't that bad and the house looks great. The good thing is that we have everything done early enough so that we can enjoy all of the Christmas decorations before it is time to take everything down. 

While Jon has been busy getting everything in the shop done I have had to take some time to spend working on my real estate. One of my tenants is moving at the end of the year and there is a lot of work to be done before they vacate the property. Not only have I been busy trying to find another tenant to take their place but there is an issue of getting the building cleaned out and getting things ready for another tenant to move in. This, of course, may require some demolition so I've got my work boots and my safety helmet ready. I guess the timing isn't really great with the holiday season in full swing but I should have a better idea of what will be involved over the next week or so.

Speaking of next week, we are planning on an early Christmas celebration with Jamie, Cynthy, Ryan and Alli this weekend. This is Jamie and Cynthy's year to spend Christmas in New Hampshire with her family and Alli will be going home to South Carolina for Christmas so we decided to celebrate early so that everyone could be together. That will leave just Melissa, Jon and Toni's dad, Don, for Christmas Day. The way I look at it is it is really like getting two Christmas Days! How fun is that? I hope Santa can keep all of this straight in his gift calendar.

Well, I know this is short but I promised myself that I would at least try to get some Christmas shopping started tonight. My theory is that you never really want to start shopping too early or you miss out on all of the last minute sale items. Right? You guys know what I'm talking about. There are no better sales than on Christmas Eve … of course there isn't a lot left, but that is beside the point. LOL I will admit that the kids are usually pretty good partners when it comes to picking up presents for Toni, especially Melissa, so I don't worry too much about it. Unfortunately, this year Melissa has been busy traveling and working, Jamie has got two more finals, a project and a presentation due on Thursday and he will finally be done with his semester at U of MD. He figures that sleep won't be an option for the next couple of days. Jon is my only hope and I have him buried at the shop so I guess this time I will venture out on my own.

Oh, before I close I want to remind everyone to check out my newly updated Web site when you get a chance at www.jimyates.com . Jon has been working really hard with Don over the last month and he has given our website a whole new look complete with bios on Ryan as well as links to lots of great NHRA sites. Let me know what you think.

I hope everyone gets all of their shopping, wrapping, cooking and decorating done over the next 10 days. Yikes! Did I say 10 days? Oh boy, I better get moving. I'm outta here! Ho, ho, ho!!!!