The forgotten Christmas Message

So while tidying up over the holidays we realized we did not send out our Christmas cards. Sorry to those who might have been waiting for them.

Here was our message to all!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Has it really been a year already? Holy smokes time flies. For the most part we had a pretty good year. I’ll start with what the little people have been up to and move to the big people in just a bit.

Emma is now a very busy three year old princess. She finally has hair and more than anyone has grown into her own this year. She splits her days between a private home and daycare and loves it all. We never have a problem knowing how she feels about something as she will quickly let us know. Christmas can be summed up with “Can I have that” to every TV ad. Honestly she is a joy to be around I now at least have her convinced to she is Mommy AND Daddy’s girl (a big step)!

Liam is days from his seventh birthday and is working very hard in Grade One. His social calendar is busier than ours. He began his baseball career and totally enjoyed his summer being a fish in the pool and spending time with his huge family. Star Wars, SpiderMan, and Pokemon are popular and if I make a day without stepping on Lego it’s a good one.. His birthday party is this weekend at my work in the movie theatre for fourteen of his best buddies (Yes we are crazy!)

Jen’s had a tough year. She spent much of the first half living as a Married Single Mother as I was gone a lot for work. Thru that she suffered endless migraines due to jaw problems. She is working with Public Health working with new Moms and babies, teaching prenatal classes and in the schools. She had major surgery in August when she had her jaw broken, some removed and then wired shut for a month. While she laughed about dropping a few pounds she was miserable but to date the migraines have been greatly reduced and I believe I am the fault of those that arrive now. She has fit a little time in for herself but I always want her to do more.

I am still at SureShot Dispensing traveling the US talking to those who will listen to me about how I can make their coffee better. I’ve talked to lots of folks this year as I’ve been in 30 states to date. I was gone pretty well somewhere every week from Feb-May. It’s not as bad as it sounds I’m usually only 2-3 nights at a time. But I’ve been in some really cools places like California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and most of the Mid Atlantic and North East. For sales fans at home I finished at 175% of budget! I did get to do some really dream like stuff too like get my picture taken with the Red Sox trophy, visit the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, a NASCAR trip to Dover, and concerts like the Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and U2. Coolest of all? I won a trip to pro stock car racing school! I’ve kept track of a lot of it on a web log I started so I could remember where I’ve been http://robmaccormick.blogspot.com/

While I was gone a lot we made sure of the time that we did get together as a family. Sometimes it’s pretty simple like family movies or chillin’ by the pool out back. It seemed to be the summer of the family reunion as we enjoyed a Brown family reunion in July and a Sharkey reunion in August. I challenge the Mac’s to do something in Cape Breton next year! Chateau Mac was rocking a few times too for events like the Deckstravaganza. On top of that we attended more weddings than ever. Jen and I got to spend a great weekend in Chicago and Cleveland in March for a work sponsored conjugal visit. We just came back from a concert trip to Montreal a few weeks back. Travelling this much for work racks up the air miles, hotel points and rental car points. We are booked to go to San Francisco in April on points too! WOOHOO

While this mostly sounds great there has been some not so great stuff too. We were saddened by the losses of family friends Philip Macleod and Veronica Burke who both fought brave battles. Toughest was losing Uncle Doug this summer to cancer. I was honored to give his Eulogy and think of him everytime I look at my LIVESTRONG bracelet or hear a Willie Nelson tune just like I said I would.

But to you and yours we wish nothing but the best for this Holiday Season and in all of 2006.

A bit of Gaelic for you…
Nollaig Shona daoibh go léir agus Athbhlian faoi shéan is faoi mhaise daoibh, agus go mba seacht fearr sinn go léir ag an am seo ar an bhlian seo chugainn!
Merry Christmas to you all and a happy and prosperous New Year to you all and may we all be seven times better off at this time next year!

Love,
Rob, Jen, Liam, and Emma

HO HO HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Happy holidays. Nothing like the chaos of the season to pull things all together. I went to Syracuse, NY this week. Winter is there big time. Last trip of the year. Man, what a year of go go go. I went to the restarant listed above and it was crazy. Great BBQ. I wound up dragging home 45lb of sauces. Work is not the most productive place today. It's the boy's 7th birthday today. Hard to believe. The goobers are wound for sound for Christmas. Feels almost strange saying Christmas. Pisses me off that we have to be so careful sometimes. Oh well. Watch for a year in review coming up soon. BE SAFE!

Holy Crap It's Been Quite A Year

A year ago tonight I started this blog. I wondered if I'd keep it up. But I have more or less. I looked back thru some entries a while back. I've hit 29 states so far this year I'm hoping there might be one more trip to somewhere new so I can bump that number up. If not no sweat I've seen and done plenty this year. In the next few entries I'll dig around and see what I might have missed. Like say some Christmas shopping.