Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'???

Well Old Man Winter has checked into his suite and has made his presence known to all - as evidenced by Pat's 13 quilts, electric blanket, three duvets, and hot chocolate on her nightstand...body temperature having reached a balmy 131 degrees, she has settled into her winter routine - shivering during hibernation.  I think she plans to produce a new DVD - "Shivering to the Top 40 Hits" that will appear on some shopper's channel for $19.95 with a free bonus to the first 10 people to order - a second DVD entitled "Shivering to the Classics" along with a free ShamWOW - plus separate shipping and handling, of course.

Neighbors have begun the Christmas ritual of shipping freshly-baked cookies across the street, so Pat has the oven roaring and chocolate chips flying through the air (conveniently sampling one of every three - for quality assurance purposes only...ha!).  The three little Hammer kids just dropped off their second baking adventure of the season - the first was chocolate covered pretzels - Pat made me eat them so that she could maintain her "gotta fit into my jeans diet" - oh well, her loss as they were delicious!!!

We're getting ready to head south for the holiday - our yearly ritual of I-94 to I-57 to I-70 to St. Louis.  Things have gotten more complicated with Billy and Jenny now in Kansas and split holidays becoming the norm.  Oh well, we'll adapt.  Billy has become quite the hunter and has a freezer full of venison which means they won't see the inside of the butcher shop until 2014.  His third deer of the season was a large buck (previous trophies were much tastier female varieties) as depicted in these photo attachments.  Jenny is a marvelous chef and creates very interesting delicious twists on traditional recipes when she is not herding wayward kids at her job as a lead teacher at the Head Start program in Manhattan, KS.  She's collecting anecdotes in anticipation of authoring a best selling book someday - you can't make up some of the stories these kids are acting out.

Bwana Billy

Recent adventures into the political world have landed me a new gig - President of the VanBuren and Kalamazoo Counties Tea Party.  We've already gotten very active in vetting conservative candidates to replace Debbie Stabenow, current U.S. Senator from Michigan and former Politburo member.  Where do the Democrats dig up these characters.  Oh well, we're working hard to bring the country back to the principles of its founding - old fashioned "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Stop...and take it all in

Well, the motorcycles are put to bed for a long winter's nap - however, we are already mapping out routes westward for 2012.  Hope to set the GoldWing on a course for the Rockies and beyond sometime in July next year with a number of day trips in the Midwest as practice runs.  Pat is already practicing sleeping upright on the passenger seat (as seen in the attached photo).  She's become quite the navigator - her internal GPS is set on "shopping" so I get a gentle nudge in the back when she spies "Sale" signs along the highways and biways - more like "buy"ways...

Pat practicing navigation...

Well, back to winter - here's hoping that all of you will enjoy the Merriest Christmas ever - but don't forget the true meaning of this holiday and the greatest gift we all enjoy!  Best wishes to you all.