Happy New Year!

"For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning." - T.S. Eliot

"Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." - Benjamin Franklin

Cheers to 2008!

Random pictures

The Bjerke gals at Christmas


My apple tree still has apples!

"It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you ... Yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand."

Mother Teresa

Christmas Baking

Busy, busy

Allie attempting to help

Allie was really interested in the divinity-making process (I believe this was round two for the divinity and Shelly jumped in to help)!

Mom, Aunt Jan (left) and Aunt Louise (right) putting the finishing touches on the goodies

Christmas baking has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. I started tagging along to help a few years ago. I think it might have been shortly after Mike and Louise moved to England. I'm not much help, I only made one thing this year and it simply required that I melt some white chocolate chips and add cheerios and fruit. After that, I chased Allie around and entertained with some Christmas music on the piano. But it's still fun. We'll bring all the goodies to our Christmas gathering in Sioux Falls tomorrow and we shipped a box to Grandma and Grandpa in Texas. They should get it Christmas Eve, so they'll have goodies to enjoy on Christmas as well.

A visit from an old friend ...

Heather was back in town, so Steve and I met her downtown for a couple drinks. It was great seeing her again. My old student, Lindsie, was out and about as well.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas tree

With just over 1,000 lights!

Cutest Christmas Toddler Ever!

The Larson kid's holiday party was last Friday night and I tagged along. Nichole came over to get me so I could do Allie's hair (or at least attempt to do her hair). She doesn't have much, but I managed to get those pigtails in. She was so adorable. She seemed to have a good time, but as you can see in the picture above she doesn't quite know what to make of Santa. But she loves her suckers! Her mother took one away from her and she was not pleased with that. Grandma ended up getting her another one, which ended up in my hair. Of course. All the kids that attended got Christmas presents and they were also able to make some crafts and decorate some cookies. Allie was totally digging her rockin' Elmo guitar!

The Richest Man in Town

I had the opportunity to read this book shortly after it came out. Anyone and everyone who has read this book knows Marty as the "Wal-Mart guy". Well, I knew him long before he was ever the "Wal-Mart guy".

My mom started working for the Volga Tribune shortly after I was born. Marty worked for Reynold's Printing, which shared a building with the newspaper. I think I first met Marty when I was two. He was always grandpa Marty (and continued to be grandpa Marty to so many kids that went through his cashier line). I found out last night that Marty was an influence in my mother's decision to pursue her art. He convinced her that if she entered a contest for a logo design that she would win. He even bet a steak dinner on it! Well, she did enter ... and she won. I believe that foundation is still using her logo to this day. The book talks about how Marty believes in people and my mom is the proof that that wasn't something that just came about in his old age. He always believed in people.

V.J. Smith (author of the book and good friend of Marty's) was speaking last night at the Old Sanctuary. It seems that a publishing company has picked up this little book and is bringing it to the masses. My mom knows V.J. and I remember when he spoke at my college graduation. He is an excellent speaker and, quite honestly, an exceptional person. He takes little credit for bringing Marty's life lessons to everyone. So, mom and I stopped down. She had a copy of the book, but has since lost track of it. I'm sure someone, somewhere is enjoying it right now. Well, we had to get her another copy and V.J. was signing the books too. We missed the majority of his speech but the tail end was pretty good! Mom bought me a copy too. When I got home last night, I sat down intending only to read the forward by the founder of the publishing company. I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to put it down. I read the whole thing .... again. I read it straight through the first time I read it too. And both times I cried my eyes out.

This is truly an exceptional book about the most wonderful man. The world certainly needs a lot more people like Marty in it.

If you have not read this book, you need to. While not everyone has had the opportunity to meet Marty or someone like him, this book gives you the best insight to how great he was.

'Tis the Season!

My company holiday party was held Friday and Saturday night (Nov. 30 and Dec. 1). I've been filling the position of Employee Committee president this year and though I wasn't on the planning committee for the party, I did create all the marketing elements for it.

Friday night was packed, we had approximately 900 people in attendance. (After maxing out the Swiftel Center last year, we had to hold the party over two nights this year.)

I awoke Saturday morning to snow ... lots and lots of snow. There were times throughout the day that we wondered if we would even have the party that evening. But 7" of snow won't keep us crazy South Dakotans from a good party. While we were expecting 800 people Saturday night, we ended up with approximately 425. It was still a great time and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

Both nights featured music from the SDSU String Ensemble. They were fantastic! And guests enjoyed games of Texas Hold'Em, Black Jack, Roulette and Craps. Guests were also able to enter into drawings for various prizes and we held a live drawing at the end of each night. Employees still received door prizes and we still had our grand prize drawings. Two lucky employees (one from each night) went home with a Wii. I was really hoping that we wouldn't draw names of people that were in attendance and that I might be able to take it home! No such luck.

Hats off to the committee that planned the event and to the rest of my Employee Committee members for helping to pull it all off.

"Lucky You" was the theme for this year's company holiday party

Amanda, Dawn and myself enjoying the activities