Our Christmas Eve tradition includes dining out at the Chang An Chinese restaurant. This year we are joined by Alan Budris and his three daughters (identical in age to our kids). His youngest, Sarinnagh, is Maya’s best friend. It was a delightful meal spent in the company of delightful people.
The Christmas service at our church ends with the congregation singing Silent Night by candlelight. We are joined this year by my mother and Jeanine’s sister, Susan.
Snow has arrived just in time for Christmas. The Old North Bridge is one of my favorite destinations for snowscapes. I made an early morning stop before a breakfast meeting at the Colonial Inn.
A tough battle for Nicolai this evening in his dual meet against Lincoln Sudbury. Although he wrestled quite well, he faced a superior opponent and lost 14-6. He fought hard till the end and did not give up any back points which is all that can be asked in this situation. His team fared no better losing by a significant margin. My mother and sister-in-law arrived today for the holidays and were in attendance.
Recognizing outstanding financial performance last year, the Home Robots division of iRobot celebrated with a catered lunch and gift raffle. This was but a warm-up for the annual holiday party which is held in late January. Every employee also received a very nice soft shell jacket with the company logo.
My boss treated the team to a magnificent dinner at the Capital Grille after an all-day, off-site, strategy planning session. The company has had an excellent year and as I look back on my decision to leave Sonos I feel very good about it. I have worked my tail off enjoying every minute of it and the results of my efforts are starting to show. Sonos continues to do extremely well and my investment there stands a good chance of paying handsome dividends.
Maya’s friends demonstrated great artistry in the decoration of their gingerbread houses which were nothing short of amazing. The girls managed to ingest a healthy dinner in between snacking on construction components and contemporaneous outbreaks of dancing.
Preparations for a gingerbread house decorating party began yesterday with Jeanine baking the wall and roof panels. I fabricated bases made from Styrofoam. Kyle assisted with wall assembly. Today Nicolai and Holly completed roof construction.
CCHS fell far behind in the opening matches only to finish with several falls (a fall = a pin and counts for 6 team points compared to a normal win which counts for 3) and the victory. Nicolai has been bothered by a shoulder injury so the forfeit (also good for 6 team points) was not unwelcome.
Nicolai’s girlfriend, Holly, attended his wrestling match for the first time this morning. Unfortunately, Lowell Tech forfeited at his 112-pound weight class and he did not have a chance to show off for her.
Trimming the Christmas tree was the family project for this evening, a nice way to celebrate my return from Europe. Kyle selected, retrieved, paid for, and put the angel atop a perfect-sized tree for our living room.
After returning to the George Hotel, I went for an extended walk around the adjacent lake enjoying a fresh 4″ snow cover. The night sky was quite beautiful and if not for the frigid temperatures and an early morning flight I could have spent many more hours exploring this beautiful city.
This morning I traveled to Hamburg, Germany for a meeting with our exclusive distributor and family-run business, Klein & More. After a day of work, we enjoyed a simply exceptional meal with the Klein family and got to know them quite well. Each member of their family was simply delightful and it was with no hesitation that I invited each one of them to visit with our family on their next trip to the US.
The timing of my trip to Europe was designed to overlap with the UK office holiday party. The celebration started with a pool tournament in which US/Pan European bragging rights were at stake. I made it to the semi finals but failed to sink the 8 ball for the match when I had the chance. The Canadian who beat me went on to win, securing the victory for North America. The party then moved to a large club where everyone enjoyed a fine 3 course dinner followed by much drinking and dancing. Please try to ignore the silly hats.
