Christmas2007

Hello,

Our favorite time of the year once again! We love reflecting on the many joyous times of Christmases past and enjoying the blessings of the present. We hope that your blessings approach or exceed ours.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Here's what we've been up to in 2007:

Eric's company, Altruist Financial Advisors LLC, continues to grow exponentially. As of the end of 2007, he has about $83 million in assets under management.

Melissa continues as a part-time nurse at Spectrum Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI.
Winter Vacations: We went on our first-ever family ski vacation, to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In addition to four days of fabulous skiing (well, actually, three days of fabulous skiing and one day where it was too warm and the snow was mushy), we also spent a day mushing dog-sleds. It was a wonderful "once in a lifetime" experience.
Summer Vacations: We spent two weeks at our family's cottage in NW Michigan on beautiful Crystal Lake (where we were glad to be joined by Lisette's friend, Sarah). We also spent a week at our favorite summer camp, Camp Michigania.
Renovations: Our massive home renovation begun in spring 2005 continued and is (finally) complete! Notably, we did lots of landscaping, installed in-ground sprinklers, and re-paved our LONG driveway.
Toys: We finally got a (John Deere) lawn tractor to mow our approximately two acre lawn. Mowing time went down from about 5 hours to about 1.5 hours. It's kind of fun to ride the tractor too! We waited far too long to make this purchase — it was a false economy ...
Cars: Eric's beloved 2006 Scion xB, named "Boxy", is no more. It gave its life to save Eric's in a Christmas Eve accident, during which it was totaled. Eric walked away without a scratch or even a bruise. We are sad to lose Boxy, but are now in the fun process of shopping for a new car! Boxy, bought for $14,961 in September 2005, was worth $13,677.92 in December 2007 -- that's what our insurance company paid for the total loss. Boxy averaged 34.23 miles per gallon over her 39,000 mile life (EPA numbers: 30 city, 33 hwy). 34% of the time, Boxy went at least 400 miles between fill ups. The best gas mileage was 43 mpg (499 miles on a tank). The worst ever gas mileage was an aberration -- 22 mpg (245 mpg on a tank -- going 80 mph with two bikes on the roof against a headwind). The 22 mpg was the only tank of gas that had less than 29 mpg.
Entertainment: Our daughter has named Eric's recumbent exercise bike, "E.B.", which is short for Exercise Bike. This fall, Eric started a routine of waking up at about 5:00 am to ride E.B. He's been diligent in doing so about half the time.
Athletics: Our son Morgan participated in soccer (one of only two freshmen to start on varsity), basketball, tennis, and Tae Kwon Do (purple belt). Our daughter Lisette played soccer (both Spring and Fall) and swam "competitively."
Scouting: Eric continues as an extremely enthusiastic and active Assistant Scoutmaster. Eric took a week-long class on advanced scoutmastership at Philmont Training Center in New Mexico. He attended the troop's week-long summer camp for the fourth consecutive year, as well as most of the monthly outings. He remains webmaster of his troop's web site. Eric is in the process of attempting to start a Venturing Crew (i.e., boy scouting for high school-aged boys and girls). Eric also recently became Assistant Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner for his district. As a merit badge counselor for ten merit badges, he has now served as counselor for 26 successful merit badge completions over the past four years.
Good movies seen: Letters From Iwo Jima, Night at the Museum, Ratatouille, Evan Almighty, Hannibal, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Mr. Bean's Holiday.
Current Favorite TV shows: Eric is addicted to Mythbusters (Discovery Channel), The Simpsons (on Fox), Desperate Housewives (ABC), and The Office (NBC). By using a DVR, he is able to watch his chosen shows independent of their scheduling, and commercial free.
Good books read: This year Eric read (I read a few of these to our children -- most of the rest were read in my car via "books on tape/CD"): The Jungle (Upton Sinclair), Farmer Boy (Laura Ingalls Wilder), Time and Again (Finney), On the Banks of Plum Creek (Laura Ingalls Wilder), From Time to Time (Finney), By the Shores of Silver Lake (Laura Ingalls Wilder), The Age of Reason (Thomas Paine), Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman (Richard P. Feynman), Ironweed+ (William Kennedy), Tortilla Flat (John Steinbeck), The Good Earth+ (Pearl Buck), A History of the Theory of Investments (Mark Rubinstein), Yes Your Teen is Crazy: Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind (Bradley), East of Eden (John Steinbeck), The Accidental Tourist (Anne Tyler), The Midwife's Apprentice* (Cushman), Out of the Dust* (Hesse), Hours+ (Cunningham), Walk Two Moons* (Creech), The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder), Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich (Kriegel), Empire Falls+ (Russo), I'm OK-You're OK (Harris), The Whipping Boy* (Fleischman), The Slave Dancer* (Fox), Island of the Blue Dolphin* (O'Dell), Breathing Lessons+ (Anne Tyler), Little Town on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder), Dicey's Song* (Voigt), Red Mars (Robinson), Parenting Teens with Love & Logic (Cline/Fay), The (Mis)Behavior of Markets (Mandelbrot/Hudson), The Higher Power of Lucky* (Patron), Bridge of Sighs (Russo), Johnny Tremain* (Forbes), The Ultimate Gift (Stovall).
* Newberry Medal Winner
+ Pulitzer Prize Winner

Perhaps the most delightful development in the book area is that now I have two favorite novelists. John Irving has been a favorite of mine since I discovered him in 1980 or so. I've now added (Pulitzer Prize winner) Richard Russo to that short list of favorite novelists.
Genealogy: Eric found and contacted the descendents of his "long-lost" paternal granduncle (i.e., second cousins). He also found and contacted fourth cousins on his maternal side. They shared third-great grandparents.
Critters: We saw a beautiful red fox at our home. This little fellow was awfully cute and had a big bushy tail. Eric saw a large owl and the first oriole of his life. It appears that Lou, the wild peacock, didn't survive the 2006/2007 winter, since we haven't seen him since fall 2006. Lou brought a great deal of beauty into our lives and we miss him. In December, Eric saw two beautiful pileated woodpeckers -- at once! Generally, we only see one or two per year here, but have never before seen two together.
Milestone: Eric reached the 23 gallon threshold of lifetime blood donations this year. He hopes to eventually catch his dad, who is at the 33 gallon level.

Smile & Be Happy!

Eric & Melissa Haas

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This page last updated 12/25/08