Tuesday, January 02, 2007

New Year New Gear (Our New year's letter)

Dame New Year Letter 2006

As I write this letter Chinese is blaring over the loudspeakers in an Airport somewhere in the middle of China. Although, There is a big Picture of Santa in the newsstand window and a huge fake tree in the middle of the airport it doesn’t quite seem like Christmas. Maybe because here in China Christmas is a new holiday adopted from the West and they haven’t quite perfected it yet. Maybe because I’ve been here for 2 weeks eating fish heads and donkey meat and have missed all the goody plates chocked full of chocolate delights from friends and neighbors. Maybe its because in the place of eggnog I’ve been drinking corn milk (Yes it is as bad as it sounds). But mostly, I think it doesn’t feel like Christmas yet because I’m not with the ones I love. But not to worry by the time I get home I will have an entire week to soak up the holiday spirit and even go watch my beloved cougars play in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Cristi asked me to work on the holiday New Years letter Cristi and agreed to go back and fill in anything noteworthy that I may leave out. Note: Cristi’s Corrections and Clarifications in Red.



We decided to start the 2006 New Year off right and went to an Exotic south of the border location on New Year’s Eve (We went to Nogales, Mex. a 2 hour drive from our condo in Scottsdale, the stray dogs and the border patrol spotlights were a nice touch). We partied with the locals and ate exotic foods until the wee hours of the night and rang in the New Year with style (We got there and there was nothing to do besides buy fake Rolexes and wresting masks so we bought some tacos from some street vendors while a lone mariachi played his guitar. We also bought some fireworks which got confiscated at the border). We invited some tight acquaintances to revel in the experience with us (My family happened to be in town). What a way to start the year off right (Note to self: Never trust Brooks to plan New Years festivities).

A lot of people talk about getting in shape for the New Year, Cristi and I took our resolution seriously and signed up for the Disney World Marathon (We were peer pressured into it by Brooks’ brothers). We trained like you wouldn’t believe (Neither of us ran more than 6 miles at one time before the race- if that). I must have worn out 3 pairs of sneakers just during my training (Brooks bought a new pair of shoes the day before the race because the ones he was wearing were pretty thrashed. I ran in a pair of black-market Nikes that I bought in Mexico that said Air on them but doubt that they much of anything in the sole). When the race came, we were in the best shape of our lives. (um…once again we didn’t do much training) The gun sounded and we ran like the wind. I set a personal best and never even slowed down and Cristi finished pretty well in our group as well (Brooks set a personal best if you consider stopping to stretch, then cramping up, taking a break at the medical tent, taking pictures with Mickey and Minnie and other Disney Characters along the route and walking, not slowing down then yeah, he never slowed down. I beat all 5 men running in our group and finished close to an hour and a ½ ahead of Brooks, the last one of our group to cross the finish line. I think he may have beat one of those guys in a wheel chair and a 90-year so he made me proud). The Vaseline that was distributed throughout the race was a welcome relief. If you don’t know what I’m talking about I’ve got one word for you- Friction. However, having those medals around our necks was worth it all (Brooks was too numb to feel anything at that point). The race was pretty easy to be honest (Please see comments above). I’d do it again in a second. I felt great the day afterwards and ran a couple of miles just for fun (Neither of us could walk let alone run and Brooks had 3 huge blisters on his feet because of the new shoes he bought the day before the race, who does that?). I would recommend a Marathon to anyone (But he’ll probably never run another one himself).

Cristi got a job doing therapy with kids in their homes and on the weekends she was hired to be on the design team for scrapbooking.com magazine. She also was asked to nanny a 4 year old a few days a week who needed some assistance. Now he had a real serious medical condition, strep of the buttocks (I’ve never heard of this but I guess it is a real medical condition) and was traumatized and couldn’t control when he went the bathroom! So Cristi spent the next few months wiping his bum (Umm…Ok, that’s true but I used my psychology skills on him and am glad to say he is better and now going on the toilet! I am also glad to say that job is now over.). During this same time Cristi started shooting photos of newborns and got to be quite busy between all her jobs. She decided to start her own photography business and Cristi Dame Photography was born, she’s really quite good and has been perfecting her skills ever since then (My website is now up and running so, visit my website at www.cristidamephotography.com).

During this time I was just going to school trying to finish up all my Graduate classes and working really hard so I could get my MBA in International business (Sleeping through classes is more like it). I also started shooting a new documentary on the Arizona/Mexico border with some upstanding citizens who were protecting us from the influx of illegal aliens (Brooks went and signed up with the minutemen who for the most part are crazy gun toting retired guys who don’t have anything better to do with their time). It was pretty exciting to be on the front lines helping to make our country safer (He really signed up to get some good footage and interviews but I wouldn’t call sitting around in the middle of the desert pulling each others fingers making the country safer).

There were some major changes the last few weeks of spring. We decided to go and work for the family business and move to Idaho. So we sold our small condo and moved temporarily into a great new place that I had grown to love earlier in my life (Temporarily has turned into 5 months. We live in the basement of his parent’s house. We are sleeping in the same bed he did in high school). It’s really a great set up, and I couldn’t ask for anything better. (How about our own house?) School played a major part in both of our lives towards the end of spring. Cristi applied for grad school and was accepted to ISU’s masters of counseling program. I graduated with honors magna cum laude from Thunderbird (Hmmm… maybe we should just leave that at: “graduated”.)


As summer came around we all got excited about my Mom’s birthday because we were going to celebrate it on a boat, in Europe. Sound sweet? Well it was besides the minor incidents of my backpack getting stolen and our bags showing up 8 days after we had set sail. But I have to admit that I made the Celebrity Cruise shirt I was given by the front desk look good over those 7 days. They did loan us some formal wear on formal night so I didn’t have to wear my shorts, Cristi’s loaner dress to was stunning (It had shoulder pads and looked like a tuxedo dress). She really dazzled everyone within view.


The trip it’s self was awesome. We had lots of fun with the family and enjoyed all the great stops. We took a romantic gondola ride in Venice (As romantic as you can get with Brooks’ parents and his grandma in the boat with us, and his brothers and their wives in a boat beside us but it yes it was nice) and saw David, the Sistine Chapel (which dad kept calling the Sixteenth chapel), and cruised around on mopeds in Greece. A really memorable trip and we took some great pictures (In every picture we are in a new location but, Brooks and I are wearing the same thing since we didn’t have any clothes for the first part of our trip- it’s awesome).

Currently I’m working in the family business (Woodgrain) and have lots of opportunities to travel and work with a lot of great people (And leave me for extended periods of time).
Cristi is working on her Master Degree and keeps pretty busy with school and her business. We were both called to work in the Nursery at church. I’m not sure why they decided to do this. I don’t know if it was supposed to encourage us to have kids or remind us why we don’t have any (The kids are really cute they all have their own personalities and interests but watching 12 infants at a time has been a great form of birth control). We are looking for a new house in the Boise area and are just waiting to find one that feels like home (The only problem is that to Brooks, his parent’s basement does feel like home). So, once we have our house you are all more than welcome to come for a visit, our door is always open. Boise is a pretty hot destination, do you like Potatoes? and….. ummm tater tots?… Napolean Dynamite was filmed here and uh…OK, I’ve got nothing. Just come and visit us, the skiing is pretty great up this way (We really would love to see all of our old friends, so come on up and we’ll show you a good time).

Well, I’d better wrap this bad boy up. The lady on the loudspeaker is saying something in Chinese, I think she is saying the flight is on time or it is late I’m not really sure at this point (What I wouldn’t do for a baked holiday treat right now). It’s with great joy that we wish you all the happiness in the world this upcoming year and maybe a few fruitcakes (I think everyone could do without the fruitcake Brooks. Happy New Years we hope that life finds you happy and content, we couldn’t ask for anything more (well, maybe except for moving out of the basement)).

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
Love the Dame’s,
Brooks & Cristi

2 Comments:

Blogger DC Diva said...

Wow--all of the sudden you're bloggin' big time! LOVED reading every new entry and catching up on your ever-fascinating lives. My faves: recapping the Disney marathon story (what an inspiration you two are!), the thought of Cristi wiping bums for a living, the concept of Brooks making a cruise t-shirt look cool (which I have no doubt, he did), and the orange hand chair--crazy! You two are still pretty much the most amazing/exciting couple we know and we WISH we lived in a relatively close zip code. But hey, DC is a short layover en route to China, so why not?
LOVE YOU GUYS!
ps. Go Cougs!!!

9:28 AM  
Blogger Harley King said...

I wet myself reading your exchange. Cristi, you're photog site is fantastic. I wanted another wedding all over again just so you could shoot it.

Why don't you leave your parents' basement to come live in ours?

What do you say? Lots of weddings and kids out here.

Harley

6:13 PM  

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