Christmas Letter 2010

The Perry Family Review of 2010!

It's Christmas time again! And whether we like it or not we are going to enjoy it or I swear I am going to turn this year around and we can all go through it again. With the close of the year I get to sit myself in front of a computer to come up with a way to waste the lives of several trees and hand over a few more cents to the Ink barons. May these trees live on to become part of a package that says, “Made from recycled materials”.

As I sit and reflect on the year behind us I can't help but think, “Where did all the time go? What of note really happened? And, What can I say that won't make me feel like a lout and make others feel like I am better then them?” And although I know that I may not be able to answer all of these questions with much accuracy, and I will make up the parts that I think are lacking.

I for one this year am more proud of the things I didn't get done then the things I did do. I didn't take over the world or build a Death Ray. I didn't contribute to the national debt or did I cause anyone to lose a job. I didn't actively participate in strip-mining and I reduced my carbon footprint by throwing out all my carbon soled shoes. I didn't get fired or laid-off... yet. Oh, and my in-laws are still in town... This time there are more of them...

My wife thought that the homeschooling English I was giving her wasn't doing the trick so she decided to enroll in the ESL classes at UVU. She also graduated with a nice little certificate that will be filed, or framed, or something. Personally I think the best part was that we got a free dinner out of it. This little honor has been a long time coming since my wife has been taking her grandparents to the hospital for their checkups and translating better then the hospital translators. She has been spending lots of time with her family...

DJ is now in second grade, and if you couldn't guess, she also graduated from first grade. She also decided that she has come to that age where she will allow someone at the mall to hold a very gun-looking apparatus up to her head and jam a needle in her ear. She can't wait until she can wear the gaudy, dangling earring that are going to drive her Dad nuts. She is also practicing her morning bathroom time extensions and is currently up to 40 minutes doing who-knows-what. She continues to let her parents push her into learning French, English and Spanish at the same time, and loves to remind her Dad that she is smarter then him because she speaks French and he doesn't.

Big Dis becoming his own little man and learned that there is one quick way to win a fight with his Dad. One quick punch at his shoulder level will always bring Dad to his knees. I have taken to wearing a cup when I know that my little boy will be wanting to roughhouse. He has successfully joined in the ranks of kids whose parents can't wait to get them out of the house before they are even old enough to go to school, ie preschool, and is learning all those little things things that kids learn in preschool. For example, they have started to undo all the damage that Dad has done by trying to teach him his colors (Thanks color-blindness!). He has also learned all sorts of new things to ask God in his prayers, for example, “Dear Heavenly Father, please bless that Mom and Dad are nice and aren't mean to me because I've been good and they haven't been. And DJ has been mean. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”

We still have two dogs, Pimienta (Alias, 'la negra') and Comino (Alias, 'el gringo') and are a lot smarter then are previous dogs, since they are still alive.

As the end of the page creeps upwards and as my ability to recall the past year wanes. I will say that we wish you a Merry Christmas and that if your only present from us is that you don't have to hear from us more then once a year we will happily provide.

Merry Christmas!

Been a while

I know it's been a while and the honest truth is that I stopped because I didn't feel like I had a whole lot to say. Well, that and I had some in-laws move in with us and, well, I didn't have anything good to say about it.

And to be honest I still don't have many good things to say about my inlaws. Except my grandpa and grandma-in-laws. They are fantastic.

Moving right along, I was inspired to write because I just got back from my very first political debate. It was a lot of fun. I live in Jason Chaffetez's district and that guy has always rubbed me the wrong way. So, of course I've been leaning the opposite direction, contrary to my Mormon/Republican peers.

Karen Hyer is Jason's opponent and honestly I think that most people should be able to see that she is the clear choice. She has years and years of non-government experience and is a little rough around the edges. She is certainly conservative, and so much so that she didn't even register as a Democrat even though she is the Democratic candidate (She's unaffiliated). She is very well educated and certainly knows how to express herself.

Jason, ooooh, Jason. He's a politician, and he's good at it. He knows how to make it work. He certainly knows how to play the voters here in Utah. BYU football kicker, part of the Huntsman campaign and a handsome guy. My wife says his wife doesn't look too bad herself, but I wasn't looking at her (What kind of man am I?).

Karen did really good at the beginning. Her ideas are strong and clear. She knows that healthcare isn't going to get repealed, but she knows that they need to fix the bad parts of the bill. She also knows that the major problem with immigration is that we have 12 million illegals here in the US. The problem that I really felt she had was that she ran a little negative against Jason. I agreed with her completely, especially the cot thing when she told him it was a publicity stunt, which I think it is. But, she doesn't realize that negative campaigning doesn't work where I live. Here, when you run a negative campaign people get turned off, and it gives the opponent the opportunity to not only dodge the question, but say, "She's so mean, she's attacking me!" Therefore the sympathy vote kicks in.

I was able to go with my Dad, the only guy that I can really talk politics with that doesn't shun me for my less then Republican ideals. He was turned off by Karen's negativity, but when I asked him about Jason he realized that Jason didn't really have any ideas. Karen had the ideas, and Jason was just showing off and feeding sound bites.

Overall I had great time and I hope that I might be able to make a bit of a habit of getting more involved and maybe a little more blogging would be useful.