Ringing in the New Year
I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes…you’re Doing Something. ~Neil Gaiman
Well here we are, 2014! Happy New Year!
Me & Kyle celebrating New Years! Storm photo bombed us from her perch. 12/31/13
Kyle and I rang in the New Year like we always do. We made our rice crispy treats, (actually I made them while Kyle watched Despicable Me 2). Thanks to my friend Tree for helping to make that a New Year’s tradition! We were making the delicious sticky treats when we were in high school and it stuck! We ate our pork and sauerkraut and hot dogs, brats, and kielbasa. Yep, the same sauerkraut we just made Family Traditions Through Sauerkraut in November. Another tradition started by my mom when I was little, was the meat and cheese tray. Usually, it’s complete with a variety of crackers, carrots and celery, olives and such, but this year we just nibbled on the meat and cheeses.
Keeping ourselves entertained, we played Trouble and a little Wii, even though I didn’t give Kyle hours on the game, we did play a few rounds of shooting and fishing and horse riding. Since then, Kyle has a renewed interest in the video games. Maybe this weekend we’ll bust out the Michael Jackson Experience and dance to a little MJ action.
We watched Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve as many do. Mom and I were reminiscing days of New Year’s old. One New Year’s, my sister went to New York and rang in the new year in Time Square. That was fun having Kyle try and find his Aunt Nikki among the sea of celebratory people. That is until he spotted the Lego store in the background. Yes! Only that kid would hone in on the Lego store among the crowds and crowds of people and on-air activity. I remember he immediately called my sister and instructed her to go into the Lego store and take pictures and send them to him. What a card! He wanted the mission completed at that very moment, while my sister was corralled into limited space with millions of others. Nicole was not able to tackle such fetes, but later that summer or the following one (I can’t remember) Nicole took Kyle to New York so he could experience the Lego store for himself on the ‘Aunt Nikki and Kyle’s Week of Fun’.
Seven celebrates New Year’s in style… Happy 2014! 12/31/13
Around 11:30 pm or so, we really humored ourselves by making the dogs wear party hats. Once midnight hit, we blew our party horns and blasted our party favors till we covered the living-room with streamers. Naturally, we took pictures and sent them to Aunt Nikki, keeping her in touch with all things Kyle. We had a really good time!
New Year’s day we took the .22 and the 20 gauge out squirrel hunting. We didn’t see any signs of life, but maybe that’s because of our invited guests, Seven and Scooby. They had a blast running through the snow in the woods and jumping around. This was the first walk I took them on since this past fall, when Seven broke his leg. Great way to ring in the New Year!
Yep, it was a pretty good 2013. I mean, I was able quit my nine-to-five office job at the ad agency and start working on Thrill of the Hunt full-time. Thrill of the Hunt is going into our seventh month of business, full-time. Technically we started Thrill of the Hunt in September of 2012, but it was only a part-time gig. Even though the company is not self-sustaining, it is picking up notoriety and popularity. My goal for the New Year is to make the company profitable and organize our finances and database. Sounds simple enough, yet I know the challenges and I am ready to take them on ten fold.
Scooby receiving his New Year’s attire… Happy 2014! 12/31/13
Kyle is now in the seventh grade, taking advanced science and math classes and doing pretty well. Nicole and I discussed it, and this year we’ll start training Kyle to take over all finances including entering expenses, accepting checks and possibly creating invoices in Quickbooks for The Piper Corporation. Yep! You heard that right! I trust Kyle explicitly, and finances and dealing with numbers is kind of his thing. Plus, I feel it gives him great work experience and exposure to business and will build good work ethic and character. Not to mention he will truly be a part of the company. He is now, especially with all his help promoting scavenger hunts and working the events, but he will be an integral part of the company. Did I mention, I will follow-up on the information entered? You bet! I can’t very well expect Kyle to not make mistakes or do things incorrectly, at least not until he really learns the program and gets into a routine. My accountant will also be aware of our unofficial employee and keep an eye out to ensure all is entered correctly. How else is he going to get this experience and learn? He’s worth the extra time!
Me & Seven celebrating New Years! 2014! 12/31/13
Nicole and I discussed Kyle’s new role with him over Christmas and he was truly excited! Excited to be learning something new, excited to be dealing with numbers, exciting to be helping us out and excited to be getting paid. I think the later was more important to him. He called me yesterday asking when he was going to start working in Quickbooks. Apparently, he wants to buy something. What a stinker! But a very ambitious one!
I asked Kyle, as I always do, what his New Year’s resolution was? His reply? A dismissively “Umm I don’t know.” He could care less, but I guess that will come over time, although when I was his age I made resolutions. I mean it’s good to set goals, right? This year mine includes, blogging at a minimum of three days a week, finally writing my book (not sure about that one, but why not), branching out Thrill of the Hunt into Virginia, Maryland and Ohio, in addition to Pennsylvania and building the company to a profitable state. I’m not looking for millions, just enough to say we’re profiting. But I guess in time all things will work out the way they are suppose to.
The snow has been falling all day yesterday and all night long. It’s beautiful out! Even though we have my Uncle Ray’s funeral tonight, Uncle Ray – Passing of a Piper Legend it’s a bittersweet beginning to a new year. I have faith that God will bless us with an extraordinary 2014!
