Merry Christmas from the Woods Family!

This year, we're doing a "Video Christmas Card". When you're ready to play each video below just click the play button on the screen.

(Zach performed the background music in our intro, Hayden did all of the video editing work in all videos)

When each video stops, scroll down and press play on the next video.

We've been very, very blessed this year and we'd like to share a bit of our more FUN moments!

We've already narrated much of this text in the intro video but we put it here also for reference.

Very quickly though, I'm still employed with Metal-Fab as their Director of IT, Sherri still works tax season in her parent's accounting firm, Hayden is now 16, a Sophomore at Maize South High School and Zach is 12, in 6th grade at Maize South Middle School. The boys both have taken up Tennis as their primary sport, they both enjoy outdoor activities and we're very proud of how well they continue to score in school.

Now to the videos of our fun 2009 moments.

In this first video, we went skiing in Colorado. We met up with some good friends of ours (the Ellingtons) and spent much of the time skiing together at Solvista. We did the video for both families so it includes footage of their family also. To pick out our boys, Hayden is wearing the dark gray jacket that has black accents and Zach has on an Orange jacket. We had a great time as you can see!

The 2nd video is of our trip Mountain Biking in Colorado. Zach isn't in much of the footage as he just isn't big enough or heavy enough to handle the bike well so he found other activities. Except for the one jump you see where he almost wipes and a couple other places where you see both kids pretty much the footage is of Hayden. We were somewhat disappointed with the footage though as we discovered that when you stop so that you can take video, even though you give what seems like plenty of distance to gain speed, you still lose quite a bit of speed and momentum compared to an all-out run downhill. Hayden and I still had fun though. Zach will try it in future years as he gets stronger and more capable of controlling the bike. The weekend we were there a big mountain biking festival, "Crankworks", was there where the best Mountain Bikers from around the world competed on jumps and ramps and downhills that were completely insane. Fun to watch but insanity to think about doing.

The 3rd video is a combination of our Maine and Big Cedar Missouri trips. We visited Maine and Boston in June, taking in many lighthouses along the way. There is footage of Camden Maine a very quaint seaside town, a scene of bar harbor's sand bar that becomes a road to a nearby island when the tide goes out. We took in many, many lighthouses along the coast of Maine (several of which we were able to get up into). We also ventured to the furthest east town in the US., Lubec, Maine, to see the lighthouse there and have lunch in a small downtown cafe looking across the river at Canada. A sailing trip on calm seas and a "trip from hell" whale-watch trip that made 90% of the 100+ people on-board sick (including Sherri) but the R.B and the boys had a great time! We ended up in Boston, touring Harvard and MIT along with the Freedom Trail in throughout downtown Boston.

We also vacationed with Sherri's parents and sister's family at Table Rock Lake in Missouri, staying at the Big Cedar resort also in June. We had a great time as you'll see.

From the Woods Family to yours HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a great 2010 !!!