Greetings from the Thomas Family - 2007

I have to admit I have been dragging my feet in getting the Christmas letter out this year. My inspiration came when Brandon said if I got the pictures together, he would add the words. Okay, I didn't get the pictures together.  But, enjoy the year in review through the eyes of Brandon, with help from his 6 year old brother.

Cookie Baking with the Bailey Family
We had our annual Cookie Baking Session with the Baileys. Chocolate Chip, Russian Snowballs, Chocolate Sugar Cookies, Fudge, Snicker doodles were baked, packaged and delivered to our Goldstone neighbors by all the kids complete with Santa Caps (except Devon - he refuses to where the Santa hat).

Lake Tahoe with the Tabatabai Family
The year was started with a bang! The first week of January was spent at Lake Tahoe with Sean, Jeanne, Roxanna and Samantha Tabatabai. Midweek Uncle Jack, Uncle Randy, James, Jenny, Elizabeth and Julianne joined us for New Years Eve. Sledding, snowball fights, long walks to Starbucks….even Roxanna eating the snowman’s chocolate buttons made for a great start of the New Year.

Hawaii with Wells Fargo
Bittersweet is the word my Mom uses to describe working at Wells Fargo this year. In February, her CIO left the company to be CEO of another. On his departure he called Mom to inform her she had won one of two Management Excellence awards and was to be sent to the company’s Sales and Service Conference. From pampering, to excursions, to guest speakers, to the hotel itself (Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort and Spa) - the company goes all out for their team members for this event. We spent the week snorkeling, swimming, exploring Waikiki’s Zoo and eating way too much at the endless buffets.

South Africa
Dad and Randy made an amazing trek to South Africa for a Safari. Kudu, Warthog, Giraffe, Elephant, Lion and many more animals were seen (we don’t want to know what was eaten!). 

Hakuna Matata = Don’t Worry
Randy and Dad killed a Pumba. Dad said the reason Pumba isn’t breathing is he swallowed Tumon and choked. Dad tried the Heimlich and Randy tried mouth to snout, but couldn’t resuscitate. Hakuna Matata doesn’t appear to be Pumba’s motto anymore……

Don’t they use guns in Africa?
Doesn’t it appear that Randy has brought down this beast by using the stick in his hand? For the animal lovers out there, Randy assured us that no animals were hurt in Africa. He says the animals were “stunt beast”. We are starting to sense that we can’t trust Randy’s stories…..

Cannon Beach, Oregon
The Rea Family journeyed up to our favorite beach spot, Cannon Beach – Oregon for the 4th of July. Two houses side-to-side hosted four families and a total of 17 people and three dogs. Scrabble, long walks to Haystack Rock, clamming in Gearhart, trips into Seaside and fireworks made for a great adventure.

New York, NY
Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Nintendo Center, Ellis Island and 5 million taxis were amazing sights to see. Of course, seeing Grease and Phantom were worth the flight. But, nothing compares to hanging with my mom and Grammie for a week in New York.

New York 2007
Phantom of the Opera was AMAZING! I met several of the cast members including the Phantom of the Opera. In fact, here I am with the Phantom - unmasked. Devilishly handsome, a wonderful actor and an extremely good singer (but enough about me already).

SpamALot
After seeing Grease, we couldn’t resist taking advantage of a SpamALot cut out and being one of the Knights of the Round Table. “The Holy Grail? We already got one.”

John Lennon Memorial
Grammie wanted to stop and see the memorial. Little did we know to look DOWN. But once we found it, it was a beautiful memorial in the middle of Strawberry Fields.

Channel Islands, CA
After getting his diving certification, Dad took a trip out spiny lobster diving in the Channel Islands. The annual trip is coordinated by one of Dads firefighting buddies, but this year Dad brought his friend Greg which made it more fun, although the sleeping quarters were a tad bit crowded we hear.

My brothers and I had a great year. I turned 11, Devon turned 9 and Justin turned 6. I like swimming, baseball and reptiles. Of course, I love the stage and the vocal/piano lessons are preparing me for musicals. Devon is a sporty guy who likes to rides his wave, skateboard and fusion scooter. He loves to play video games and can get lost for days if left alone with his Nintendo DS. Justin is our local charmer. He comes home with new girl's phone numbers every week. He loves to ride his fusion scooter, play with the dogs and play soccer and baseball.

From our family to yours, wishing you joy, love and health in the New Year.

Bruce, Stacy, Brandon, Devon and Justin
(reatho@yahoo.com)

Wasps MIA in the Winter? by Brandon

I asked my mom today why you don't see wasps in winter. She replied in a matter-of-fact one, "Well Brandon, in winter it's too cold for wasps to make their nests. So, they hibernate."

Of course, I laughed because the thought of wasps hibernating was too funny. Afterall, bears hibernate. Not wasps.

She then turned and said, "Of course, some people believe that because it is so cold that they pick up their wasp families and homes and migrate to Argentina." She continued quite seriously, "In Argentina, they stay up all night dancing the salsa and drinking pitchers of Margeritas. After a few Margeritas, they land in the tourists salsa. Wasps don't make for a good ingredient for salsa, but it keeps them warm. Many a wasp has lost his/her life drowing in a good Argentinian salsa. That is why many Argentinian salsa producers have gone out of business. Yes, even many Mexican restaurants have been sued from serving wasp butts to their customers."

She cleared her throat and continued, "So, Brandon, there are two stories about wasps not being around in winter. Which do you believe is true?"

I looked at my mom speechless, because all I could think of was why would Mexican restaurants be serving Argentitian salsa? Next time, I go to Taco Bell, I would surely ask for the Argentinian salsa for my Nachos Bell Grande to look for wasp parts.....

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The Skeleton Key by Brandon

The day we moved into our new house little did I know that day would change my life forever.
That key had more power than I could ever imagine.
Maybe if I had dropped it right then, all of it never would have happened but its to late now, much to late.
“Hey Mom, Dad, I’m going to explore the house. Ok?”
“Ok.” My mom shouted back as I ran up the stairs breezing past her to explore my new house.
So many rooms to choose from. As I got to the top of the stairs, I counted the doors. Twelve to be precise! I looked into each one. Long rooms, square rooms, rooms with windows, rooms without. Rooms with closets so big that they could be rooms. Finally I had exhausted my search of rooms and decided on the one in the corner. So many rooms in our new house, my brothers would not have trouble finding ones they wanted.
As I was running back down the stairs I slipped on something. I looked down at the ground. There lying on the stair was a key, but not just an ordinary key, an old fashioned key with a skeleton on the top of it. I had found a skeleton key.
“Why had I not seen it before?” I thought to myself. “I know! It belongs to one of the rooms.”
As I spun around, hoping it was the door key of the room I had chosen, a new door caught my eye. It was not a room that I had explored already.
Counting the doors, I found that now this floor had thirteen rooms.
“How strange,” I thought to myself, “that I could miss such a funky looking door!”
I walked over to the door. It was all black except with a white streak through the middle.
I stuck the key in. It turned. The door opened ever so slightly.
“Hello?” I whispered as I slowly entered the room.
I had just decided to go back and grab a flashlight, when the door slammed behind me, and all the light seemed to disappear from sight.
I stood still. A million eyes felt like they were watching me. I was not alone.
I turned to walk back to the door, but the door I could not find. In fact, I couldn’t even find a wall.
Panicked, I spoke out in a whisper.
“Hello?” There was no answer.
Irritated and scared, I yelled out into the darkness.
“This is not funny!”
“Help!” A scream came from the darkness followed by an agonizing cry of pain.
The cry of pain echoed in my mind.
I walked forward and soon I saw light.
It became clear that it was a bulb hanging from the ceiling.
I looked around and saw two undeads coming towards me. I froze. They advanced coming closer and closer to me.
By the time I unfroze, they were so close I could spell their rotting skin and see bugs crawling in and out of their open flesh.
I ran away from them. I didn’t stop running until I realized I was in another room. Finding a door, I quickly shut it cutting off four fingers of the undeads in the process. As I looked down and saw the fingers hopping on the floor, I realized I could not see the floor. What I saw instead were dead bodies and they were covering the entire floor. But there was not blood, no punctures, only a horrifying look on each of their faces.
“How?” I wondered.
Then it came to me. They had been scared to death! They had died of heart attacks. But what had scared them to death?
It would have to wait. I knew I needed to get out of this room and get out now.
I saw a small door on the right side of the room. Walking over bodies, so many bodies, I waded towards the door.
Coming to it, I noticed it required a key. I pulled the key out of my pocket and stuck the key into the lock on the door.
As I pulled open the door, relief overwhelmed me as I began to walk into the corner room. The room I had chosen for my bedroom. I began to enter the room as a huge blue monster came from behind me. Lunging at me, trying to grab my sweatshirt, I quickly ran into room and shut the door.
“That’s what killed them,” I thought to myself.
“Mom, Dad.” I screamed, “Where are you?”
My mom’s voice muffled came to me. I could not understand what she was saying.
“Mom?” I turned around to look in the direction of her voice. It was coming from behind the door.
“Get out of the house Chuck!” Her voice now sharp and full of fear shoot out from behind the door.
I turned to run, but was caught by a large blue hand coming from the door.
As it pulled me into the room, my mind was full of regret.
“Why did I have to pick up the key?”