2008 Christmas Letter

I have so much trouble with these things every year. Business is always good, the kids are always great, and the marriage is always wonderful, right? Ha. Yet again, here we have the proverbial Christmas letter. I tried to keep it as real as possible. Cheers.

Holiday Greetings from the Nordyke's

It's hard to even begin writing a Christmas letter without succumbing to cliche. I'll give it my best shot though (Ha.)

We're rolling in to this Christmas with the lowest balances in our bank accounts that we've seen in several years. Aren't business owners all supposed to be rich? Or what about the old trueism that "if you're looking for your insurance agent, you can find him on the back nine"? We really can't complain though- we've got a warm house, with a mortgage that gets paid on time each month, cupboards full of food, and we're all pretty healthy despite a 3.5 year old that sometimes acts like an alien.

I had two babies this year, fortunately I only had to give birth to one, and it should be profitable long before age 18. More on the agency later. First let me tell you about Jack.

Jack was born on April 24th like a bat out of hell. The entire labor was 1 hr. Cara's water broke around 8:30pm. By the time we had packed and raced up the hill to the hospital, it was 9. And at 9:26 Jack Xander Nordyke was born. Without an epidural- Cara didn't really like that part. I've got to hand it to her though, she was an absolute champ. One of those moments us guys have where we realize our wives are way tougher than we are.

Jack has turned out to be a wonderful kid. I had pretty much resolved that Jack would be our last. Everyone told us after Lily that our day would come, and the second one would be a nightmare. He's been a fantastic sleeper, a good eater, and altogether has a great personality. He's definitely Dad's boy. Whenever I'm around he can't take his eyes off me. That's kind of fun. He's also a huge smiler. Who knows, maybe we'll have another one after all. Or not.

Lily turned three in June. She's doing everything a typical three year old does- talks until mom and dad are going insane, destroys things just for fun, memorizes everything, even the stuff you wish they hadn't, and has a knack for spilling beverages. In addition to that, she's uber-bright. Many times Cara and I hear her say something, and we just look at eachother in disbelief. She's also super affectionate and kind. It's not uncommon for her to meet one of our friends, and upon them leaving to go home, beg them for a hug and kiss. Nearly every shopping excursion or trip out includes her walking up to random people and asking them for their name. It's possible she'll turn into quite the Cutco-selling machine.

Cara has shifted to kind of a nice schedule. It's taken some getting used to, but it allows us to still make a fair amount of money, but have her at home most of the time with me and the kiddos. She now works every Monday from 7a to 7p, and every other Saturday and Sunday, also from 7 to 7. Every other week, it's quite intense, but at least I'm able to be home most of those weekends to jump in and play Mr. Mom. Okay I'd be lying if I didn't admit to a lot of help from my parents, inlaws and my younger sister Lindsey. They have been absolute life-savers. We still have not had to use any non-family daycare, and we feel really fortunate for that.

Cara's also taken up a big interest in sewing. Recently she's been taking a sewing class at OSU. Every Thursday she carts around her Singer and bag of stuff. She's actually got a real talent for it. Our windows have possibly the coolest curtains in Corvallis, and Lily has a super-cute dress or two that Cara has sewn. She's also made several arts and crafts-style dolls and even given a few as gifts, to a warm reception. Lily also started pre-school this year, which was a nice change of pace for Cara, allowing her to grab some me-time, run errands, or just take a breather with only one munchkin in tow. Often times, you'd find her mid-morning or mid afternoon at the craft/fabric store. Then, later in the evening between 8 and 10ish she's be busy over her sewing machine.

Quick intermission- My parents moved from their house of 25 years. They made the mistake of asking us to store their wine fridge until they've moved into their new house. We've had a lot of great wine to enjoy as part of our "storage fee".

As far as me, it's been a really gratifying year. I spent January through March in Tillamook, Oregon, apprenticing with a insurance agent there. He has a couple homes, one in Oceanside, and one in Rockaway Beach, so for the duration I stayed in his 4 bedroom house across from the beach in Rockaway. It was an awesome two months. I took full advantage of my per diem by eating at the Beach Bite almost nightly. Really good fish and chips. The north coast is a really beautiful stretch of scenery. After work each day, I took my camera out and hunted for a view before sunset. Lots of great pictures.

In April I started my second business, and by July 1st, we were officially Chris Nordyke Insurance. Our first six months have gone well, and I've been really fortunate to get some great team members. I'm excited about 2009, with plans to hire another team member, possibly two. If you know someone awesome, send them my way.

In addition to the agency, I continue to spend a lot of time in the community doing not for profit stuff. Probably 25% of my time. It brings me a lot of pleasure and fortunately works well with the type of business I am in. I've continued working on SpeakerLunch and Young Professionals, and recently rotated off the supervisory committee at OSU Federal. With every meeting and event, It mostly feels like hanging out with friends.

The end of the year is a great time for reflection. For us, we find ourselves wanting to be more content with exactly where we are at. Because it's good just the way it is. We would like to have Cara work less. We'd also love to travel this next year. More than anything, we really want to carve out more time with friends and family.

Thanks for enduring our update. We always love reading everyone else's.

You can find Cara on Facebook as caranordyke and via email as caranordyke@gmail.com and via cell phone as 541.990.0732
You can find me just about anywhere online. It all just sort of accumulates. chrisnordyke on Facebook, chrisnordyke on Twitter, chris.nordyke@gmail.com for email, my cell at 541.990.8050, and if you'd like me to help on the insurance side, call me at 541.452.5200 or email me at chris.nordyke.mrrx@statefarm.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

The Nordykes