Eric Holen

The other day, Yvette uttered the words I had been dreading.  She told me that I needed to start putting together my Christmas list.

This is something we and many in my family have been doing for the last several years. We prepare and share our own self serving Christmas lists.  The lists serve two purposes.  First, it helps the family with ideas for gifts.  Second, it helps avoid receiving something that came with a lot of thought and love, but still ends up as a future donation.

The lists are a great help for Yvette and I who don’t get to see family very often. We love being able to buy something that someone wants or needs, rather than racking our heads for a suitable gift.  If you don’t provide a list, you can expect a gift card.

The Christmas lists from my family cover the range from books to music, clothes for children, and family friendly movies and games.  Further, there are generally several items of different price ranges so that family can select what they want and can afford to give.  Once we select a give for someone, we share it with each other, excluding the recipient, to avoid duplicates.

For me, developing the list is somewhat difficult, because if I really needed or wanted it, I would have already bought it.

Interestingly, one Christmas gift that we didn’t ask for, I think it predates list, is one that we use almost every day.  Beth, my oldest sister, gave us matching Tupperware coffee canisters one year.  One holds the coffee and the other holds the filter and scoop.

So in the “spirit” of the upcoming season, here is my list.

Donate to one of the following organizations:

• American Diabetes Association – for Yvette
• Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – for Michael
• ASPCA, Humane Society or your local animal shelter – for all of the animals who need our help

STOP:  If you are going to use a credit card to purchase any gift this season, then stop.  I don’t want a gift.  Instead, send me pictures of you and your family along with a brief letter about how you are doing and an offer that Yvette and I are welcome to visit and stay in your house anytime.

Otherwise, please feel free to choose from one or more of the following.  I included items of varying costs to fit everyone’s budget.

• Logo T-Shirt, large – under $10
• Streets of Fire DVD, used ­– under $10, and look for it at Half Price Books
• Stafford Performance Dress Shirt, White Broadcloth – $19 on sale, can never have too many white dress shirts
• Sneakers, size 9 ½  – $40, my primary pair is now two years old and ready to move to gym duty
• Portable Hard Drive, 1 TB – $70, but wait for the Christmas sales
• Dell XPS 15z Laptop – $1,499, I can use it to write a blog post thanking you for the gift
• Crossroads Zinger ZT25SB Travel Trailer – $20,531 approximately, I will let you sleep in it (once)
• 2011 Silverado 1500 Crew Cab LS – $27,235 approximately, I will take you for a ride (also once)

This morning, we got some news that our friend Sara was back in the hospital for the second time in as many weeks. While we hope and trust that she will be back home in a day or two, I got me to thinking about her and the fun we have shared since I first met her almost 8 years ago.

I met Sara in October 2003 at my very first meeting of the Kyle Volunteer Fire Department. Sara and Dallas, her husband, were already members, and I was trying to get on to the department soon after moving to Kyle. Sara was in the truck bay when we were training on donning air packs. There were only two girls among the group of guys and Sara had blond hair. Later I would find out that her husband was an officer in the department.

I ran into Sara several months later on a small grass fire. I was on the back of the brush truck and her husband asked me if she could ride with me so that I could show her what little I knew about fighting fires. At the time, her husband scared me a little, even though he was several years my junior. Not only was he an officer, but he had a stare that seemed to say don’t mess with him. That small cage on the back of the brush truck couldn’t have seemed any smaller as I tried to squeeze myself into the smallest space to avoid even brushing against Sara while the truck was in motion.

Somehow, the four of us became friends and started doing group things together.

In September 2006, 10 of us traveled to Vegas for a few days. On the first night there, we got into a little trouble with Sara because we called her room at something like 5:00 AM to let her know that everyone was still awake and safe.

In November 2006, Yvette and I went on our first group camping trip with Sara and our friends. It would be the first of several camping trips. Sara generally had the Saturday dinners covered and we enjoyed whatever she whipped up, especially her pico and queso. Over the course of several trips over a few years, we watched as Sara went from Sara, to pregnant Sara, to Sara with a beautiful baby boy who also went camping with us.

In 2008, you could find us babysitting Mason, her son.

For a birthday celebration for another friend, in June 2008, our group shared a two bedroom condo in Port Aransas. Including two babies, there were 10 of us in the one condo, but we had the best time swimming, eating and strolling along the beach.

The Stocks and Holens in the pool at Port Aransas

Closer to home, you could find us at Club 21 especially on New Years’ Eve. I enjoyed watching Sara and Dallas dance because they seemed to just glide across the floor as they two-stepped around the room.

Just a couple weeks ago, we got together for a group dinner. Yvette and I gave her some outfits for her beautiful daughter, who is just a few months old. It was later that week when Sara first entered the hospital. She got out of the hospital a couple days later and all of us hoped it would be over.

For purely selfish reasons, we hope that Sara gets better soon. There is still plenty of good camping weather left and she owes us a copy of the recipe for the delicious shrimp dish that she prepared in Port Aransas.

If you search carefully through our house, you may come across the secret craft room. This was the room, which up until a couple of years ago, was a spare bedroom. After we sold the furniture, it became Yvette’s “craft” room. A few months later, we picked up two IKEA table tops off Craig’s List, one for Yvette’s computer and another for her crafts.

This wonderful secret craft room has all sorts of items if you had the time and were so inclined to craft something. There are needlepoint projects, with enough thread to stretch from here to somewhere else. You can find some acrylic paints and construction paper. Looking a little deeper, you will find containers of foam shapes and letters, which she has used to decorate gift bags. She also has a Cricut personal cutting machine, which I gave her a Christmas present a couple years ago. She used the machine once to test it, after it sat unopened in the box for almost a year. Finally, she has stickers, lots of them.

So Saturday, we were in Hobby-Lobby buying some items to support a theme at an upcoming work-related conference. During our shopping, some obviously non-work related stickers ended up in the cart.

Yvette mom’s and I tried to convince Yvette not to buy the stickers and that she had enough at home, but it was a losing argument.

So, thinking Yvette had spent A LOT of money supporting a craft room that she doesn’t use, I fired up Quicken to report back on how much she had spent at Hobby-Lobby and Michaels over the past two years. To my disappointment, it totaled just a little over $300 or under $13 a month. I was sure it was going be in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. It just seemed like she bought a lot.

So then I took a look back and found that I spent almost $130 to maintain this blog, which even my mother admits she doesn’t read.

So she can have her craft room, where she doesn’t do crafts, and I can keep my blog, which seems that only you and Yvette read.

A few years ago, my sister Marianne and her family gave Yvette and me a beautiful tile for Christmas. They had taken a floor tile and applied “Be something” sayings around the outside of the tile. In addition to be being a thoughtful gift it was homemade from their family to ours.

The tile sat propped against the wall in my study for at least a year until we could find an appropriate mount to hand it on a wall. Then it moved out to the dining room table for another year to remind us to find a mount. Then we found and attached the mount, yet it sat on the dining room table while we thought about where to hang it. Finally, and just last night, we hung the tile overlooking our dining room table.

Through all of that time, I have tried not to lose sight of the messages that the tile provided. Here are those messages, read clockwise from the tile.

Be Grateful – Recognize that Yvette and I are comfortable, have a very happy marriage, a roof over our heads and a car to travel. I have a job, keyword have, that I enjoy getting up for every single day.

Be Smart – Think before acting. I can control my actions, but I cannot control the consequences they may have.

Be Still – There are times when it makes sense to sit back and relax. Life doesn’t have to be about doing something every moment of the day.

Be Prayerful – Always recognize that God has a greater purpose for our lives. Pray that I am serving Him in the way that He intended.

Be True – Be honest with myself, Yvette and with those that support me. Recognize that I have challenges that I am still working to overcome.

Be Clean – Watch what I think about and say. It should always be something I would be willing to share on this blog.

Be Involved – Continue to support others and my community. It is important to give back by helping and supporting others and their causes.

Be Positive – Regardless of what others are saying or what is happening around me, keep a smile on my face and please thoughts in my head. Be an example to others by not letting my words or actions be negative or hurtful.

Be Honorable – Do the right thing each and every time the opportunity presents itself.

While it took a few years to hang the tile on the wall, its messages have and will continue to carry me forward. My continued thanks to Marianne and the entire Martin family for the gift.

For the second year in a row, Yvette and I celebrated our anniversary with an extended camping trip. Previously, we would have taken a cruise or a some other vacation. However, last year, we decided to camp. Just us, nature and a comfortable trailer.

Last year, we rented a fifth wheel travel trailer that was delivered and set up for us. This year, we rented a 21’ foot travel trailer from Dependable Camper Rentals. We wanted the opportunity to do everything from setup to tear down. We picked up the trailer early Sunday morning. You would have thought we were buying the travel trailer and not renting given the walk through they gave us. They explained everything concerning the setup and maintenance, which made us very comfortable considering it would be our home for the next five days. We picked up the travel trailer so early that we had time to take it home before an driving back to Austin for an afternoon UT Longhorns softball game.

After the game, we finished packing up the trailer and headed out to Pedernales Falls State Park. We arrived with plenty of light and the trailer was a breeze to back in and setup. I drew a blank when trying to uncouple the trailer from our vehicle, but thankfully Yvette figured the latch out.

Monday started out colder than we expected so we changed our plans and drove into Fredericksburg. We stopped in Wal-Mart for some forgotten items and then to Bealls where we picked up some steeply discounted pullovers to keep us warm. Then we enjoyed lunch at the Java Ranch with plenty of hot coffee. Afterwards, I forced took Yvette to the National Museum of the Pacific War. Three hours later, even Yvette agreed that it was a great experience and we both learned a lot about the United States’ involvement in World War II. We finished up by stopping in Luckenbach (Texas) where we squeezed into the saloon, drank some Shiner and listened to live music.

On Tuesday, I took the 4-mile loop hiking trail. I used a walking stick that Yvette had given me for our anniversary. I had my MP3 player on for about the first ¼ mile until a deer crossed the trail ahead of me. It’s then that I decided to take it off so I could use all my senses. For the rest of the hike, I only came across or heard small lizards. On the back side of the trail, I came across a stretch of trail that was just beautiful.

On Wednesday, Yvette and I hiked the falls and then sat in the river. The water in the river was cold, not cold like get in slowly, cold like put your feet in for 15 minutes and wait until they were frozen. Then slip in up to your knees and wait for them to freeze. An hour later we found ourselves sitting in the river actually having a great time. That evening, we traveled into Johnson City and ate dinner at the Hill Country Cupboard so that we could watch UT Longhorns softball on GameTracker.

Thanks to Kristi West, who gave me the idea, on Thursday I somewhat unsuccessfully tried geocaching using a list provided by the park. My first attempt, just using the GPS on my phone and no special software, was a bust. So I walked a mile or so to the park office where they had wifi and downloaded some geocaching software. Then I set out to find my first cache near the office, which I couldn’t find. I walked back to the camp grounds and sought out four other caches, all within a mile from my location. I use mile loosely because that’s what the GPS read, not the actual distance through winding trails. I found one out of four caches.

By Friday, we were ready to get back to our dogs, and our own bed. Still, we had a wonderful time and are looking forward to doing it again in the fall when the weather gets a little cooler.