I enjoyed a number of days off over the Christmas holiday, more than I usually get to enjoy.  With the extra time off, I was able to organize our studio and storage areas and it made a huge difference.  We can actually walk around in our storage areas now.  I also found a workbench on Craigslist that I went and bought,  Putting it back together was a chore but it's done and we will be using it for product photography and video work.

I took JD to the gun range and we shot his Beretta, my Glock and the .357 Magnum that Jodi's mom gave me.  It belonged to her father and she inherited it when he passed.  It shoots great!  JD had fun shooting is 9mm and although he has some work to do in regard to accuracy, he made some good progress his first time firing a pistol.

Another Craigslist find over my break was a set of half doors and uppers for the Jeep.  Jodi has mentioned getting them since we purchased it because she doesn't like the "doors off" look.  I tend to agree with her in that regard but the price tag for a set of new doors and uppers is pretty expensive. Fortunately, we got these for about 1/3 the cost of new and the bonus is that they are already black.

 

We had a great trip to St. Louis for Christmas, getting time to spend with each of our families.  Seeing all of the little ones enjoy their time together was especially fun.  The food was great and I even came away with some cash and a Cabelas gift card.

I've spent the last couple days trying to get some things organized.  It's a long process but I am making some headway.  I came up with a clever solution to mount my modifiers to the storage room wall that freed up a lot of floor space.  After walking into our studio and being amidst the mess I made pulling everything out of the storage room, Jodi proclaimed I have way too much "stuff".  I take umbrage with that remark.  I just need to organize things better and that is in process.

   

It's getting closer to Christmas and I am looking forward to not just visiting with family for a couple days, but also the time off.  The plant is going to be down for an extra week after the Christmas break but unfortunately, I have to work that week, otherwise I would have a lot of time off.  As it sits, I'm still happy with what I'll get as I'll have 4 days off starting this Saturday before working two days, then I have 5 days off before working 4 days and then two more days off before the schedule goes back to normal.

My time off will be used to get some storage rooms in the basement organized, a new video and audio production room created and I will likely paint our bedroom and get the TV up and running.  Since we bought our 4K TV for the studio, we now have a 55" TV that needs a home, so our bedroom it is. We've never had a TV in the bedroom before so this will be something new for us.  Jodi will like it more than me as I'm not much of a TV watcher.

Our new intern starts with us January 10th and he has an interest in video production, which is one area I want to expand upon in our business, mostly for marketing purposes.  He will be with us 4 days per week and we are looking forward to working on some of my planned projects.  

Jodi's family left yesterday after a two day visit and had a nightmare trip home.  Spent several hours on the highway between Columbia and St. Peters not moving or crawling.  Long trip for them but they made it safely.  We had ice covered streets in the neighborhood when I got home from work.  We had accidents in our neighborhood and stuck cars on the hill by our street.  JD couldn't get to work and he didn't need to go in anyway with the condition of the streets.

It's a good thing we went to get the Jeep earlier in the day.  It's a 45 minute drive to the shop we are now using and it was misting when we went to get it so we lucked out and beat the winter weather. Jodi drove it home with her new fenders and late last night, I installed the JW Speaker LED tail lights.  They are nice and bright and I like the styling of them.

I'm working all weekend at the plant as they are trying to make up for some production losses caused by some equipment downtime.  This morning, they are short handed due to the road conditions so they aren't going to get the production volume they had hoped for.

Looking forward to the delivery of my new gun safe tomorrow evening.  It should adequately hold all of my guns, ammo, and other valuables for some time.  However, I know it will also challenge me to fill it up!  I will accept that challenge.  Looking at the CZ Scorpion to SBR, which will require a tax stamp.  I really want to start collecting NFA items so will need to set up a trust.

The JW Speaker LED tail lights arrived yesterday so I plan on installing those soon.  Still waiting to hear from the powdercoater that the fenders are finished and ready for pickup.  I got a quote from a shop to install them and it was quite a bit more than I had hoped for.  Going to get some more quotes!

We have been busy wrapping up our final sales sessions and getting products delivered.  We have one more sales session and one more photo shoot to do this month and that completes a pretty good year.  I've been buys prepping for our new intern who will be starting with us on January 10th.  I think we are going to do some pretty cool things leading into next year that will continue to elevate our business not only in our area but in the region.

We are registering for the Jeep Jamboree in the Black Hills today.  We will be going with my brother and sister in law and I know it's going to be a blast.  The Jeep is going to have the new fenders on soon and a set of 37" tires and accommodating wheels will be in place in the near future as well.  It's very tempting to go to 40's though. It would lead to some other upgrades but 37's don't really stand out much more over 35's.  

The hard top went back on the Jeep yesterday and we are ready for 4 months of cold.  The soft top actually is quite comfortable in 30 and 40 degree temps and I know many run the soft tops year round but the hard top is there for a reason and the rear window defroster and wiper will help at times throughout the winter.

I have to admit that I feel pretty good knowing that I don;t have any photo shoots for awhile.  Only a couple sales sessions left to do and then outside of some product ordering and packaging, we get to relax a bit and work on some projects that we want to work on, not "have" to work on.

Jodi's family will be coming for a few days later this month, as is tradition, to do some Christmas shopping.  Her Mom seems to be doing pretty well after knee replacement surgery which is good to see.  They always enjoy their time together when they are here and they also get to see Jayson.