1999 Holiday Cheer!

From a 'Stanton'® Clan

Dear Family & Friends,

Has it been a year already? It's time again for the annual Tom & Patty Show update. 1999 has been yet another year of great change.

It all started back in April… The Tom & Patty Show experienced the wacky ride called "Escrow". Not nearly as painful as child birth, but about the same amount of hassle. The house was listed on the Internet and Tom, who is an excellent web surfer, stumbled upon it. The first time we walked in, we knew it was "The House". The papers were faxed in that evening and the offer was accepted the next morning. Tom received the call at work. I remember wondering when would Tom stop hyperventilating. You'd think he would have learned to breathe in Lamaze class. We moved in on May 8th – a nice birthday present for me (woohoo!). A contest was held to see who could come up with the perfect name for our new home. It was hysterical! We had some great entries: The Hague, Stonehenge, TLP Dance Hall & Grill, The Love-Naisium and Das Booty among others. It wasn't until we were sitting around the fire pit out in our big back yard when Tom exclaimed, "Area 51!" The great room is big enough to be utilized as a UFO hanger and the backyard has a landing strip, so we adopted the name.

About the same time, I left Ingram Micro (gasp!) after 9.5 years and began working for a good friend of mine, Jim, at Advanced Enterprise Solutions as a Marketing Coordinator. I won't deny it. I left for the Benjamins. However, I stayed because it has turned out to be quite an experience. Jim is a hoot to work with and I get to be creative all over the place. I also got my dream car, a Toyota Camry. At the time of this writing, Tom remains at Ingram Micro. You just never know what will happen next over there. He's also riding around on a bright yellow Honda motorcycle (much to his mother's and my chagrin) that he got for his 33rd birthday. I told him he could have one if he bought me a house and, well, I guess he really wanted that motorcycle. He looks very handsome on it with his matching helmet and all. He just better be careful on that thing or I'll kick his hiney, black belt or not!

Laura turned 2 this year. She is talking, counting, drawing, jumping, hanging, sliding, singing and being an absolute angel. Laura still has this habit of falling headfirst and really wacked herself on a refridgerator not too long ago. It's a good thing the black eyes and that dent in her head went away. She looked like a Klingon there for a while. It cleared up just in time for her to choreograph another bonzai move and achieved another black eye. What can I say, she's Tom's daughter. At least she's not biting any more. We were going to take a family picture this year and wear fake black eyes to match Laura's, but then we figured you would think we were beating up on eachother. Thank goodness she's not in school. We would have been reported to the authorities by now (it's her shoes, I swear!). Perhaps by next year, big pieces of furniture will stop jumping in front of her when she least expects it. We do have some great pictures of Laura on our home page. It is updated weekly by the home page fairy. Please feel free to visit the web site (address below).

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! See you in 2000 if the vicious Y2K bug doesn't attack us.

Much Love,
The Tom & Patty Show Starring Laura Stanton

Home Page: http://tomandpattyshow.tripod.com
Email Address: tomandpk@aol.com