2007 Christmas Letter

Chapter One

Where do you start! Isn’t that how you all feel when starting your year-end wrap’up letter? And then after a few desperate moments of being overwhelmed, you take a deep breath and decide to start at the very beginning because, as someone so famously once said, "It’s a very good place to start." So here goes.
We should establish right off the bat that this entire thing will be one huge effort at ‘making a long story short’, since there’s no way we have enough time or you have sufficient patience to go through the details.

What better way to start the year than a healthy dose of hospital! In January the whole family took a much-needed vacation to the local hospital for nine days! Ok, so it wasn’t exactly a vacation, but it was every bit as expensive! Bored with back surgeries, Rob decided to bust a gut. Literally. Diagnosed with diverticulitus, rob underwent surgery to remove part of his colon.

We would like to invite you now to expunge that previous paragraph from your memory, and move on with us to the rest of the year, which takes a decidedly upward swing at this point. (Rob's fine)

We all spent the next few months healing and working hard to keep the business from going belly up (no pun intended). That’s not to say of course that there weren’t a few memorable moments. Elijah was also put under the knife in January, or perhaps we should say, the ‘sheers’. His first haircut was a special kind of bonding moment, and we have a little freeze dried baggy of baby hair to prove it!

We were sad as a family to say goodbye to Tiffani’s grandfather, Dr. M.G.McLuhan, in January. He passed on, leaving behind a legacy and a memory so strong that three separate memorial services were held in his honor. It was encouraging for all of us to see the wonderful fruit his ministry produced, and to know that he will not be forgotten.

April brought with it the unique opportunity for Elijah to meet a great American cultural icon, the Easter bunny. We are proud to report that there was neither running away in terror, nor screaming to be heard. The two in fact hit it off quite nicely and spent the afternoon deep in conversation over the secularization of our society, especially in regards to major religious holidays. Ok, maybe not, but we did manage to get a cute picture of the two.

Rob and Tiffani also had the opportunity to sit ringside at their very first boxing exhibition. The boxing match was a fundraiser to do with Cancer awareness, and featured a video that The Reid Effect produced. It was an interesting and rewarding experience, and since then we have discovered boxing to be a very effective way of settling household disputes.

But for the most part we were all just waiting around for Mr. Silval, Farrah’s boyfriend, to get up the courage to finally do what’s been a long time coming: the proposal! The big day finally happened in May while both Tiffani and Rob were out of town (thanks Abel!) Tiffani was so overcome with Joy that she vowed not to sleep until after the wedding.
At this point I have to break the suspense and let everyone know that it is in fact Rob who is writing this update, because I don’t want to let a bunch of you down who were expecting detail after detail of the wedding planning. For the most part it was just a bunch of party this, party that, money out the window here, money out the window there.. only the names changed… sort of thing. I escaped as much as possible into the suddenly very busy world of business running while my beloved basically planned her second wedding (identical twins get that privilege apparently). No, seriously, (and now this is Tiffani writing) it was a wonderful time for Farrah and I. Several years after Farrah’s hard work on my wedding, I finally had the opportunity to return the favor. There were no less than six different parties and showers to help plan and attend. Rob was of course no help at all, and will be paying the price for some time to come. The good news is that Farrah and Abel's wedding was exactly what I had always dreamed it would be!! ☺ Really, it was a wonderful day – Farrah and Abel make such a great pair, and we’re so blessed to have them living only minutes away from us!

In comparison, (rob here again) the rest of the year is quite boring, but I’ll tell you about it anyway since there’s nothing lamer than half an update. Tiffani graciously agreed to let me spend too much money on tickets for us to see my grownup years hero, talk show host and brilliant lecturer, Dennis Prager.

We also had the opportunity to take a small vacation to Vegas. Tiffani has had family living there for years and had never visited the actual ‘sin’ portion of the city. It was a great get-away for us, and a wonderful time for Mimi and Opa to spoil Elijah for a few days.

Chapter Two

So where were we? Ah yes... The grand event of the year, Farrah and Abel's wedding went off without a hitch. Uncle Derryck wrote a very touching ceremony focusing on "worship," and the bride was absolutely beautiful. What could be better than that? It was a perfect day! So, now it's time to sit back and coast the rest of the year, right?

No such luck. We forgot to mention that the wedding was scheduled on November third, and Elijah, our one and only child turned the big two on the fourth. So guess who got the shaft? No, not really. We did put off celebrating until the whole family had settled down a little. To be honest we don't think the little guy even realized we were off a few days. In fact we may have put off celebrating at all had it not been for the fact that doubling your age in a single year is a feat worth baking a cake for. :) Elijah has grown tremendously this year. He's our own little Hercules...or Incredible Hulk... or Conan the Barbarian, depending on his mood. We know one thing for sure - He's got an entire task force of Angels assigned to protect him!

The Reid Effect has had an amazing year. We are constantly amazed at what the Lord is doing, and frequently reminded that it is by his hand that we are led. The direction He's leading now is so exciting it borders a little on scary. This past fall we were blessed with the opportunity to produce a full-scale documentary. We will have updates here soon on the website to feature news of the documentary, but the finished version came out great, has been submitted to the Tele-Awards, and hopefully will make the film festival circuit in 2008. We have just begun another documentary that will follow the intense training of a Mixed Martial Arts fighter named Alvin 'Kid' Robinson on his journey to a televised UFC fight in late January. Alvin is a great Christian young man with a quite a story to tell. To say the least, we are excited about this project. If planning goes as scheduled and the funding can be raised in time, February will mark the beginning of several intense months of production in which The Reid Effect will be producing a six to ten episode mini series, with hopes of the concept being picked up for syndication once completed. Please be in prayer for us as this project evolves. It has tremendous potential, but will take a minor miracle for all the pieces to come together perfectly. Fortunately for us, we believe in miracles. :)

Back to the family update that this is supposed to be. This past Thanksgiving we had the opportunity to visit my family in North Carolina for a week. It was a wonderful time, relaxing time, and a much needed time for the grandparents and great grandparents to kiss Tiffani and me on the cheek and then spend the rest of the week ogling and spoiling Elijah! This Christmas will be spent with Tiffani's family here in Phoenix.

We want to tell you all how much you are loved and missed by us. You are a special part of our lives, and though we are less than consistent in keeping in touch, we want all of you to know how much you mean to us. (Hopefully some of you actually made it through this book of an update.)

Don't forget this holiday season what the real reason for our joy is. Christ is and always will be our main reason for rejoicing in this wonderful life He has given us, and the blessed hope we have because of what He's done.

Merry Christmas to all of you and we wish you the best in the new year to come!!

Love,
Rob, Tiffani, and Elijah