I'd like to wish all of my family, extended family, friends and loyal readers a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.  I spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning at Peggy's with Kagen, Todd and Allison, then drove back to the farm where we're having dinner for mom and our Christmas. My business year has come to an end.  We got a nice bonus in that JMU had three home playoff games. And we've moved inside and taken over the cafeteria at the Richmond Auto Auction.  I'm not sure if that will be a benefit or not as the two weeks we've done it were close to the holidays and expectedly slow. For the year, my sales were up about 18%.  Considering the economy and my loss of Liberty, the Fredericksburg Auction and Richmond Raceway for most of the year, plus the changes in policy at my Walmarts,  I guess that is pretty good.  Of course, JMU and Belvedere were up a bunch which helped those figures alot. And, of course, we got Big Red and a vehicle to pull it so I could put my big truck with 550,000 miles on it out to pasture. Unfortunately, my expenses were up over 30% so my bottom line went in the wrong direction.  That can be corrected especially with the recent drop in gas prices. Things are looking very positive for 2009.  Several of my Walmarts are coming back on line and it looks like Richmond Raceway will be a regular stop for Big Red.  I'm a little worried about the first couple of months of the year but we'll see how it goes.  My first really big weekend will be the middle of January with the Fishing Expo that was huge for us last  year.  It also looks like we're getting the races at Richmond which should really boost my sales figures.  I've also had feelers from Dover Downs but that is still up in the air.  And who knows where else we'll end up. For now, we'll just plug along and hope for an early spring and warm weather. Again, Happy Holidays.