Farewell 2011!

This will be the last Hollywood Four blog post for 2011. The video below contains some picture memories from December 2011. Please check back on January 1, 2012 for a fresh, newly designed hollywood-four.blogspot.com website ... oh, and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A Trio of Christmas Parties

As is normally the case, the Hollywood Four celebrated Christmas three times this past week. First we had our own Hollywood Four Family Christmas last Friday; then the Ott Family Christmas in Brighton, MI on Saturday; and finally the Frederick Family Christmas in Big Rapids, MI on Monday. It is always exhausting, but the kids make out pretty well (and the weather was very cooperative). The family time is nice, but it's also good to return home and get ready for the New Year.

Recent Hockey Highlights

Andrew had hockey practice last night but is off now for a full week with no hockey practices or games. So, to tide us all over, here are a few miscellaneous Strongsville Mustangs hockey game highlights from games played over the past couple weeks (including the goal Andrew scored a week ago).

Christmas Fun Revisted

Abby and I were feeling nostalgic this evening so we got our our old collection of family Christmas DVDs. Just as many families send Christmas cards and letters during the holiday season, the Hollywood Four used to send Christmas DVDs to our family and friends. This video contains highlights from the first Christmas DVD we produced in 2004 while living in Chicago. We continued the tradition for three additional years - until I no longer had willing and cooperative participants. It was fun while it lasted ... and definitely fun to look back upon again. They used to be so cute!

A Local Christmas Light Show

How would you like to live next to these five houses? This Medina, OH couple have become legendary in the area for their Disney Christmas light display. Here is a local newspaper article on the subject. We took a drive through last night and here is a short clip of what we saw (you even tune in your car radio to a specific station to here the music that goes with the lights).

The Next Chapter in My Marketing Career

As most of my family and friends know, I have been evaluating new career opportunities over the past few weeks. I have met and spoken with a lot of great people. Some of the companies that expressed interest in my talents include a telecommunications distributor, two logistics software companies, a couple transportation providers and several third party logistics companies - oh, and an eco-friendly bus manufacturer too. The networking experience has been eye-opening and I have also found the true meaning of friendship when it counts most. Even with the positive activity, one organization in particular really showed a great deal of interest in me, and I in them. And so, earlier this week I followed my heart and accepted an offer to join an organization called PartnerShip LLC as their new marketing director. Even though I have not yet begun working for them, their President & COO has already sent an internal communication announcing my addition to the team, as he puts it, to "... help refine existing and develop new marketing strategies in support of business goals and objectives, and create efficient and profitable processes for the execution and implementation of such strategies." I am really looking forward to this new and unique opportunity. The company is a small, for-profit subsidiary of a larger non-profit organization called the National Association of College Stores (or NACS for short). PartnerShip LLC specializes in providing transportation and logistics services to college bookstores and to other small and medium businesses. They recently moved into new offices in Westlake, OH and all of the people I have met so far have been wonderful. It will truly be a breath of fresh air to work for a small, non-public company with a lean, high-integrity management team - and so I am really excited about this opportunity. Thank you again for the support of my family and friends. More Hollywood marketing details to come in future posts.

WhirlyBall Christmas Party

The Strongsville Mustangs had their team Christmas party this evening. The party was at the WhirlyBall facility in Bedford Heights. Andrew and the rest of the kids had a blast (and dads too!). There was lots of junk food and, in addition to WhirlyBall, some of the kids played laser tag. At the end, each of the kids received a team gift: A miniature hockey stick with the team logo and their name on it. Here are a few highlights.