A little more Christmas...

Christmas at home couldn't have been any better! I was able to catch up with my old friends, Lisa Andersen, Brittney Paul, Katie Hatch and Jennah Ellis. Go to a friend's wedding reception...which in many ways, was like attending a Glendora High School reunion. Have our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Chineese food. Relax with the fam, take lots of naps and talk to Elder Segura!!! Oh...and go to In-N-Out, TWICE!

~CHRISTMAS MORNING~

Cameron and I were the only kids home for Christmas this year. We still woke up early.

Dad got a new camera for Christmas. Very exciting.

Never a dull moment at the Segura home!!

~DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES~

Mom and I went downtown L.A. to wander around Santee Alley and the Jewelry District. Needless to say, we did A LOT of people watching. Everywhere you looked there was something neat, quirky or just plain wired to see. Santee Alley definitely didn't disappoint!

Mama makes friends wherever she goes. (I know this guy doesn't look very happy but, promise he loved us!)

HAD to try this thing on.

I loved the all the great architecture.

~WHITE HOUSE CHRISTMAS~

Last, but not least...A few pictures from my fourth and final White House Christmas party. My friend, Gaither, came as my date and we had a terrific time!

Couldn't ask for a better boss.

Wonderful colleagues!

KK is one of my dearest friends.

The President's Own United States Marine Band. They played fabulous Christmas music all evening!

The End...

I hope you all enjoyed a very Merry Christmas!!!

A Red, White and Blue Christmas

A few weekends ago, the White House was opened to staff and their guests. I invited my friends Gaither, Hollie and Jozsef. We had a great time wandering around and admiring the beautiful decorations. I love Christmas at the White House and will definitely be homesick for the place next year! This year's theme is A Red, White and Blue Christmas.

Gaither in the middle of a story.

This children's choir performed on the State Floor. Looks like one of 'em is giving his little buddy a pep talk. Too cute!

~DETAILS~

Hollie is a wonderful photographer and took the below photos. Thanks Hollie!

Portraits

Some of you have asked to see images of President and Mrs. Bush's official portraits. A Russian artist named, Sasha Titovets, received the commission to portray Mrs. Bush while American artist, Robert Anderson, created the portrait of the President. Both are outstanding. For more details from the unveiling click, here.

A Modern Parable

From a friend. Enjoy...

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering,while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order; American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'RowingTeam Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid-off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.

The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles), so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

Sadly, the End.

Happy Birthday Elder Segura

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