Season's Greetings!
A belated Merry Christmas to you all. I haven't been posting as much in the past month as I've been busy with music and family obligations. I'm sure everyone has been busy in the past few weeks, so I hope it's been a fun Christmas season for you all. I thought I would post a quick summary of what I've been up to the past few weeks.

I played with the Christmas Brass from the First Presbyterian Church of Orlando on two of their three Disney dates: December 10 at Downtown Disney and December 12 at Disney's Boardwalk Resort. I also played at five other Disney resorts with the Orlando Brass Quintet: December 17 at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground, December 18 at Disney's Port Orleans Resort, December 21 at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, December 23 at Disney's Beach & Yacht Club Resorts and December 24 at Disney's Pop Century Resort. Finally, the quintet played our usual Christmas Eve gig at St. Augustine Catholic Church, which is actually here in the Orlando area. Oh, and on November 30 the quintet played for the City of Sanford's annual Christmas tree lighting, which featured various vocal and instrumental groups from around Orlando. So musically, it's been a busy month!

On a personal note, everything is going well for my wife, Missy, who is 30 weeks pregnant as of today. Our son, Connor James Riesen, is also healthy and normal and we look forward to bringing him into the world sometime around March 7, 2008. My brother-in-law, Brian, drove down with his wife, Kathy, and their daughter, Amy, on Sunday the 23rd. Christmas Eve we gathered at my sister-in-law's house with my wife's family and spent the night there so that we could get up bright and early Christmas morning to open stockings and then presents. From there, Missy and I went to my parents' house for presents and lunch with my step-mom's family. Finally, we drove back to have dinner with Missy's family that evening. It was a very busy, but fun Christmas weekend.

Anywho, once again I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year!

-Jim ()@/