Christopher's 12th Birthday!

Happy Birthday Christopher!

Today Christopher turned 12. We already had his birthday party (see earlier post) so today was more low key.

Food and Activities
We went to Taekwondo class tonight. It was our sparring night so it was a pretty good workout. Afterwards Mom made homemade pizza and a cake. Yum! Christopher also took a plate of cup cakes to school too. They were iced together with a Bakugan symbol on top.

Gifts
Christopher got some smaller family gifts tonight. Nicole gave him a set of Bakugan cards and a bag of Reese's Pieces. Mom found Christopher a really cool looking guitar pick (Christopher has really been wanting to learn to play). Dad got him an LED hat light to use on campouts.

Stats
Now for the stats. Christopher grew a whopping 4 inches this year and is now 3 inches taller than his mom. His voice has dropped about an octive too. He's really becoming a man.

Height: 5' 6 5/16"
Weight: 171 pounds

News
It's been a tough year for the economy. The stock market has been plumetting, jobs are being lost, home prices have dropped, banks and brokerages are collapsing, companies are going bankrupt, 401K's are depressed and you don't even want to look at your IRA's.

Today's Stocks
DOW: 7552.29, down 444.99 (one year ago it was about over 13,000)
S&P500: 752.44, down 54.14 (one year ago was over 1400)
Nasdaq: 1316.12, down 70.30 (one year ago was over 2500)

The Good News
Over the summer gas prices really sky rocketed. Prices reached to $4 level and barrels of oil were selling for over $110. That increase caused everything including food to go way up in price. But the economy has gone so sour that gas use is way down and prices have really dropped. Today the price around town is around $1.75 per gallon. Oil is down to around $54 per barrell.

Consumer products are also dropping in price because sales are WAY down. That's good for the buyer (the few that there are) but bad for companies. Even General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are on the verge of bankrupsy.