For most of us, the Christmas season is our busiest time in our shops as well as a time to celebrate with family and friends. It is time to be thankful for the many blessings that all of us have received and especially for our family and friends. Although the primary purpose of the Bay Area Woodworking Organization (BAWA) is to promote the art of woodworking through education, we also place great value in the friendships that have developed among our members over the years. This year has brought some new changes to our club with a greater emphasis on member participation. We instituted library book and DVD reviews which hopefully will continue to be a monthly feature of our meetings. We continued to have tool talks which began last year along with our tech talks which now has been a feature of our meeting for many years. All of our officers have worked very hard to make the club a better organization and to make our meetings more useful to our members. This year we obtained, for the first time, liability insurance (thanks to Frank Ramsey) which allows us to hold more shop meetings where live demos can be shown. BAWA was twenty five years old this year and all of us who attended our elegant celebration felt proud to be a member to celebrate this wonderful milestone. Our meeting this month will also be another opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of our fellow woodworkers. I hope all of you will attend and bring your favorite woodworking object you have a made or a digital photo of your work so that we all can be inspired to push our woodworking skills to a new level.