The Christmas Letter

It's the end of 2023 and while it has been a good year, I am looking forward to the turn of the calendar page. The central theme this year to come for me to make time to be grateful. I had a Christmas Unplugged “ready” to launch but my editor, Jackie, told me it was garbage (but she used nicer words). So instead I will just say thank you for you 7,500 people who subscribe to Unplugged and share with you this year's Unplugged Holiday letter. I am grateful to have such a good friend and editor who will call it like it is. A big shout out here to Jackie James and all the clean-up work she has done on the Unplugged series.

Let’s start our update with the person we all want to be. Paul Bullock has fully embraced the change in his LinkedIN title from CTO to “Make guitars, play guitars”. His band Infinite Journey continues to entertain large audiences (2,000-5,000 people) at shows several times a month. Paul and Duke his trusty side-kick at Bullock Guitars delivered amazing hand-crafted electric guitars all year long.

He sold out his annual quantity of custom guitars by the end of Q3 and now is already booking into mid 2024. He is celebrating and sharing his love of the build and creative process on social media. Who knew Paul would be a tik tok phenomenon? He joins me mat-side at some of Aro’s wrestling tournaments and is taking his job as girl-dad very seriously. Each boy or girl that wants to spend time with our kids has to walk a very serious gauntlet and an ever-increasing repertoire of Dad jokes. Love this guy and am so very moved by his choice to be a father to all the children.

Fia is working hard in high school and is putting her time and effort into things that matter. She is President of her high school’s Best Buddies program.? She is focusing on increasing the number of students paired up for Special Olympics and throughout the year. She and her buddy T are true friends for more than 5 years who check in on each other throughout the week. She is crushing it at debate tournaments and has a boyfriend who seems a nice fellow, when he isn’t on the ice playing hockey. She has so much more grace and poise than I did at her age.?

Alli graduated with a bachelors degree in public health and has already finished her first semester of her master’s degree in social work. She did all of this while working a job to help support herself and a second job to help survivors of rape. She lives with a therapy GSD who gives great hugs. Who knew I would be raising public servants?

Patrick will be graduating college in the spring and has enjoyed being on the university’s competitive shooting team. We got to spend the Christmas holidays with him and what a joy of a young man he is. He has better people skills than Paul and I put together. I can’t wait to see where he puts his business degree to use? when he graduates this coming spring.

Jarret and Lyndsay Garza have continued to thrive. Jarret is the policeman we all need in our communities. He is strong, protective and caring. He has an abiding desire for justice and there is not a controlling or mean bone in his body. Lyndsay has completed her medical training and is serving the community as a PA. Together they gave me the best Christmas gift of the decade with news I will be a grandmother this summer. That seals it, I was on the fence about letting my hair go grey…bring on the silver…Granny’s in the HOUSE!!!

Aro is the baby of the family and the fiercest of us all. She has always been a force to be reckoned with but watching her on the wrestling mat is gut wrenching awe. Spoiler alert for an Unplugged to come: I think we need more girl wrestlers because they are being trained with everything a CEO needs to be successful. Since big sis recruited Aro to join best buddies, she has now reciprocated as the Varsity Women’s Wrestling Captain and recruited big sis to join wrestling as the team’s lightweight.? Sister love or payback? Only time will tell.?

How about me? I love waking up every morning and making breakfast for the kids while Paul is putting away the dishes from the dinner I made the night before, and then driving back and forth to wrestling practice. I got a new puppy, Kai, and he is a powerhouse. I didn’t buy the other record label or the commercial building. It just wasn’t right. We surfed this summer at the lake with friends and played in the water with the dogs and watched the eagles raise their babies again. Paul and I hit 4 continents in the last 12 months looking for inspiration in guitar, song, and business. We wrote some more songs.?

Our inspiration has spread as our band, HigherHill ’s music streamed more than 2,000,000 times in 46 countries and it is starting to become popular in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. While it was no Taylor Swift moment, Spotify claims that 76 fans had us in their top 10 artists and HigherHill is the favorite artist of 23 listeners. My kids laughed when i asked them and my parents don’t use Spotify so somewhere…there are real people who enjoy our music.? Yay!

I am glad for the calendar page to flip over as I allowed a few Dickens-inspired characters to suck up way too much oxygen and mindshare as we finally shrugged off the old to make room for the new in 2023. I already feel freed up enough to start a new tech company and agree to write some articles for Authority Magazine and be a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University .

My goal this year is to make more time for things that bring me joy and help me to feel content. I will continue to make time to breathe, stretch, move my body and drink another glass of water. I want to be grateful for where I am, right at this moment instead of the future-tensed waiting for when I do the thing, achieve the goal, see the place, or some other person sees me the way I want to be seen. Life is absolutely too short to spend time with people I don’t enjoy. I am grateful for the time together with loved ones, the experiences lived and the lessons learned.

I wish each of you and your family a safe, healthy, grateful and content new year ahead. Thank you for choosing to share the year with me here on Unplugged. Please share your favorite Unplugged with someone you think might enjoy it or subscribe here. Cheers!

All Rights Reserved Copyright Vanessa Ogle 2024