Cascade Title's Escrow Corner

In This Issue

Cascade Title Barometer

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Dear ,

Welcome to the "most wonderful time of the year!"

We're so glad to live in an area that knows how to celebrate this wonderful season. From the Longview Downtown Parade (that travels right past our office) to the Kelso Tree Lighting, our community knows how to ring in the season.

Cascade Title wishes you all the best this holiday season. Stop in and enjoy a cookie! (We're looking forward to Santa doing that!)

Sincerely,

Your Friends at Cascade Title Company

Bazaar Follow-Up

Thanks to everyone who helped make our recent Christmas Bazaar such a great success. We brought in a total of $994 (which includes $117 raised by the Cancer Crusher team's table the night of the event)! All proceeds will go the American Cancer Society Relay for Life.

New Year - Better You!

Another year is about to tick over, with a new one waiting just over the horizon. Many people will be thinking about how to make next year better than this year and will probably even make a new year's resolution or two. They will be trying to change old habits, create new ones, work harder, find the "one", spend more time with family, earn more money, quit smoking, lose weight, and so many more aims that will probably be forgotten about before the first month is over.

The new year is a great time to review your past and plan for your future, but for any real change to occur there has to be a long term commitment. It is all good and well to write down a little wish list and get excited over it for a few days or a few weeks, but that's the easy part. It takes maybe 20 minutes of commitment to come up with a list of goals and ambitions for the next year. It takes a lot longer to achieve them, particularly if it is a lifelong habit you plan to change or improve.

Although twenty minutes is probably longer than many people spend reviewing their life and thinking about the future, it is not enough if you really want to become all that you can be. Unless you are a highly motivated and ambitious person that naturally jumps from success to success, you will have to continually review your position throughout the year. One big exciting change usually isn't enough to change our behaviors that we have taught ourselves over a period of many years. Just as we developed our current way of thinking over a long period of time, we have to develop our new way of thinking (to achieve the goals) over a long period of time also.

If you are truly committed to achieving your new year's resolution you will forget about calling it a new years resolution! It needs to be a constant living resolution that you are committed to achieving. This living resolution does not fade after January finishes, because it is alive and takes much more than a yearly review to survive.

Your living resolution must be reviewed, tested, and measured at least monthly or preferably weekly. Without continual adjustment and maintenance we just slip into the habits that we know and are comfortable with. Creating something new in our life will take effort and positive action on our part. Most people will fall off the horse along the way as it seems to be human nature to fall off the horse! We have to continually get back on the horse and continue on our way towards achieving what we set out to achieve.

Be unusual this year and make your new year's resolution a living resolution that remains a part of your life for longer than January.

Cascade Title's Manager Message

Joel Lengyel
Manager

Ho-ho-ho and Merry Christmas to all! Santa Joel here, and here we are already at the month of December with Christmas just around the corner. I think of Christmas as a time to gather the family, enjoy the spirit of the season and to spend time reflecting on what Christmas really means to each and every one of us. Every faith and every family certainly has their own traditions and most of those are familiar to us, but I decided to take a look at some of the more unusual traditions around the world and I think you will be just as surprised to read what I have found.

The hiding of all brooms on Christmas Eve night is a very old Norwegian tradition. In the old days people believed witches and evil spirits came out on this night looking for brooms to ride on, so they hid them in the safest places possible. Today, Norwegian women still hide their brooms, mops and brushes before going to sleep, while the men sometimes sneak out of the house and fire a shotgun to scare off the witches. If you ask me, brooms must be very expensive in Norway, especially if people go through all this trouble just to prevent them from getting stolen.

In the Czech Republic single women perform a very unusual ritual on Christmas Eve Day just to find out if they will marry in the following year. With their backs to their house front door, they throw one of their shoes over their shoulder. If the shoe lands with the heel towards the door, she will definitely stay single for another year, while if the front of the shoe points towards the door, it means she will move out of her parent's house, and should start making wedding preparations. I think my parents just kicked me out of the house with a boot and goodbye!

Now with this one, I have definitely found one of the messiest Christmas traditions in the world and strongly advise you to please not try it at home, unless you plan to have your living room repainted soon. In Slovakia, at the beginning of Christmas Eve dinner, the head of the family takes a spoon of Loksa (a traditional Christmas dish made out of bread, poppy seed filling and water) and throws it up at the ceiling. The more mixture that remains glued on the ceiling the richer his crops will be the following year. It's a fun custom popular in many areas of Slovakia and the Ukraine, but the women that have to clean up the mess don't like it so much. I think I remember one of my teachers getting mad at us boys for doing this with spit balls! I must have some Slovakian in me!

Now this one is really different and I have no idea what brought it on, but it has to make up for a lack of cable TV! Now this actually started-off as an act of vandalism and now has become one of the most interesting traditions in Sweden. For over 40 years the Swedish town of Gavle has erected a giant Goat made of straw to mark the beginning of the holiday season. But every year vandals do everything they can to burn down the goat before Christmas Day. Since 1966, the Straw Goat has survived until Christmas Day only 10 times. People disguise themselves as Santa Claus or elves to get past the guardians and ignite the straw monument.

I hope you have enjoyed this and from my family to yours, I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and all of God's blessings for a Happy New Year!

Take care,

Joel Lengyel

1425 Maple Street, Longview, WA 98632
Phone: (360) 425-2950
Fax: (360) 425-8010
Toll Free: (877) 425-2950