Happy New Year! Polar Bear Splash @ Kyle Pool

I know... Texas weather. it was in the 60s and the water was in the 50s... but I jumped in. Did you?
This is the 7th Annual Polar Bear Splash at the Kyle Pool in Kyle, Texas.

Yes, that's me. This photo was taken by my wife, Jodie Claes.

Happy New Year. Hope you have your Blackeye Peas!

"Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is thought to bring prosperity.

The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~500 CE), Horayot 12A: "Abaye [d. 339 CE] said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see qara (bottle gourd), rubiya (black-eyed peas, Arabic lubiya), kartei (leeks), silka (either beets or spinach), and tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year." However, the custom may have resulted from an early mistranslation of the Aramaic word rubiya (fenugreek)." (Source - Wikipedia)

Polar Bear Mar


This is my other Daughter Marlee... with her feet in the 48-degree water that my wife and I jumped in on New Years. I swear if we let her this 3 1/2 year old would have jumped in herself. She was totally into it.

I was going to post a photo of the event from another photographer - Gregory Cooper who has a Flickr page called "phive" but I can't post photos from his profile... so.. please go check his photography out. He's got some great stuff... including a photo of me and Mar Mar...