Team Kelly Racing looks forward to successful 2006
 By JOE KELLY

We have a couple of Christmas traditions we like to keep around the Kelly household.
Denny and I cut down the tree. Trish and Chip dress it with ornaments and lights – you do not want to get in their way, I still have tinsel-burn from last year. Tex and Billy mix up the “adult eggnog.” And Armani sings Christmas carols. Or I should say he tries to. He tends to get a little choked up during Frosty the Snowman.

“But if he melts in the sun he’s gonna die.”

“It’s just a song, Armani.”

“Not to the snowman!”

My favorite tradition is Brenda’s Christmas ham.
I love that ham. I wish there was a word stronger than “love” to convey the feelings I have for this particular salted pork product. I superlove that ham. I know it’s not a real word and I don’t care. You can’t let something like proper grammar get in the way of expressing your feelings for the things you superlove.

It is moist. It is tender. It is sweet.

Christmas is the one meal a year Brenda takes the restrictor plate off my dinner plate. And by God I love her for it. No DNF for me. I like to kid her and tell her that any thoughts I ever had of straying were tempered by the fact that to do such a thing meant risking the ham. And that is something I just won’t do. No, sir.

After Christmas dinner we gather by the fire and take time to say how much we love each other. I know it sounds corny, but when your family life and business life are pretty much the same thing day in day out, you need to make time to tell the people you love how much you appreciate them. This is Brenda’s idea and it’s a good one.

Afterwards we break out the eggnog – hot chocolate for Chip and Trish – and make our New Year’s resolutions. We have no secrets in our family – at least, we’re not supposed to, anyway – so I have asked everyone to share their resolutions. Consider it our gift to you for being such a loyal fan.

Armani Riggio
“I want to be friends with little driver boy Denny. He is a good boy and if we work together we can win. I also want to make a snowman with Chip. We will protect him from the sun. We must.”

Chip Kelly
“Kevin Harvick will be defeated, by me, in a series of video game challenges including Thunder Road II, Left Turn Lightning and Cannonball Gumball, featuring the celebrity voice of Bert Convy.”

Trish Kelly
“Um, yeah, I want every member of the family to experience the thrill of victory this season. I also want these Enzo Angiolini high heels from Nine West with the strappy thingies that just scream business in the front, party in the back.”

Billy Riggs
“Sweet lord I want Trish to have those shoes more than any man has ever wanted anything. Now I sound like Joe with the ham. Resolution, resolution, resolution – I would have to say I want to get the 13 and 69 cars to the front of the pack every week. We’re so close already.”

Denny Kelly
“I want to follow in my dad’s footsteps and win a championship. I know it’s going to take even more time and dedication, but I’m ready. I’m another year older and wiser and I know I can do it. First we’re going to win a race. Then we’re going to beat McSwain. Then we take the title. That’s a promise.”

Tex Riggs
“I want to do more fishing with Billy. Just me and him, a fast boat, a cooler with a six-pack of liquid relaxation and a lake full of large-mouth bass that say, ‘Don’t bother with all the work, boys, we’ll just jump right in the boat. You fellas just relax.’”

Calvin T. Tibbins
“I want to land top sponsors for Denny and Armani. Real sponsors. The kind that run commercials on TV and have huge cardboard cutouts of their drivers in Wal-Mart and who treat their team’s public relations manager with the professionalism, respect and, dare I say – reverence – he deserves.”

Brenda Kelly
“I plan to redouble my efforts to shake this team from the foul curse that has descended upon it. I’m planning to teach the boys a form of transcendental meditation that heightens awareness of the senses during competition. It’s very Thoreau. He would have been a great driver.”

Joe Kelly
“We are going to keep working hard and we are going to get at least one win this season. I know it. I can feel it. This is going to be our year. What could possibly go wrong?”