Ernie Ketcham and Steve Ketcham are in the first picture.  Check out the gallery below.

Travis has done work with our clients in Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas and we are excited to give Travis this opportunity to grow within our company.  For more information about Travis, check out his LinkedIn profile.

Home sales hit an 11-month high in December and the number of properties on the market was the fewest in nearly seven years, pointing to a nascent recovery in the housing sector.  The National Association of Realtors said on Friday existing home sales increased 5 percent to an annual rate of 4.61 million units, with all four of the nation’s regions recording gains.

Sales of both multifamily and single-family homes rose.  “It seems that the housing sector may be slowly picking itself up off of the mat,” said Omair Sharif, an economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.  While the home sales pace was a touch below economists’ expectations, December marked the third straight month of gains, adding to hopes that a tentative recovery was taking shape.

To sign up for the weekly deals email, please go to www.galvmet.com and type your email address in the box on the right hand side, and click the button to submit. In addition to our weekly specials there are occasionally opportunities to win great prizes. Galvmet will keep your email secure and will not spam your inbox with daily emails.

Ernie will be visiting customers to find out how we can help and what you would like to see us do. If you’d like to discuss something with Ernie, or would like to show him your organization please give us a call so we can put your company on his schedule. Thank you for your business and we look forward to working with you in 2012.

What does this have to do with our business and the steel industry?  As far as this post goes, not much.  However, hearing and celebrating good news is a great way to change direction and outlook.  We hope these monthly “good news” stories brighten your day in some way.  As always, thank you for reading our blog.  Please let us know if there is any question we can answer or topic we can cover in the coming months!

We hope that you enjoy New Year’s Eve and go into 2012 with a renewed sense of excitement in your work and personal lives!  We look forward to talking with you soon.

More on the New Year celebration from Wikipedia

The New Year is the day that marks the time of the beginning of a new calendar year, and is the day on which the year count of the specific calendar used is incremented. For many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner.  The New Year of the Gregorian calendar, today in worldwide use, falls on January 1st, continuing the practice of the Roman calendar. There are numerous calendars that remain in regional use that calculate the New Year differently.

The order of months in the Roman calendar has been January to December since King Numa Pompilius in about 700 BC, according to Plutarch and Macrobius.  January 1st has been the first day of the year, except during the Middle Ages when several other days were the first (1 March, 25 March, Easter, 1 September, 25 December). With the expansion of Western culture to the rest of the world during the twentieth century, the first day of  January became global, even in countries with their own New Year celebrations on other days (such as China and Pakistan).

In the culture of Latin America there are a variety of traditions and superstitions surrounding these dates as omens for the coming year. January remains a symbol of the New Year’s celebration.  The Gregorian calendar is now used by many countries as the official calendar. This has meant that celebrations for the New Year have become much larger than before. Some countries(e.g. the Czech Republic) even consider 1 January to be a national holiday.

Origins of the Christmas Celebration from Wikipedia

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. In much of the world’s nations, Christmas is a civil holiday, is celebrated by an increasing amount of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.

The precise day of Jesus’ birth, which historians place between 7 and 2 BC, is unknown. In the early-to-mid 4th century, the Christian Church in the West first placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted also in the East. Theories advanced to explain that choice include that it falls nine months after the Christian celebration of the conception of Jesus, that it was the date of the Roman winter solstice, or of some ancient winter festival.

The original date of the celebration in Eastern Christianity was January 6th, and that is still the date of the celebration in Armenia, where it is a public holiday, and for the Armenian Apostolic Church. As of 2011, there is a difference of 13 days between the Julian calendar and the more generally used Gregorian calendar. Those who use the Julian calendar or its equivalents thus celebrate December 25 and January 6 on what for the majority of people is January 7 and January 19. For this reason, Ethiopia celebrates Christmas, both as a Christian feast and as a public holiday on what in the Gregorian Calendar is January 7.

Many of the popular celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have pre-Christian or secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift-giving, music, an exchange of Christmas cards, church celebrations, a special meal, and the display of various decorations; including Christmas trees, lights, garlands, mistletoe, nativity scenes, and holly. In addition, several figures, known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, and Santa Claus, among other names, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.

Spencer Composites, which fabricates products for numerous industries, helps Totally Wired Droids, a member of the R2 Builders Club. The club is an international group of “Star Wars” fans who work together to help other members create their dream of building their own R2D2, the short, stocky and squawky sidekick robot from the “Star Wars” films.

Waterjet cutting machines and computer-numeric-controlled mills are just some of the sheet metal machines that Spencer has on hand to help make the various parts needed to build an R2D2. Need a foot for your R2? How about an ankle cylinder or a shoulder horseshoe? If you need it for your robot, Totally Wired Droids can make it.

The amount of time, detail and money this club uses shows they are serious about this hobby. If you are a Star Wars fan it’s hard not to come away from this article impressed. We encourage you to subscribe to Snips Magazine, you won’t be disappointed.  You could also sign up for free to their eNewsletter here.