Happy 2013 to all of my NHRA.com blog readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that your 2013 is off to a great start.

Let me go back a few weeks and get you caught up on what the Brothaman has been up to since I last blogged. We had the DSR Christmas party and championship celebration on Dec. 21 at the JW Marriott in downtown Indy. It’s always a great way for everyone at DSR to get together and wrap up our incredible season. Everyone lets loose and has a good time. I won’t name any names, but I spied some crew guys doing Gangnam Style on the dance floor. Whoop whoop! Did any of y’all check out Psy and Hammer on New Year’s Eve? Seeing Hammer makes me feel old, Can’t Touch This.

My wonderful wife Billie Jo managed to get the kids and me standing still long enough to capture a great family photo for our Christmas cards. In a lot of the pictures my future star Arianna was trying to steal the show. We’re not a bad looking bunch when you get us all cleaned up and my daughter will let you know that. LOL

Santa found the Brown house and delivered goodies to my kids including video games, Spiderman and even a mermaid outfit for my daughter Arianna. Let’s just say there’s no shortage of things to do for the kids. They love those iPads, let me tell you.

Mother Nature dumped more than 13 inches of snow on us and the kids were loving that too. We took the family up to Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg, Ind. and went tubing. The cold weather wasn’t kind to the Brown’s tough. Both Billie Jo and Arianna both got colds.

The boys at the shop are hard at work getting things ready to go testing in just a couple of weeks in West Palm Beach, Fla. If you live in the area or just want a winter escape, come see us for the PRO Winter Warm-up on Jan. 18 and 19. The Matco Tools dragster will have a new look along with the canopy like “the Sarge” had last year. They are getting fixed up at the DSR shop as I write this. In fact, our freshly painted body just got back from Olson Paint & Body today.

While the off season has been great, I’m ready to climb back in my dragster and get things started in 2013. I’ve been working hard and staying right and tight in the gym and playing basketball with the boys. We had 18 guys last night including a bunch from DSR. A few of my Matco boys played, and even three of Ron Capps’ NAPA crew showed up. I had to give them a little NAPA Know How on the court though.

Have a great weekend and we’ll check back in soon and let you know how testing is going. Time for some love, peace and @Valvoline NextGen grease. I’m out… like a shout!