Merry Christmas!

(Adapted from my wife's annual Christmas letter)

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire; Jack Frost nipping at my nose, Yuletide carols ……….

Seems I’ve been hearing those carols being played since Labor Day but it didn’t feel like Christmas until the weather finally turned cold this week. Suddenly, Christmas is less than a week away! I went out for 3 hours today and got all my shopping done. Now, I’ve given myself a day to get out these cards before I start the baking for teachers/neighbors/friends.

It’s been another rather uneventful year and that is a real blessing. Locally, weather has dominated the news as our drought conditions have gone from mild to moderate to severe to extreme to exceptional. For the past few months, a drop of rain generates the kind of excitement usually reserved for snow! We have all learned to take much shorter showers, surrounded by 3 large buckets. I have managed to keep most of my perennials and bushes alive with that collected water. We also have been following the mantra “If it’s yellow, let in mellow….” . They are talking about mandating that even for public restrooms! Between the drought and all the high-temp records broken this year, there are only a few die-hard global climate change skeptics remaining in this area.

Phil has had a good year at work and he’s still employed. For a chemist these days, that’s certainly not a given. He continues to enjoy singing in the church choir. He’s also serving as an elder and chair of the music and worship committee - which means he spends many an evening on the phone trying to round up smiling faces to greet or usher. He recently joined AARP to get reduced hotel rates for a business trip and had the gall to sign me up too. We can’t possibly be that old, can we? We do, however, enjoy being able to excuse the occasional odd mishap as “a senior moment”.

I started the year by turning the house into a sewing factory as a friend and I made 125 costumes for our youth choir production of “The Wizard of Oz”. Later, I actually made some money sewing a few costumes for a small, professional salsa dance company. Then I started a project that seemed to go on forever. I decided to turn the ugly, pie shaped slope at the front of our property into a terraced perennial garden. I (with help from my wonderful hubby) began by digging out a foot deep of the heavy, hard, rooty, rocky clay soil. Then I terraced it by building stone walls, moving 4 ½ tons of stone. It turned out to be a great way to get to know the neighbors better, as they would often stop by to chat (and give me kind encouragement). I’ve now turned my attention to the inside of the house. We have lived here for 16 years now, and most rooms are in need of an update.

Blake is in his junior year at Earlham, double majoring in math and economics. He’s having a great year and really appreciates his single room this year after being in a triple last year. He works as a teaching assistant/tutor for the math department, and seems to enjoy that. He took a semester break from concert choir , but will start back in January. This past summer, we were happy to have him at home. He spent the summer baking bread at Great Harvest Bread Company. His 5 AM start time was a wonderful incentive to do well in college. He has been dating a very nice young woman, Hannah, for about 2 years now. She came home with him for spring break and we look forward to her coming again this year. He, in turn, will be spending the last week of his Christmas break with her family is Seattle. Could this be getting serious?

Whitney is now a sophomore in high school. Music keeps her busy and happy. She is in the treble ensemble and band this year, and also plays in the small wind section with the orchestra (we had 3 concerts in one week - full of wonderful Christmas music!) She also sings in the church youth choir and is on their leadership team. In addition, she continues to take tap dance lessons - and has absolutely no interest in any other sporty endeavor. She’s a typical, lovely 16 year old girl, spending hours chatting with her friends, not on the phone but on the web. She is in no hurry to learn to drive and has yet to take drivers ed. It feels rather strange as a parent to be pushing a child to start driving!

As a family, we’ve continued several wonderful traditions this year. We had our 20th annual summer week at Sunset Beach with Phil’s extended family and were joined this year by our good friends Jay, Sue and Haley from Pa. In Nov., it was back to the beach for our 15th annual Thanksgiving celebration. During Whitney’s spring break, we headed down to Charleston, SC. We took some wonderful tours (I highly recommend the Gullah tour if you are ever in the area) and ate some great food. We also managed a quick trip to Iowa after dropping Blake off at college in Indiana, and managed to catch up with family and friends.

We hope you and your family are well and find time to enjoy the blessings of this wonderful time of year.

……Glad tidings we bring to you and your kin; Glad tidings for Christmas and a happy New Year!

And now some pictures.

The Thanskgiving Bunch


Parts of the Beach Crowd


Blake and Hannah


Whitney and cousins, Joni and Paige


Donna's Project (before plants)