Christmas Letter

Here's our Christmas letter for this year. You're actually seeing it first, because I have not sent out my Christmas cards yet!

Well, here we are at the end of another year, ALREADY!! We hope 2008 has been a happy and prosperous year for you & yours. We had our ups and downs, but hey, we’re still in the game!
David continues to be our pride and joy, and a wonderful son in every sense of the word. He is in 2nd Grade, and is still bringing home straight A’s. He got glasses right before school started, and has lost a couple more teeth, while continuing to grow like a weed! He stays active with piano lessons, Taekwondo, basketball, church, and Royal Rangers. The poor guy is a tad over-committed, but he’d rather play Nintendo than do anything else! David is still being treated by a pediatric gastroenterologist for digestion issues from north to south. We had no new problems this year, and are managing the existing problems fairly well with medication.
Char continues to work in Civil Service at the hospital on Fort Bragg. There have been no new health problems, other than aging!
Steve was working for Systel last year, but that job went away at year’s end and he went to work almost immediately for a quilting store called Loving Stitches. He was working as their webmaster and doing lots of different things around the store. Unfortunately, that job went away at the end of November. The economy is hitting hard all around, and in both of these jobs Steve was let go for reasons of pure economics. In fact, he was replaced by one of the owner’s children in both cases! Such is life.
Our [seemingly] “annual” health scare is coming from Steve this year. He has recently been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and it has been pretty scary for us with shortness of breath and many pains/cramps that are not familiar. This has all been discovered since just before Thanksgiving, and we still don’t know how to cope with it or what the long-term holds. Please keep that situation in prayer as it is still very new to us.
We did manage to get a few trips in this year. In April, we went to Ft Jackson, South Carolina to see our nephew’s Army Basic Training graduation, along with his parents, who had travelled from Utah for the occasion and stayed with us for a few days. We also enjoyed a wonderful vacation in the mountains of North Carolina this summer. We took our camper out to Linville, NC and visited the caverns there, as well as Grandfather Mountain. We went fishing, and even did some gem mining, like most mountain tourists! We spent Thanksgiving in Melbourne, Florida with Steve’s sister and their family. On a sadder note, Char travelled to Huntington, West Virginia in early December to say goodbye to a dear aunt. Other than the circumstances, it was wonderful to see all of the relatives there.
We still enjoy being active in our church, although we changed churches earlier this year. We are now attending the church where David’s school is located, and supporting the fellowship in both the school and the church. Our long-eared son, Jay Jay, a blonde cocker spaniel, completes our family. We are, in general, well and happy. I think our favorite activity is just hanging out with each other, and taking life as it comes. God continues to bless our family, and as long as we’re together, we’re doing fine! We’d love to hear all of your news, and we wish only God’s richest blessings for you in 2009. From our hearts we wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Let us hear from you!
With love,
Steve, Char and David