Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas 2010 from the O/C/S Family!

If you got a hard copy of my annual Christmas picture/letter through snail mail, move along. Nothing for you here today. I'm posting the pictures/letter here for my Merry Christmas wish to each of you.

I would say the word that best describes this year for each of us is "Milestones". We have all had some significant accomplishments and changes in our lives.
K (Married Daughter) and J celebrated their third wedding anniversary in November. They moved to Pennsylvania in March due to J's promotion. He is leading a team of engineers to design and complete a new factory. They brought a darling townhouse and learned to deal with large amounts of snow. (This picture was taken on our visit to Hersheyland in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the land of chocolate kisses.) Their dog, Tex is two years old.
H (D's oldest daughter) will graduated this May from Brite Divinity School at TCU in Fort Worth, where she received the Episcopal Studies Program Book Award for last year. She in a on-call Chaplain at Baylor All Saints Medical Center, and was approved by her Diocese as a Postulate to Holy Orders (her first step of three on the path to her ordination.) This summer she attended Gatecon in Vancouver and spent time camping in British Columbia. She is dating DB.
C (Young Son) graduated from Texas State University. His take on the year was: "Traveled to the northeast, saw family, visited Chicago, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, New York, Boston and Maine. Worked and saved for a bike tour and rode over 1,000 miles to Flagstaff. Pedicabbed for the Ranger's World Series, UT and Dallas Cowboy football games. Work at Flipnotics (a local Austin coffee house), looking for a professional job. Want to teach abroad in Southeast Asia and South America and WOOF (work on organic farms for a free living work trade in various countries.) Reading writing, hosting couch surfers from all over the world at least once a month." He and J have been dating for two years.
E (D's youngest daughter) and M became engaged in July and will be married next fall. THey live in Seattle and E is completing her education as a veterinary technician at PIMA. M is finishing his Political Science degree at the University of Washington. He will graduate in June, and is applying for government jobs on the east coast. After graduation, they hope to relocate to the Washington D.C. area.

R (that's me!) moved up with her first grade class to second grade, and loves having the same students and parents two years in a row. She traveled to New York in the spring as a chaperone for a choir tour of high school students who were in her kindergarten class many years ago! She visited Ireland with a dear friend last summer, and stayed with K and J at their new home in Pennsylvania. She and K took a trip to Seattle to see E and M. She helped facilitate a Grief Share group at a local church and will begin directing a Children's Church ministry in January. Those activities and a remodel of her home have kept her very busy this year!

We miss D, but we continue to honor his memory by moving on with lives full of love and purpose.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a dark land, the light will shine on them" Isaiah 9:2

The Merriest of Christmases to you and yours. May the New Year bring untold blessings upon all of you.



2 comments:

Buttercup said...

The pictures are familiar -- thanks! -- but couldn't let Christmas go by without wishing you a bright and blessed day!

Lynn said...

Thanks for the snail mail! I rarely get mail and I really enjoyed your letter and photos. Happy New Year friend!