Merry Christmas 2008 Friends and Family

December 11, 2008

Greetings Friends and Family,

We are all well and surviving the financial crunch. We’ve been cutting back for years so it isn’t much different for us. I did go back to work very part time last February for my local Parks and Recreation department as the Nature Education Assistant. I adore my job which involves things I love. It is rather challenging though to fit all my responsibilities in but I manage, mostly by having a messy house a good bit of the time.

Anna, now 16, and learning to drive is constantly on the go with her classes at Community College which she started this year after acing their entrance exam. She is also working part time as a life guard in a senior community. She is learning to play guitar and constantly helping out in the community where needed. Mia, now 14, is not learning to drive but choosing new hair styles AND colors regularly. Both Mia and Anna became vegetarian earlier this year. Mia loves all things animal and would like to help in this area in the future. She is hoping to raise a rescue puppy soon. Mia is also very musical and plays just about anything she can get her hands on.

Jenna who will turn 12 in a few days is rather happy go lucky and is not ready to change her hair color, yet anyway…Thank goodness. She loves to play computer games and read and is getting better and better at violin. She has made a number of new friends this year as she has joined her older sisters at youth group. Sara, still in the single digits, at 9 is doing well and loves so many things it’s hard to list them all. She has a very best friend who she sees several times a week. I almost feel I have five daughters but who’s counting? Sara has begun playing clarinet and in less than six months has been promoted out of the beginning band. Sara loves to talk and will have an opinion on most any subject, gee I wonder where she gets that trait from?

Tony is slogging away as he has for the last ten years commuting into DC so we can have the lovely life we live. We are ever grateful for his job and the security it brings. He also has begun training at our church to become a Stephen Minister which is a lay ministry program to help people in crisis. Mostly, he’s learning how to be a good listener which frankly I think he already was. I still volunteer with my jail ministry and hope to go back for a weekend in February.

We would love to hear from all of you and wish you a truly happy and healthy new year. May God richly bless you!

Love,

Tony, Mimi, Anna, Mia, Jenna, and Sara

~ by whatchamacalit on December 20, 2008.