Its a cool morning in Florida and Thanksgiving is just over, so it seems like an ideal time to greet everyone for the holidays again. While looking through the list of everyone we send cards to at Christmas, I noticed that all parts of the country and several other parts of the world are included. We have close friends and loved relatives all over the globe. We see some of you frequently and, unfortunately, some of you we haven't visited with for years. Wherever you each are this Christmas, we here hope that the true spirit of the season is with you and that you are happy, content, and fulfilled. We will be thinking about you as we read your greetings to us during the holidays. We will be traveling this year for the holidays. This will be the first time in 10 years that we have been home for Christmas.
Nicole, Joy, April, Jessy, CASEY, Mark, Jan and I will all be meeting at Jan's parents in Fargo for Christmas. Jessy and Casey are flying out to Philadelphia to meet Mark when he returns from the Persian Gulf. He has not yet met his son, Casey, so I'm sure they are all looking forward to their reunion. They will then fly to Fargo to join the rest of us. We are driving up for a two week vacation. April will be home from Florida State and will be with us. Bennie has just started a new job here in Daytona, so he may not be able to travel with us. We will all miss him very much on Christmas if he doesn't make it. During our stay in North Dakota, we will also visit with my parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and cousins. Joy and Nicole are counting the days and looking forward to seeing the snow. I don't think Nicole even remembers what snow looks like since she has lived in the south since she was an infant.
This year has been another full one. Jan and I visited Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. Jan spent a six weeks in Houston with Jessy while Casey was born. Joy spent a month in the south of France visiting our friends there. Then, when she returned, we all went to Houston to see Jessy and new Casey. April had just started College again, so she flew over to join us. I also made a flurry of trips to Oklahoma and California over the summer on business. Jan and Nicole drove all over northern Florida to attend the swim meets that Nicole swims in.
Joy started high school this year and is enjoying it very much. She has become very good with the violin and plays at the church and at school. While she was in France, she visited Monaco, the French Riviera and Corsica. Joy has some great pictures and memories of her trip and her friends there.
Nicole is in her last year at the grade school. She continues to grow taller and stronger. She swims an hour and a half every day, five days a week all year and more in the summer. Between Joy and Nicole, it seems that there is always friends over to visit or spend the night. So far, the house has not gotten any quieter.
April spent the summer working where I work. She did everything from switchboard operator to typist to file clerk. She even was my secretary once in a while! She did great and really enjoyed her experiences. Now she's back at school, involved in sports recordkeeping and studying to keep her grades up. She was on the dean's list last year and will be again this year.
Bennie was discharged from the Navy early in the year and moved from California to Florida. He lives just down the road in Daytona Beach. It has been an effort, but he now has a good job and he still wants to go to school some more.
Jessy lives in our old neighborhood in Missouri City, Texas. Also, notice the new name in the family, CASEY! Casey is our first grandson! Jessy and Mark added Casey to the family this fall. Casey is doing great, outgrowing his clothes as all good babies should. The only problem is he's too far away for us grandparents to get our hands on him regularly. We'll make up for that at Christmas! Mark will be discharged as soon as he gets back to the states and plans to go to school in Houston. Jessy has a great job and I'm sure that everyone has to look out for her around the office.
Jan remains busy with needle work and helping out at the church. She was in charge of planning and setting up a new pre-school at the church this summer, so we hardly saw her at times. Now the school is open and running, so she did a great job there. Work has been as busy as ever for me and I like to spend all of the time I can at home puttering around our yard. I've added some more gardens, including a water garden. With luck, there soon will not be any grass left to mow.
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