Greetings for the season and for the year! My family again wishes you the best Christmas ever and prays that you have a wonderful 1997 when it arrives. We will have the joy and comfort of having all our children and grandchildren here over the Christmas holidays. It seems only a letter or two back that I was greeting you for the holidays with a letter about all my young children busy and at home. In so short a time, these greetings have come to include grown children and a handful of grandchildren! Jan and I can offer thanks and praise that all of these wonderful people are often under our roof and at our table and always nearby. Nothing in life could be better!
Nicole started high school this year. She is a freshman at Seabreeze HS here. Besides swimming for the YMCA team, she also swam for the Seabreeze Swim Team. Nicole’s specialty is long distance swimming - she told me that she swam 3,000 yards one night this week, at practice! She placed 7th in the 500 yard freestyle race at the High School District Championships. Nicole has also become involved with the HS newspaper. Her day is always busy since she often has both early morning and afternoon swim practice.
Joy graduated from high school and has started college! She’s a freshman at the Daytona Beach Community College and is living at home. Both Joy and Nicole are, therefore, members of the Class of 2000. The next century is getting close! Joy has been working for our church’s nursery on Sundays. So far, college works suits her and she is doing well there.
April is engaged! She lives nearby in Orlando and works here in Ormond Beach. She is working in export sales for Homac Manufacturing Company and enjoys the work. Her fiancé, Dwight, is Jamaican and works over in Orlando. They plan to be married next fall before Thanksgiving.
Jessy became a mother again! We have another grandson. He’s Jordan Albert Crabb and he’s concentrating on growing. Jessy works in the same office as I do and stays really busy. You see, she also continues to work in her craft business with her mother too. Casey is 4! He goes to pre-school and plays with his little brother whenever he has a chance. Jordan and Casey are over to visit almost every day since grandma watches them while Jessy works. Mark works at a local HVAC company, goes to school at night and operates a store in St Augustine on some of his weekends. Together, Mark and Jessy also take care of the apartment building where they live. They are a busy bunch! Mark and Jessy have also bought a new house that should be built by February.
Bennie married Gayla Thomas in July! Gayla brought along her two girls, Amber and Mia - so we have two more grandchildren. That’s three added in one year! Gayla’s family is from Jacksonville. Bennie changed jobs and now works in the factory at the same place as April. Gayla is also working, she is at a local home building center. She’s really getting to know hardware, ask her anything! Amber and Mia are both in grade school. Bennie and his family moved in with us this month and will be here for about a year until he and his family get their plans together. To make room, Bennie and I worked together last month to add a room onto the house.
Jan’s crafts are becoming popular and she’s always busy making something for somebody. Besides that, watching Casey and Jordan, and running the household, she is working at a local fabric store. Her and Jessy exhibit and sell there crafts at several local craft shows which take up quite a few weekends, mainly in the fall.
I’ve been promoted at work to Vice President-Engineering and things continue to go well there. I’ve also obtained my Florida professional engineering license this year. In November, Jan and I went to New Orleans for a week. I had an ACI convention there so I was busy every day but we did manage to take in a few of the sights, so it was a fun trip. During the convention, I assumed the chairmanship of Committee 548-Polymers in Concrete. That and more work on the family genealogies (over 4,100 people in the tree now) occupy most of my free time. I also enjoy using the Internet and have started a World Wide Web home page (Its at http://www.iag.net/~aok for any of you who surf the net). I also use e-mail a lot and you can reach me at [email protected]
Jessy, Mark, Casey, Jordan, April and Dwight traveled to North Dakota over Thanksgiving week to visit all of the family and bring back news for us. They got in on lots of cold and snow during their stay. They visited our families in the Fargo area and in the Devils Lake area. Sounds like it was a great trip and they had a great time there!
It could only be better if you could be here at Christmas to share in the fun and celebrations in our home. We wish you the best and wish you were here!
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