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Merry Christmas 2002
from Dave, Lyn and Jesse |
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Family
Christmas Letter
2002 |
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Merry Christmas 2002 and Happy New Year 2003! |
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You are reading our on-line Family Christmas Newsletter. |
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This is our second Christmas e-letter and, once again, most everybody
we know is on the internet. It is difficult (and expensive) to
send paper and stamp correspondence, so we would like to be e-friends
instead. We will keep you posted when we may be in your town and want
to invite you to visit us sometime this year if you are nearby. |
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Happy Holidays to You
and Your Family
Dave, Lyn, and Jesse |
If you found us via a search engine you must be a new friend,
please read and enjoy this page. Also, follow the links to view
the rest of our site. |
If you received an e-mail link to get here, you are an old friend.
Please drop us a note (click on e-mail link) to let us hear from you. |
If you received a "snail mail" card and note with this
URL, please
send us you e-mail ID! It means we don't know your e-mail or it
has changed since last Christmas. |
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 Dear
Friends,
Another year has passed and it was strange to read last years (Christmas
2001) letter only to see how little has changed. We again took
one major vacation trip last year (Jesse and I went to France
in May). Lyn is still battling her endocrine problems without result.
Lyn's mom is still critically ill, but hanging on. My department
continues one after another wave of small reductions in staff (the
torturous "death by a thousand cuts"). Jesse is still being
home schooled while also taking a few classes at the local college,
and still getting straight A's, his third straight semester. We
celebrated another wedding anniversary (23rd), three birthdays (never
you mind!), and bought a new-used car. The house is a year older, the
cat is a year older, and the stocks are all down 50% (hah! try 70!).
We experienced the strange right of passage of our only child
receiving his "learner's permit". And after twelve months,
our insurance will do what our stocks will not.
It was good to hear from so many of you last year at the holidays and
throughout the year, and we hope to hear from you again. Consider our
door (and mailbox) open to all of you that we are privileged to call
friends. We want to hear about your lives, and wish that you each may
have a chance to visit us in the coming year. Stay a day, stay a
week, we will feed you and chauffeur you without complaint. Just
bring your stories and listen to ours. The coffee pot is on for you.
As always, may this holiday season find you and your family in good
health and good fortune and, especially in this particular season and
in this particular difficult year, may the spirit of the season help
you to remember that the greatest gift that we can receive is good
health and that we can give is kind words. Happy holidays and a
healthy and prosperous 2003.
....Dave |
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 Hello
to all of our old and new friends. As with every year that passes we
look back and try to weigh the good against the bad. Some years
situations and events seem to lean more towards one way or the other.
However, I have learned in my 45 odd years that it is not
circumstances that make years good or bad but rather how we deal with
them. How well the year went is determined by our own natural
predisposition, the accomplishment of goals we have made for
ourselves, and how well we have lived up to our own set of personal
and family truths.
In that sense I have to say that this year has been a year of
awareness of the great changes in myself. I found myself in
different roles this year. I am no longer the teacher and
caretaker of a small child, the partner who can paint the living room
and plow the back forty, the smartest student in the class, or the
kindest most empathetic friend on earth.
This year gave me a son who has grown to 1.5 times my height and five
times my strength. I no longer have to prepare each and every meal,
get him up and sing him to sleep, tell him when to say please and
thank-you, or check his homework (nor am I able to). He
is already practicing for a time in the next few months when he will
be able to transport himself wherever he needs to go. This
change in my occupational status has brought to me both sadness and joy.
Where once I would comfort a crying young child in my lap, I find big
strong arms and a deep voice comforting me after a hard day. I
miss the anticipation of holidays and the hanging of clumsily and
lovingly made decorations for windows and parents. But I also
enjoy the witty and insightful discussions on philosophy and lifes
meaning and the jesting about things gone awry. I have watched my
little boy grow into a confident and independent young man. I am so
very proud of him.
Its funny how when you think you will have time because of
situational changes that other things come along that need your
attention. With Dave's company asking the employees to do more and
more of their own travel arrangements, class set ups and extra paper
work and expense documentation I am so very glad to have the time to
help relieve some of the burden from him. I really don't know how
people without administrative assistants get through this job. I must
spend a good 15 hrs a week on the paper work and arrangements for
him. He puts in 12 and 15 hour days and has flown over 100,000 miles
and 120 segments in this last year alone. I know the telephone
numbers to all of the major airlines, hotels and car companies by
heart. I need a vacation from his job!
My health continues to be somewhat of a burden and a very big mystery
to my doctors, my family and myself again this year. Although we are
now further away from being able to find a diagnosis for my endocrine
problems, I am no longer as worried or anxious as I was in the
beginning about the prognosis. I figure If I am still here after all
of the things we have been through and all of the testing so far has
yet to show anything of a really hideous nature lurking within me . .
. well then I need to just try and live life as best I can and turn
to some alternative ways of dealing with symptoms. The hardest thing
for me in life right now is to try and lose weight. It seems the
endocrine problems don't help matters here. I try to exercise
everyday, have tried most every diet out there but still am having
much difficulty. I am starting to investigate the more extreme
measures of weight loss tactics. It has been a lifelong battle and in
that sense my only disappointment in life. Being the family optimist
(someone has to be) I feel like this is the year to change all of
that. (God help me!)
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have grown very fond of Florida and the climate down here. I love to
be able to walk out on my patio and sit in the sun 300 days of the
year. I love the ability to drive for ten minutes (in the off season)
and stare into spectacular sunsets on the beach. I love to sit
on empty sandy beaches in the cold weather and listen to the pelicans
and seagulls crying and diving in the surf. And I love the smell of
the sea that drifts through the open doors and windows of my home on
cool crisp winter nights.
So when I look back on this year I see problems, and an economy that
isn't looking too bright, but I feel very blessed. Blessed to have a
husband who wants to and is able to provide me a home in a tropical
paradise, blessed to have a son who amazes me everyday with his sense
of morality and compassion and blessed to be able to enjoy the sight
of a Florida sunset, the smell of a tropical breeze, and the sound of
the waves lapping on the shore.
May this coming year highlight the many blessings in your own life.
...Lyn |
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Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. 2002 is quickly
waning, in a few weeks it will be below the horizon and out of mind.
Now is the time for reflection on the memories and experiences of the
year, both good and bad.
I am constantly surprised at both how much and how little can change
from year to year. I don't feel like much has changed, but as I look
back at what has happened over the year I realize that many new
experiences have come my way.
Dad and I took a two week trip to France and Belgium in May, a unique
experience to say the least. Not many kids my age get to spend their
birthday in Luxembourg. Except, I guess, for the Luxembourgians.
My latest semester at the local college is over and done with, and it
proved to be an oddly enjoyable time. I just completed a second
semester of Spanish, college level algebra, and a class on the basics
of psychology. The psychology class was a fluke, as my original class
choice was cancelled. Ironically, psychology proved to be my most
enjoyable class. Spanish II proved to be as much fun as the first, if
a bit harder. However, I'm not sure what to make of math. It was
somewhat easy, but I didn't terribly enjoy it. That doesn't bode well
for me becoming a physicist.
At home, most of my efforts have been directed at my Roman
Project, having completed the first two papers and most of the
third main deliverable. The third part proved to be more difficult
than I had expected, and has certainly proved to be a lesson in time
management. I am still trying to figure out what career I want to
pursue, although I'm just as unsure now as I was before. I have
always enjoyed the sciences, and hopefully my next semester at our
community college will help my focus more. I will be taking a
chemistry class, a class on the basics of computer programming, and a
condensed precalculus algebra/trigonometry class. If all else fails I
can always go for that psych major.
 Thomas
paid all of us in Florida a visit for 3 weeks in July, and it was a
joy to see my friend again. We still play a video game online
together now and then, but our school schedules have been keeping us
both pretty busy. I haven't even had the time to hang out with the
friends that still live here as much as I would have liked. On the
plus side I acquired my learner's permit in September. A mere 9
months (and a car) are all that stand between me and being able to
lawfully drive myself wherever I want. I've been getting what
practice I can, and my parents have been very supportive. I am
getting better, and will certainly be ready for the test come next
September. Just remember, we aren't in a hurry to get killed.
I've started doing some weight exercises and the like, and the
results have been rather intriguing. The only problem is my tendency
to distract myself in math class with rapid arm flexes. I suppose
there is always a trade off. I got some new glasses as well, deciding
on a Marchon "Airlock" with a grey tint. I think they look
very good, but my parents are taking a little while to adjust. To go
with my new glasses, I've been trying to get a new hairstyle.
Although there is a certain comfort in having kept it the same way
for 5 years or so, all things must change. Too bad I'm not into gels,
sprays, or colors. Oh well.
It has been another year of change and growth, good and bad. It is
the balance of these that makes life what it is. I hope this next
year brings even more new experiences to our family and yours, and
that we can all learn and grow from them.
Feliz Navidad y Buena Suerte,
...Jesse
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Dave and Jesse at a St Pete Parrots
Hockey Game (Dec-02) |
Dave and Jesse spent two weeks
in Belguim,
France, Luxembourg (May-02) |
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Jesse's learners permit requires twelve full
months of supervised driving (Sep-02) |
Figment spends more time resting and
less time playing these days (Sep-02) |
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A business trip took Dave to
Copenhagen and Northern Germany (Jul-02) |
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Enjoy the Rest of our Web Site! |
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Original Web November, 2002
Last Update: December 25, 2002 |
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