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December 14, 2003
The Texas Boedings' had skipped a year with their Christmas letter, so we decided to make sure we put one out this year. Part of our Christmas preparation needs to include family and friends, especially those we have not been in contact with for some time.
The Kids
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Stevie (he perfers to be called Stephen) is entering his second year at Jesuit College Preparatory High School in Dallas. He has done fairly well thus far, making the honor roll both semesters last year and qualifying to enroll in honors courses this year. Honors Geometry has challenged him this year but his progress reports have improved over the first half of the school year. Fencing is his major sports interest. Starting his second year, his school affiliated team took first place in a small local tournament. . He also qualified for Junior Olympics in February. Still with his old recreational soccer team, Stephen is taking this sport a step further, trying out for the school junior varsity team. This was Stephen's second year in the men's chorus at Jesuit College Preparatory High School. The choir has several performances throughout the year, sometimes in conjunction with the band and the Ursuline girls choir. These are always enjoyable events and all three organizations are very, very good.
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Anne Marie is about to graduate from elementary school and move on to high school, none too soon for her. Always on the Principal's honor roll, she has also found time for student council, National Junior Honor Society and the Tri-M Musical Honor Society. This being a sacramental year and graduation, school activities will be particularly challenging from a family scheduling stand point. Throw in the spring academic competitions and the usual hectic sports schedule, Anne Marie isn't going to have time for anything else. That means she will probably find another activity to squeeze in. Nobody has the sports schedule that Anne Marie has. Right now, club volleyball and basketball practice are in full swing. The regular volleyball season just ended, her school team lost in the second round of the play-offs, but her Garland Volleyball team took second place. When the new year rolls around, she will have volleyball, basketball and soccer all going at the same time. She is two years away from a driver's license but she really needs one now. Anne Marie is in her fifth year with the school choir. Mom and dad get nothing but compliments about her performances, especially when she has a solo opportunity.
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Elizabeth entered the seventh grade this year at Good Shepherd. She is doing well in school but challenges mom to keep her on track. That comes with almost being a teenager. Beth did not play volleyball this fall after several seasons on the school and Garland Volleyball Association teams. Her seventh grade classmates ended up playing on a co-ed team rather than an all girls team, one of the disadvantages of being in a small school. Beth still enjoys hitting the tennis ball around when we go to the park. Beth still plays the piano. Her music teacher has her participating in recitals quite frequently and all of the girls perform at various church and altar society functions.
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Rachel entered middle school this year at Good Shepherd, meaning she can participate in school sports and will get real letter grades and the opportunity to make the honor roll. She has done well thus far and we don't anticipate that changing. Rachel is part of the Honor Choir with older sister so it's nice to have at least one school activity that is shared by more than one of the children. Rachel also displays her musical talent as a piano player. Rachel decided to forego soccer this fall so she could play on two different volleyball teams. Her school team struggled but her Garland Volleyball team finally won the championship after taking second place two seasons in a row. Being the tiniest girl on the team has not stopped Rachel from becoming the most consistent server on both teams and coach dad is always using her as an example to get the other players to try harder.
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Christopher continues to do well in school. Since he is in second grade and mom teaches one of the classes, he ended up with Pauline Stoffels as a teacher, the only one of the children who has not had Gail Richardson-Bassett as a teacher for that grade. He carried on one family tradition this past spring, winning a second place ribbon in math at the St. Patrick's academic fair. Chris is as active as any of his siblings in sports. His recreational soccer team has done exceptionally well, Chris contributed several goals throughout the season. Basketball is on the agenda for this winter, which of course will overlap with the spring soccer season. Chris shoots hoops with his older brother quite often so he is really looking forward to some real team competition.
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The Rest of the Family
Moving
on to the big kids in the family, Nancy has had a very busy year.
She continues to teach second grade part-time at Good Shepherd Catholic
School. Part time teaching seems to take as much time as full time
and when you squeeze in being a room parent for all of our kids in
school; she is a very familiar face at school.
Every
other Wednesday you will find Nancy staying after school, not that
she has detention or needs to see the principal but she is one of
the Girl Scout troop leaders. Then, every other Sunday she has the
older troop, with Anne Marie and Beth. The Wenesday and Sunday commitment
is only the fun part, there are meeting and preparation and planning
times, but three of those Girl Scouts live in the same house with
her so that time is well spent.
Weekends aren't always time off, Nancy teaches a baptism preparation class on the first Sunday of the month. Part of her involvement in the church altar society has her, and all of her little helpers, changing out the candles in the church between Masses on Sunday. This is something the kids enjoy so a pair of the kids help her, alternating with the others every week. Now throw in a lot of pro-life activities and you can see that the family is on the go from the time we hit the floor in the morning until we all go to bed at night.
Steve
is no less busy than the other members of the family. When not working,
there is always a team of some kind to coach. Both of his recreational
volleyball teams took first place in their respective divisions this
fall. The end of the regular school volleyball season doesn't end
volleyball until next fall, club season started in November with try-outs
and practices. Steve has an under 12s' team that will start tournament
play in January, then the spring recreational season will start the
next month which doesn't leave musch time for soccer. Since his under
14s' girls team folded last year, there is more time for refereeing
and helping with Christopher's soccer team.
Nancy and Steve still play in the church volleyball league. In September, Stephen and Anne Marie teamed up with dad, the Brockman's and a friend, Stephanie Bubel, to win second place in a church sponsored volleyball tournament, Anne Marie being the youngest participant in the tournament. It seems that volleyball is the family sport, even Christopher shows interest in it even though he has a couple of years before he can join the school team.
Our Travels
The
family Christmas preparations were a little bit different this year.
We will find the time to travel up to Nebraska for a long postponed
visit. We have discovered that as the kids get older, there are going
to be conflicts that interfer with travel plans so sometimes you just
have to go, postponing or cancelling those things not as important
as family. As always, the drive is hard, but it's certainly worth
the effort.
Thanksgiving found us in Lexington, Kentucky, visiting Nancy's side of the family. Granny and Tom were wonderful hosts for us and we had a very large gathering at aunt Nancy's house. We actually arrived a day earlier than usual but the time still went by too fast. We headed back to Garland late Saturday night to avoid the late weekend traffic which worked out even better than expected. It was nice to have a little recovery time before going back to work, school and practices on Monday.
Summertime had the kids and Nancy enroute to Kentucky for a little vacation with Granny. They went all over Kentucky and even managed to drag aunt Nancy along with them to Cumberland Falls. Anne Marie had the chance to stay with her aunt Terri in Indiana for a few days. All in all, another great vacation with Granny.
Our
Christmas letter this year will also be our forum for passing out
family history information. Steve hasn't had the time to devote to
research but some of those easier stay-at-home tasks are finally getting
done. Look for updates on our website at "http://www.boeding.net/".
Having a real domain name will help people find us and some of those
hoped for updates from long lost relative might find their way to
us by e-mial or by post. There will be some new pictures (actually
old pictures that we hadn't put on the website yet) and perhaps a
few more stories from other relative doing family genealogy.
If you would like to know more about the Boedings or have some update
information for us, please feel free to visit our homepage at "http://www.boeding.net/",
write, call or E-mail us at any of the following:
Steve & Nancy Boeding
Box 450878
Garland, Texas 75045-0878
(972) 495-0961
