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December 26, 2007
The Kids
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Stephen started his second college year at the University of Texas at Dallas this fall. His major is now performing arts, something he grew to love in his years at Jesuit College Prep High School. He has been working at a local dry cleaners since the summer and has continued through the fall semester. He recently participated in the production of "The Gingerbread Man" at the McKinney Performing Arts Center, put on by the Creative Arts Alliance and the UTD School of Arts and Humanities. No longer a teenager, we are all proud to have a responsible young adult in the family.
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Anne Marie became our world traveler this year with a choir trip to Ireland and a mission trip to Honduras. She spent a second summer at Hawiian Falls as a lifeguard, a job she thoroughly enjoys. As a senior this year, she is heavy into choir, the student director of the Womens' Select choir, will have a singing role in the spring musical, "Footloose", and will travel with the choir on an adventure to New York City in the spring. She was selected for a Good Citizenship award by the Daughters of the American Revolution and an essay contest winner for the same. The whole college application process has gotten her excited but we probably won't know where she will end up until spring.
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Elizabeth is a junior this year at Bishop Lynch High School. She is our band kid, spending Friday football nights at far away places and coming back to us sometimes in the early Saturday morning hours. The band has taken her to Chicago this past spring and the spring trip this year will be traveling to St. Louis. Mom has put in many hours at the Lynch concession stand as a volunteer along with Beth and the band has had several parties where parents and kids have gotten together to get to know each other. Beth continues to be our in house computer expert, although she probably spends more time on computers than Mom and Dad would like.
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Rachel joined her older sisters at Lynch this year as a freshman; three teenage daughters in an expensive Catholic high school is enough to make any parents start looking for a convent that might take them all. She ended her eighth grade year at St. Monica's as the lead in the school musical, 'The Little Princess' and received a merit scholarship to Bishop Lynch. Choir has captured her heart in high school and she joins her sister in the Womens' Select choir along with the other first year students in the JV choir. Just to add to the excitement, she will also be going on the spring trip to New York City with the choir.
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ChristopherIt's hard to believe our youngest, Christopher, is in the sixth grade. Next year he will be a teenager (gasp!). He is heavy into basketball right now, having had one tournament in December, and he played volleyball in the fall on a Good Shepherd team, where he used to go to school, even though he is attending St. Monica. He switched back to recreational soccer after his club team folded before the fall season and he will probably be back on that team when it cranks up again in January. Christopher continues to do well in school, spending the early part of last summer in an educational enrichment camp and also attending his mandatory summer basketball camp at Jesuit. |
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Mom & Pop
Nancy is in her fourth year teaching fourth grade at St. Monica's Catholic School in Dallas. Chris is not ready to help with the driving
to school yet and he gets to spend some extra time at school with mom for faculty meetings and other school related activities that make
teaching more than an 8 to 4 job. She attended the National Catholic Education Association convention in Baltimore this past spring; we
don't let her get out much but when she does, she gets to go to cool places. As always, her primary function as a taxi driver keeps her in
motion; too bad we can't earn Advantage miles for automobile miles.
Steve has not found anyone to take over his job as chief cook and bottle washer. His full time job is still at Blue Cross Blue Shield but he has spent many hours refereeing volleyball and soccer, and they even pay him to coach club volleyball (whoa!!). He actually participated in some Texas high school volleyball play-off games this year. Steve accompanied Rachel and Christopher on their respective school trips to the Pines (Catholic camp) on the coldest weeks of the Winter and Spring last year, opportunities that he may very well pass up next time, given the miserable weather each of us enjoyed during both trips.
Other Happenings
As in years past, transportation continues to be a nightmare for the family this year. Even with three cars and four drivers, we still can't
seem to get everyone where they need to go without making some crazy arrangements. As luck would have it, Stephen's job is within
walking distance, a great help, but it doesn't seem that anything else is close. We are still in the same house in Garland. Steve spent a
good part of the summer replacing trim and painting; our original builder did a lousy job with painting but hopefully we won't have the
same problem for decades to come. Now if we can only get the yard to look halfway decent. This year, Stephen had to work the day
after Christmas. Rather than leave the poor boy at home by himself for the holiday, the whole family stayed at home to enjoy a nice
quiet Christmas in Garland, something we haven't done in decades.
Our Travels
Stephen got to spend part of spring break this year with Granny and Tom in Florida. Our two oldest teenage daughters had their trips described above but Rachel also traveled by herself to Lexington during the summer to visit Granny and attend a horse camp. With the two oldest children working summer jobs, it was only Nancy and the three youngest that traveled to Kentucky in the summer for a week or so, to see Granny. On our Thanksgiving trip, the car was not as full as in years past; Stephen stayed home to study for finals and to work while the rest of the family was travelling.
Christmas
Procrastination has put our Christmas letter into the New Year's Eve letter category. We can't seem to get all of the shopping done, attend all the parties, pageants and plays and do the practices and service hours we need to get done in the puny 24 hours we have in all of the days leading up to Christmas. In a few years, we will probably wish we had this time back when the children are out on their own and even as the are starting to become more independent. One thing that will remain constant, we will always have friends and relatives that we want to share our lives with, even if it's just a letter at Christmas or a casual greeting as we scurry past each other on our always busy days. We spent part of our Christmas Day at the Brockmans' here in Garland, a thoroughly enjoyable time spent with good friends. We got back into the old tradition of attending midnight Mass, even though it was not quite midnight. We looked through our Christmas mailing list, were saddened for the names that won't be receiving mail anymore but are in greater need of our prayers now. So, as you remember this Christmas, we are thinking of you in our wish that you have had a wonderful and blessed Christmas.