I'm handing off this latest installment of the Nieblyerman Family Christmas Letter to Santa's Elves right now, so if you're lucky you're reading this before the last of your stocking candy and leftover honey-baked ham has run out!! It's cold outside and the trees out back of our (not-yet-renovated) back porch are bare. It's cold like the job market and bare like our 401(k), ha ha ha :-)
As many of you know, it has been a year of blessings, and a couple of setbacks for the Nieblyermans.
Grumbles, our best friend, left us for the great, big dog park in the sky. We've missed him very much, so much, I think, that even Pima our cat caught on and is trying to compensate. She's doing less cuddling and more licking! And why not? I need her even more now that Gerry (who is still getting over his cough) is working six days-a-wk in the City.
Pima is more mature now, so I can hang lights and ornaments a little lower on the tree without worrying that her curiosity will get the best of her. We decided to only light up one outside tree this year. The neighbor's son did an interesting design on the trunk, inspired by the star that guided the Magi. Anyone who wants to come see it, we have lots more egg nogg!
Our oldest Alana (Lonie to her college friends) continues to surprise and impress us with her buding career in the international Not-For-profit field. This year she went to Haiti to work with the (bear with me!) "Societé de avancement du language sans distinction de genre de Port-au-Prince" (Haitian Women's Education Network, in English). We're all hoping that we'll be able to see her more often in 2009, but in the meantime we do get to visit with her sometimes on the Skype.
Shannon, our 16-year-old, says hi and he's getting ready to walk out the door. I'll let him type
Hi mom's friends. i got out of the tenth grade and this yr I have a MUCH better afternoon schedulee because it's just band, math (easy easy 4 me), study hall and economics & society (not really a class we just play the stock game). for spring break this year Mike Holland Tad and me are going to South Carolina since 2 of us can drive, and our mom's said its okay if we keep our cell phones on. Okay well, I hope everyone has a great new year and don't do anything i wouldn't do
This is Shirley again. So, the hard news -- the good news -- is that our middle daughter Emme decided to go ahead with her divorce from Chris. Even though they were only married a short time, and we do love Chris and his family, we feel it was the right decision and Emme has lots of support as she re-connects with her friends and her work associates. It's a shame that it had to happen, but we are so happy to have Emme back staying with us for a time, and we even get to enjoy her cooking! We keep Chris in our prayers and hope you will too.One more piece of news. The Nieblyermans are officially members of FaceBook! So you can log in and see us (and Pima too!) in our Holiday photos!
Wishing you every blessing in '09,
Shirley & Gerald
Alana, Emilia, and Shannon
1 comment:
I find it interesting that Shirley forgot to mention Shannon's abortion, Gerald's affair with Emme's secretary, and the babies that Pima had that Gerald had to drown in the river behind the house.
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