Puddle Jumping: Our 2017 Year End Christmas Letter

Here we are at the end of the fastest year we've ever lived, so it seems. How does time speed up like this? We hope 2017 has been good to you and that you are blessed in the coming year.

So, it's time to grab a cup of coffee or whatever you prefer and sit back to read about our year. Thank you for taking the time to care enough about our family to learn more about what we've been up to lately.

AND, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY LOVE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, HENCE TONS AND TONS OF PICS! If pictures are not your thing - Just keep scrolling..... I promise there are also words included in this post.

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One of the highlights of our year came in July when we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We had a small night out in town on the actual day and then saved up our big celebration for September when we took the entire family back to the Bed and Breakfast on Mackinac Island where we had spent part of our honeymoon in 1992. It was the first overnight stay on the Island for the kids, and we all loved it. It is so relaxing walking on streets and not having to look out for cars, just horses and bicycles. Spending the night on the Island is so peaceful after the day tourists leave for the night and before they arrive the next morning. The entire experience is as if you step back in time to the 1800s. It's one of our favorite places on earth.

Before we arrived on the island, we took part in the 60th anniversary of the Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Walk. We had never done the 5-mile walk before, and we are all so happy we got to experience it. We woke up before the sun to catch a shuttle to take us to the other side of the bridge and then walked back to Mackinac City. Turned out, God really took care of us when booking the hotel too. It was just a few blocks away from the finish line of the bridge walk, and our room had an amazing view of the bridge which lights up at night so pretty.

Instead of taking our 5-week music tour this year, we spent two weeks in Milwaukee and Appleton area, then came home to enjoy a short staycation in our own city before heading to the Blue Harbor, the UP and Mackinac Island, Michigan for our anniversary trip. While in Milwaukee, we took a river cruise that included a nice view of the skyline of the city and a wonderful historic talk about the city. Back home, during our staycation, we spent some time in the downtown area and took the kids to the top of the Gateway Arch for the very first time, road the Metro Link, and experienced a delicious meal at Hodaks (famous for chicken and loved by locals).

We even managed to fit in a family game of Monopol... By the way - mom won!

NOW A LITTLE PERSONAL BIT OF INFO ABOUT EACH OF US INDIVIDUALLY:

John - Continues to perform solo music gigs around town and on tour in Wisconsin and Michigan again this year. This year, he got to experience performing with one of the bands he used to perform with years ago, called Souvenir. Souvenir had music that got air play back in the day. Now, if we can get ahold of a reel-to-reel player, we can even listen to some of the songs that were never released. He also is still teaching guitar lessons at Mozingo Music, now in his 11th year there.

Before, we share about Tere's year - Just a note about her mom and dad: This year started with some rough health obstacles for Tere's parents. Her mom had a knee replaced right before discovering her dad needed surgery for skin cancer that had moved into lymph nodes. Both parents are currently recovering, but there were many touch and go moments especially for Tere's dad throughout the cancer surgery, recovery and radiation treatments. Through it all, she felt mostly helpless but wanting to be there best she could.

Tere - In every spare moment, she is still selling the contents of our basement on eBay and actually making headway in decluttering and setting up a liveable space downstairs to where she and Eliana have moved their homeschooling. This year, she volunteered to work with the games for VBS at Crestwood, something completely out of her comfort zone but turned out to be rewarding. She also continues to write for CBS Local St. Louis which has recently become a Belo owned company, is still part of The Old Schoolhouse homeschool review crew and also writes for many sites across the internet that contain her content.

Graham - Our senior in high school this year, he has homeschooled his entire life. He will be our first to graduate in May shortly after turning 18, but please don't ask him about his plans for college just yet. His main interest is coding, and his favorite computer language to code in is C#. He enjoys modding Sonic games and has been the driving force behind coding an Android app for his robotics team to use for scouting purposes. He and his sister, Eliana, are also teaching themselves Japanese.

Jale'na - She is a high school sophomore this year and is homeschooled, our second high schooler in the house. She is very involved in Lifelight Youth Theatre where she gets the opportunity to perform, dance, and sing. She was a Bird Girl in the spring Seussical performance, and this summer, she performed in Singin' in the Rain where the cast had just one week to learn and perform the entire musical. It was fabulous! She played the naturally curly hair girl in A Charlie Brown Christmas, and is excited about the 2018 Spring show, Little Mermaid, where she will play Carlotta, a Mersister, a Fish Dancer, and a couple other roles. During the summer, she helped lead music and helped mom with the VBS games at Crestwood Christian Church. She is also learning to sew. In February, she got her driver's permit and has been practicing her driving skills every chance she gets hoping to get her license when she turns 16.

Eliana - Our youngest as a newly turned 11 year old and in the 5th grade this year in our homeschool, we are holding onto as much childhood as she will allow. This year, she conquered her water slide fears and couldn't get enough of the slides at the Blue Harbor so long as they didn't involve an inner tube. She is the artist among us and loves to paint, craft, and has recently taught herself how to knit. She also enjoys creating Manga art on a digital art program. This summer, she sampled using mama's digital SLR camera a bit. She is still an elephant lover but has expanded to also enjoy penguins and turtles as well with elephants always holding first place in her animal world. She appeared in Lifelight's Seussical as a Who, and she will also be appearing the Lifelight's The Little Mermaid in the spring as a crab. She has also become involved in the FIRST Robotics FLL Lego League and took part in her second competition in November.