Christmas Letter 2008

Christmas Eve 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

I suppose it is time to write the Christmas letter, given that it is about 12 hours until Christmas.

This Christmas may be one of the sterner tests of my rules for Christmas letters: no misery, no bragging. Christmas 2008 seems like something out of Dickens, and I don’t mean A Christmas Carol. I had A Tale of Two Cities in mind:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had ...”

It seems as if we have two sorts of Advent going on right now, as we also wait for a changing of the guard in our national leadership.

It looks like we will be having a white Christmas, as we wait for a thaw after the biggest snow storm here in 40 years. 2008 is finishing as it began, with Dan home for winter break. The trip home for this Christmas was not straightforward, as Dan and Ruth took 5 days to make what should have been a 1 day trip. I don’t know whether to compare it to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, or to Gilligan’s Island (the “3 hour tour.”)

Dan continues in school at Heartspring, in Wichita, KS. He has figured out how to tap into computers wherever he may be, and pull up all of his favorite videos on YouTube. He and several of his classmates have perfected these techniques, to the occasional dismay of the faculty and staff at school. His PE teacher continues to cajole him into participating in the Kansas Special Olympics. He turned 14 years old in October, and celebrated as Pat took him and his G-3 housemates to Golden Corral for dinner, before returning to G-3 for pirate cake and presents.

Elizabeth is only called Elizabeth by a dwindling number of adults, her parents included. The rest of the world knows her as Liz or Lizzie. Her big interests are horses, team penning in particular, and theater. She was eligible for her learner’s permit in February after turning 15 years old, but thankfully she has never gotten around to pursuing that. As a sophomore at Lincoln HS, she generally runs lights and works as assistant stage manager for the drama productions. The drama department at Lincoln seems pretty ambitious. Sometimes the complexity of the productions, with all the cues for lighting and sound, starts to blur the line with Cirque du Soleil. She continued to build her petsitting business. She has been saving for 6 years to buy her horse, and has been eager to push that project to the finish line.

Elizabeth turns down human sitting jobs, but Ruth snaps them up. It’s awfully cute to have third graders calling to see if they can arrange playdates with Ruth. It never fails to strike fear in Pat’s heart as one of these babysitting jobs or playdates approaches, for fear that Ruth will find herself unable to fulfill the commitment and he will be pressed into service. Ruth continues with her book club. Ruth and Pat both enjoyed an invitation to ride on one of the Christmas Ships, a tradition in Portland where a fleet of boats with holiday decorations does an aquatic parade and maneuvers on the rivers in Portland. Ruth remains on track to meet her goal of being the last person on Earth to own a cell phone. She celebrated her 30th year with the Veterans Administration, and is proud that her whole resume fits on a note card.

Pat continues in magpie mode, pursuing whatever appears bright and shiny. None of the old pursuits fell out of the picture. Music, rock and jazz, continued apace. Cowboy Action Shooting received its due. Photography was added to the mix, with a membership in the Portland Photograpic Society.

As a family, we double dipped on State Fairs this year. Dan’s house got to go to the Kansas State Fair. Pat and Elizabeth had photos accepted for the Oregon State Fair.

Ruth, Pat, and Elizabeth enjoyed a lovely trip to Namibia in July. We toured first in the beach resort of Swakopmund, and saw the nearby Millionaire’s Row where Brad and Angelina stayed for their first adventure with biologic childbirth. We then went on a hunting safari at the truly marvelous Bergzicht Game Lodge. Ruth on safari. We have pictures. She fulfilled her dreams of riding a horse on the dunes, even if she did end up on a Georgia Walking Horse, and learned from experience that her dream of riding a camel on the dunes was more fun imagined than real. On the flight home Pat’s leg began to itch, and it was soon apparent to the naked eye that he had brought home a pet. With that, our trophies ran the gamut from Aardwolf to Zoonooses. It only took two rounds of the worm medicine to resolve the latter.

We enjoyed lovely visits from family and friends. Peter and Stephanie Levins came by on a college tour. Roger Bertholf and his family joined us for Prinestock 2008. We also enjoyed visiting family and friends back East.

To complete this, we need to collect a series of pictures from the year, to accompany this letter. Easier said than done, as Dan has commandeered many of the computers for his multimedia viewing pleasure.

Here is hoping that Christmas finds you and yours happy, safe, and warm.

Ruth, Pat, Elizabeth, Dan, Allie, and Star


A smattering of 2008 photos can be found at this link: