Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Another Christmas is upon us.  How the years do fly by.  Seems they are picking up speed, even, as we get older.  Is that possible?  And it gets harder and harder to say where the time goes.  It just goes.  But instead of wasting all of your time and mine talking about time, I’d like to tell you about our year. 

2007 was another interesting year for us.  As I look back over our Christmas letters through the years, I’m always amazed at how blessed we are to have the adventures and experiences, the friends and relatives we have.  I usually have a hard time limiting my letters in length because it’s hard to choose what to talk about. But I’ll try.

During the 2006-2007 academic year I was on sabbatical so I didn’t have to follow a rigid work schedule every day.  That was nice.  I got up and exercised almost every day and got my body in shape.  Since I wasn’t dealing with students’ emotional problems every day and had time to relax and work at my own pace I felt relaxed and refreshed.  In the Fall when I returned to work, I wrote in my sabbatical report that I felt the healthiest, both physically and emotionally, that I had in many years.    I came back to counseling feeling renewed and once again excited and happy to be a counselor.  It was a nice feeling.

One of the things I did during my sabbatical was improve my Spanish.  You may know that I have studied Spanish much of my life and still don’t feel very fluent.  Even so, I volunteered to be an interpreter for a medical mission to Guatemala in March.  That was an excellent motivator for study!  I was able to be successful as an interpreter, albeit at a somewhat basic level, and I didn’t get anyone killed, so that’s success, right?  The trip was one of those things that was so very hard and so very rewarding at the same.  We were in a little mountain village that was a seven hour bus ride away from Guatemala City.

We enjoyed showing our friends some of the sights of Minnesota, playing on the lake, soaking in the hot tub, teaching them about s’mores, and more importantly, returning a small portion of the hospitality they showed us during our two years in Japan.

In May, we went to Larry’s 45th high school reunion in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  It’s the first time I was able to go with him and we had a good time visiting with some of his old high school friends - Richard Strebel and his wife Dee and former teaching colleague Lee Counard
Larry and Jan with Lee and Jolene in their living room in Green Bay. and his wife Jolene.

One piece of exciting news is that Larry came out of retirement to return to work.  The Career Services Center on campus was short handed and they needed someone to fill in.  His arm was twisted in a couple different directions and he relented, agreeing to work from November until the middle of May.

Speaking of hard things, I lost my last kitty this year.  She was 19 years old.  Our home is now petless (Larry might say “pet free”) and I’m trying not to change that status.  We want to feel free to travel when I retire without the worry of who will watch the animals.

But it is getting more and more difficult.  I miss the pitter patter of little feet and the begging for food.  Larry is doing his best to fill the void, but his feet don’t quite pitter patter and his begging isn’t cute, so  it’s not quite the same.   I have to say, though, I do like being able to wear black for a change without having to worry about cat hair.

I had the privilege of conducting a number of Feng Shui consultations.  I always feel I’m making a positive contribution to peoples’ lives when I can do that.  Larry did one of the Feng Shui consultations with me and that was very rewarding.  This Fall, I added to my knowledge of healing energy by taking training in Reiki.  I’m now a level 2 Reiki Practitioner in addition to being a Certified Feng Shui consultant. 

When I write Christmas letters, I tend to write about things that are out of the ordinary—trips, visits from far away friends, and the like.  However, I don’t want to forget that we have wonderful friends right here in Minnesota with whom we spend a lot of rewarding time.  They give our every day life joy and meaning.

We spent a quiet but celebratory New Year’s Eve with Dave and Mary.  We had our customary Christmas dinner with Gretchen and David, Bill and Janice.  I cooked a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for Carol and Billy, Charlene and Edgar, Steve and Eva, and Atsuko and Teiko.  We enjoyed 4th of July fireworks with Russ and Nancy.

We enjoyed following the SCSU Huskies Basketball team with Billy and Carol.  We enjoyed sharing the lake with David and Terri.  I appreciated supportive lunches with Addie and Marilyn, happy hours with Tammy, Charlene and Jayne, and dinners with Ferris, and Carol and Tom, and Spanish lessons and practice with Jim and Judy, Denise, Sarah, and Jayne.