Merry Christmas 2023!

Hello all! We hope you have had a great 2023. I thought I'd try out a Christmas Blog this year. It's fun to keep in touch and see what everyone has been up to recently. So, here is a little bit of what we have been up to this year.

We are living in the Mountains of Western North Carolina, and have been here for four years now. We really like it out here. It's a beautiful area with all four mild seasons. We try to do a lot outside. We have a nice yard for the kids and our dog Riley. There are many nice hiking trails around here, and we enjoy the shorter ones with the kids. Zach likes photographing waterfalls, so we try to get out on adventures to find them.

This year we got season passes to Dollywood. It's only an hour and a half away. Our goal was to go once a month, and we pretty much did that. The kids always like when we go. Alexandra likes the fast rollercoasters and David prefers the little kid rides.

Alex is 5 this year and started Kindergarten at home with me. She's doing well with her lessons. She really enjoys arts and crafts. I also started working with her on the piano. David is 3 now and growing like a weed. He's a tall guy who is very observant and likes to see how things work, as well as be silly.

Alex has been doing gymnastics off and on for a couple years. This year David joined in as well. Alex is very interested in learning and getting better at her gymnastics moves. She pops up into a handstand all day long. This year we have also started going out to a lady from church's house who has horses. Alex has been learning to ride. David prefers to drive around on the Gator utility vehicle they have.

This year has brought me some musical opportunities. I am now the choir director at church. This has been a new and interesting challenge for me, since I have never worked with choir before (just band). I also conducted the local community band for a few songs this year. Next year I am back on the schedule for that as well. I also play flute in the community band and trumpet in a brass quintet.

It's been nice to have visitors out this year. Zach's parents have been out a few times, my mom was here, as well as my sister and her family. I enjoy having company out. Having our family so far away is the hardest thing about living on the East Coast. We are looking forward to Christmas this year. My cousin Rachael will be visiting for the holiday, so that will be a nice addition.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a great start of your new year!