2012 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas to our family and friends!

First let me say that I hope that you and yours made it through 2012 in good order. At this special time of year, I pray that our nation, our families, and our loved ones will be blessed and that God will watch over all of us in times of trouble, of which there seem to be many of late.For our part, 2012 was a harder-than-usual year in many ways.At the beginning of the year, Jake was recovering from shoulder surgery and both twins were grappling with the high-stakes decision to take dual-credit college courses during high school.

Meanwhile, there was considerable turmoil at Marc’s employer as a result of turnover and new leadership and Monica was teaching a challenging group of youngsters.  Only David seemed unaffected, riding it out in his usual laidback way.

With Jake still unable to participate in sports, we had a mostly quiet spring as track, unfortunately a low-visibility sport at Iola High, was the only thing going on. Mitch and Dave ran and Mitch advanced to the Area meet again this year but placed 5th because of an injury and didn’t get a 2nd trip to Regionals.

Before long, the twins got on top of their coursework and entered the world of after-school employment. What-a-Burger may never recover! Hopefully valuable lessons were learned about the effort/reward ratio of minimum wage service positions. I think it’s safe to say that both boys prefer action to more school, but the rewards of advanced education cannot be denied, much as they might like to try!

In May Mitch and Jake graduated from high school amid a big party with a number of their friends.  I must admit to getting choked up during the video as I watched them grow from the toddlers I loved so much into the strong young men they are now.  I felt then as I do now that a significant part of my life had ended.  From that perspective I dread Dave’s graduation even as I long for the freedom it will bring Monica and me.

Over the summer the twins worked again at the Neville Ranch here in Iola, busting their bottoms every day in the hot Texas sun and coming home dirty and tired every day while Dave enjoyed his last summer of childhood.  This year he will have his driver’s license and his first job, events that will mark the end of his childhood in a very real sense.

Our summer was rather a dull one as no family vacation was had, what with the boys’ demanding jobs and Marc’s desire to bank vacation time against a potential “negative outcome” with regard to his employment situation, paranoia that so far has been without basis.

Instead, the boys cowboy’ed up, Monica oversaw Iola Missionary’s vacation bible school, and Marc worked diligently at finishing a 2nd (so far unpublished) novel and at learning to program the Apple iPhone, for which he has published a Daily Humor app in the App Store and has plans for more.

In the fall, Mitch started school at Texas A&M Galveston with plans to transfer to the main campus in 2013 while Jake enrolled at Sam Houston State in Huntsville.  Unfortunately, Mitch’s heart condition began to act up and he had to withdraw from school and ended up having cardiac catheter ablation surgery just before Thanksgiving. All is well with him now and he is working hard at Mallett Brothers, a local eatery, and making noises about enlisting in the military after he finishes the spring semester at Blinn College in Bryan.

While this was happening, Jake was adapting to college life at Sam and seemed to do very well there.  He came home to visit often as Huntsville is less than an hour away and is, as he says, quite the ghost town on weekends.  He is still trying to rehab his shoulder (which he injured playing football) but enjoyed the freedom of being away from home.  Now he, Marc, and Monica are all eagerly awaiting the results of his efforts: the dreaded grade card!

For the first time in his life, David was alone at school and he did fine without having to walk in the shadows cast by his older brothers.  He played in the band and on the JV football team in the fall and is now relaxing during the athletic hour by (allegedly) lifting weights rather than playing basketball.

Monica is enjoying teaching a bright group of children this year and has more-or-less adapted to her new classroom in the brand-new Iola Elementary building.  This year has been a professional challenge for her, about which I will say no more, other than this:  If you think being an educator is all fun and games and summer vacation, try it sometime.

All of us continue to be active in our Christian life, albeit in different ways than before.  Marc has spent time working with the deacons at IMBC and developing a library and member information application for the church while the twins have moved out of their youth group into uncharted and unstructured territory.  Monica continues to meet with the women, whose schedule is erratic, while Dave alone continues on more or less the same path as before with the youth group.

As we look ahead to Christmas, I would like to suggest that we forget the trivial matters of presents, food, inconveniences, social obligations and instead focus on appreciating the many blessings that we all experience, whether we are consciously aware of them or not.  Christ was born to give us hope, so let’s each give thanks for our own life and the opportunity to live it with the loved ones we have with us now and those whom we shall miss until the next life.

God bless and Merry Christmas!

Marc, Monica, Mitch, Jake, and David Moore