Dear Family and Friends:<\/p>\n
Merry<\/span> Christmas<\/span>!<\/span><\/p>\n This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas finds this writer sadly under-prepared to write the annual letter. What with the last-minute gift buying and marathon wrapping session that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only now ended, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no surprise that this holiday missive is tardy and is, perhaps, destined to be a bit tawdry as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Friends shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let me write whilst short on sleep, but seeing as how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all gone to bed already, why shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I slip the leash a bit, eh?<\/p>\n 2010 was an eventful year, right enough, although in truth it seems to have gotten off to a slow start.\u00c2\u00a0 It must have \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember much happening in the first quarter of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe I should have taken my Ginko Balboa this morning\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n I distinctly recall running a half-marathon in March, which was about as much fun as it sounds.\u00c2\u00a0 Happily I was in good shape and it was a great day to run.\u00c2\u00a0 The next two days, however, would have been better spent in traction!<\/p>\n Mitch and Jake participated in power lifting at Iola High at the first of the year and have started workouts again for the new season.\u00c2\u00a0 Both excel at the sport in different weight categories and have already lifted more than dear old dad ever did.\u00c2\u00a0 If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not mistaken, Jake has bench pressed 320 pounds this year (and hopes to go higher, of course).<\/p>\n Over the summer David became a teenager on us, which seems impossible to believe.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a good kid it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost like he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turn into \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one of them\u00e2\u20ac\u009d!\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, the twins got their first jobs at the local pizza place and earned a fair amount of gas money, all of which has been rather efficiently turned into CO2 emissions via their \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc88 pickups.<\/p>\n Mitch was selected as drum major for the Iola band and attended a cool band leadership conference at Sam Houston State University in June while Jake was slinging pizzas (just like his old man did, back in the day) and David was spending a slow sales week with Grandpa and Grandma Woodfin in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n In July we went to Colorado to stay at the Horn Creek Lodge again.\u00c2\u00a0 Mitch hiked the peak again \u00e2\u20ac\u201c much faster without me to hold him up \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while Dave and I did it at a much slower pace and got more than we bargained for in the form of a nasty lightning storm.\u00c2\u00a0 On that subject, let me just say that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s totally wrong to look down the mountain and see lightning flashing below you, even as you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being bombarded by hail pellets above.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing like being in the cool of the mountains when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 100 degrees at home!<\/p>\n Fall in Iola is crazy with back-to-school activities, plus band and football.\u00c2\u00a0 Mitch led the band to an excellent score this year and has high hopes for next year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s state competition.\u00c2\u00a0 Jake and Dave both played football and their teams had good success as they posted winning seasons.\u00c2\u00a0 This was particularly noteworthy for the varsity after having three tough seasons lately.\u00c2\u00a0 Jake excelled at the middle linebacker position and at tight end, where he scored a long TD in the last game of the year at the home stadium.<\/p>\n Monica\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new school year has proven to be a challenging one in many ways.\u00c2\u00a0 We pray for her to be able to work miracles in the lives of little kids who need it badly.<\/p>\n Marc continues to develop web applications for the Texas A&M University System and recently passed a milestone of sorts, picking up his 5-year plaque and making TAMUS the longest-lasting employer of his career to-date.<\/p>\n We all continue to be active at Iola Missionary Baptist Church.\u00c2\u00a0 The boys went to a week-long camp with the youth group over the summer, along with various FCA and related activities, including a recent concert with Skillet and Toby Mac, which was excellent!\u00c2\u00a0 Marc helps out with the youth once in a while and does things with the pre-teens as well while Monica handles the Sunday slideshow week in and week out.<\/p>\n Busy schedules and busy times, no?\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes it all seems to be too much to handle, honestly.\u00c2\u00a0 But these are the days of our lives, lives that are ever-changing, often in ways we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t predict or control, even if we want to.\u00c2\u00a0 Life is, it seems, out of our hands.<\/p>\n At this special time of year, then, let us give thanks to God the Creator, both for our lives and for the gift of salvation, the blessing Jesus was born to give to us all.<\/p>\n Love,<\/p>\n Marc, Monica, Mitch, Jake, and David<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Family and Friends: Merry Christmas! This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas finds this writer sadly under-prepared to write the annual letter. What with the last-minute gift buying and marathon wrapping session that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only now ended, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no surprise that this holiday missive is tardy and is, perhaps, destined to be a bit … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-christmas-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2575,"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/2575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mooredynasty.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}