Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of OJ!

It has been a while, but the update and pictures below will be worth the wait!
I hope this email finds you all as healthy and happy as we are!

We've had an exciting and busy 2009. We have been so busy, in fact, that we are forced to send you an email greeting/update rather than a traditional Christmas card. This gives
us some extra time to update our address book with new addresses (so,
please reply with any new information). The plan is to get paper cards
in the mail in time for the New Year! In the mean time, enjoy our heartfelt warm wishes and the cheesy pictures.

2009 Summary:

We rang in 2009 the same way we plan to ring in 2010: at Ben and
Katie's Annual Karaoke Death Match in Memphis. This year I am sure
that Michael will belt some more tunes while I shyly hide in the corner with
my noisemakers and silly party hat.



Brian, my oldest nephew, graduated high school and entered college while my youngest
niece, Allison, entered kindergarten. Niece Natalie got First Chair
flute and went all the way to NYC with her dance troop. Nephew Matt
got his driver’s license. Niece Amy is a Duke Scholar. Niece Emily competed in Junior Miss. Michael won’t let me brag about his nieces and nephews—he seems to think he has too much class for that. But, we did get to spend time with most of them in the past
year, and they are awesome, I assure you.



Michael and I actually completed the Grandman Triathlon again, but MY
biggest accomplishment of 2009 may have been getting Michael to help
chaperone a Homecoming dance and a prom! Tee hee.


We took a trip to Los Angeles to watch some of my old students graduate.


We stayed in Lauren and Craig’s amazing house and played with their
amazing animals.




We enjoyed a party at Ms. Cao’s, visited with everyone
we possibly could, and shared a few fantastic meals with good old pals.



Johana and Stage flew in from New York and we road-tripped with them all the way from Los
Angeles to Monterey, CA via Route I (the Coastal Highway).





We stayed with Brad, Jennifer, Jake, and Will Tonder and saw Brad graduate from the
Naval Academy.



We then drove Brad’s car from Monterey back to Mobile.

We saw the Grand Canyon...


...where we bumped into Paul and Susan Tonder.



Area 51.


And had a brief visit with the Houston Tonders (Matt, Jennifer, Tristan, and Maelyn).



We came back to Mobile and promptly moved into our first house! The Red Brick Dream.


Six days later, we adopted our three-year-old pound puppy, Red. He is a
lab/hound mix who gets into everything. He is perfect.




Before saying goodbye to our tiny old apartment, I took up gardening
on our old apartment balcony. The garden did pretty well, actually,
and I have done a pretty good job of continuing it in our new yard.
Cooking is so much more fun when you can pick some ingredients instead
of shopping for them!

Michael has done a bit of beekeeping with my dad this year, and he
spent a lot of time coaching the University of South Alabama’s Club
Football team.




We celebrated our one-year anniversary and became Oldlyweds.



We (Flo, the Grim Reaper, and the Red Pirate Roberts) threw our first
(tiny) Halloween party in our new house. Ben and Katie came all the
way from Memphis for it because they rock.







Michael and I became board members of the Historic Murphy District
Association (our neighborhood watch-type thing), and I somehow became
Secretary. Writing newsletters and attending meetings is a fun way to procrastinate
instead of lesson planning.

Mostly we are just having a blast painting and fixing up our house.
It’s a lot of work, but our Red Brick Dream is slowly turning into the
House of Many Colors.










I am still teaching high school English in Lucedale, Mississippi, Michael is still the best attorney in Mobile, and we still wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!




love,
Scraps