Christmas 2009

Dear Friends,

As we make preparations for celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior and a new year we are reminded of our many blessings.  Our friends and relatives are counted among those blessings.  We pray the previous year has been a good one for you and your family. 

Deb and Tony still live outside of Linwood with their children and menagerie—two horses, three goats, two dogs, five cats, 27 chickens and one bird.  Tony still works for HDR and travels about a third of the time.  Tony has started playing banjo with a bluegrass band, and we got to hear them when they performed in Lawrence.  Deb still works a day or two a week at a veterinary clinic in Olathe.  Deb and Tony continue to be active in their church where Deb is president of the women’s group (LWML).  Jennifer is in fifth grade at Linwood Elementary.  She was selected for the Northeast Kansas Honors Choir which performed on December 3 in Kansas City.  Jennifer continues to play the viola.  She played softball this past summer.  Jennifer serves as an acolyte at their church.  Jacob is in first grade at Linwood.  He played T-ball this past summer. 

Mike and Melinda continue to live south of Valley Falls.  Mike still works for the State and Melinda still works for Prairie Band Casino.  Mike is helping with the Wednesday night children’s program at church.  Jessica is a senior at Valley Falls High School.  She played libero on the volleyball team this fall.  She was in the school play in November.  Jessica also was selected for the Northeast Kansas Honors Choir.  (Grandma and Grandpa were really proud to have two granddaughters performing that day.)  This past spring Jessica took a piece to the state forensics meet and took a solo to the state music festival.  Kelly is in eighth grade at Valley Falls Middle School.  She played volleyball  and basketball this fall.  Kelly was confirmed at our church the end of April.  Both Kelly and Jessie are in Girl Scouts and are active in their respective youth groups at church.  Kelly serves as an acolyte at our church.  Joshua is in third grade at Jefferson County North Elementary.  He played baseball this past summer and is in Cub Scouts.  He had a reading part in the Christmas program at church this year. 

Nicole and Chuck went with us to the K-State football game versus Iowa State at Arrowhead Stadium in KC in October.  They continue to be part of many family get-togethers.  Their son, Austin, is a 9^th grader and is on the chess team at school and participates in martial arts.  Their daughter, Ashleigh, graduated from Free State H.S. last spring and is a freshman at KU and is on the rowing team.  Nicole and Deb spend a couple of days a month together working on quilts.  They went to Hutchinson to the Mennonite quilt show and sale last spring and really enjoyed their “sisterly” bonding time.

Dean and Karlea both continue to be involved at Faith Lutheran.  Both are on the Adult Education Ministry Team and both had lead roles in a capital campaign conducted last winter.  Dean takes pictures of new members and also participates in a signing class at church.  Our congregation consists of quite a few hearing impaired members.  Karlea is the Care and Needs Chair of the Faith’s LWML.  Dean is the archivist for the Kansas District of our church body and as such had booths at church related gatherings. 

The past year saw us participating in several extended family events.  We attended family reunions for the Gordon clan in Garnett, the Rockemann family in Odell, NE, and the Price cousins in Marysville.  We also made a trip to Smith County in mid-May to visit relatives and decorate graves.  The highlight of our genealogy endeavors this year was a trip in September toRockingham County, Virginia to research both Karlea’s maternal grandmother’s and maternal grandfather’s families.  On our way home we stopped in Ripley County, IN to do more research where both Dean and Karlea had ancestors.  The trip proved to be quite successful.  

Dean and Karlea belong to two different investment clubs.  Karlea is secretary of one of the clubs.  Dean belongs to the Topeka Engineers Club for which he is the treasurer and newsletter editor.  He also belongs to the Topeka Downtown Optimist Club.  

Dean continues to work on research projects with K-State and the Kansas Department of Transportation.  He currently has a couple of proposals in for work next year.

Dean and Karlea continue to have season tickets to K-State’s football games and the women’s basketball games.  The football team did much better than anyone expected.  We have our old coach back, and he made some much needed changes.  The women’s team looked awful at the beginning of the season, but seem to be gelling now. 

Dean’s sister, LaNeta, and husband still live in Atchison as does their youngest daughter, Kara, and her family.  Their oldest daughter, Kristen, is a captain in the Air Force, and she and her family live in Florida.  We were able to visit them when they were home in July this year.  We went to North Carolina to visit Graydon’s family on our way to Virginia in September.  While there we got to see Graydon’s step-grandson run in a cross-country race, go to Graydon’s lake house, and spend an afternoon with Graydon’s son’s family in northern Georgia.  Karlea’s sister, Karen, and her family still live in Wichita.  Their daughter, Amy, is a senior at K-State.

We would love to hear from each of you and learn about your family during the past year.  Your friendship is a real blessing.  We wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

                                                                                                 Dean & Karlea Landman