Dear Friends,

 Another year has passed by and we find ourselves in the season of Advent when we prepare for our Savior’s birth and second coming.  As we pause to think about the year and our many blessings, we count you among those blessings. As we put together this letter, we realize we did not take as many family pictures as we would have liked.

 Deb and Tony and family continue to live outside Linwood with their menagerie.  They had three nanny goats who each had twins within a couple of weeks during that snowy time in March.  They continue to be active in church.   Their church has built a new structure and will hold their first service in the new facility on Christmas Eve.  Deb continues to work at Ridgeview Animal Clinic in Olathe about one or two days a week.  Tony is still with Burns and McDonnell consulting firm and still plays banjo in the Antiques and Collectibles Band.  Jennifer is 12 years old and in 7^th grade at Basehor-Linwood Middle School.  She plays cello in the orchestra and is in the choir.  She switched from the viola to cello last spring when they we needing more cello players.  Jenn played softball this past summer.  She is in the second year of confirmation class.  Jacob is 8 years old and in 3^rd grade at Linwood Elementary.  He played baseball this past summer.  Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed having Jake spend several weeks with us this summer while he was doing some training exercises.

Mike and Melinda and family still live south of Valley Falls.  Mike still works at the State of Kansas and helps his father-in-law on the farm on some Saturdays.  He really enjoys helping on the farm.  Mike also helps with the Wednesday night program at church.  Melinda still works for Prairie Band Casino.  Jessica finished her Freshman year at Washburn and decided to lay out a semester.  She continues to live with us and work at the grocery store in Meriden.  Jessica is bemoaning the fact that come February 2 she will no longer be a teenager.  Kelly is 15 years old and a sophomore at Valley Falls High School.  She is really active in school.  She is a cheerleader, and plays volleyball and basketball.  She is also active in the youth group at church.  Josh will be 11 years old on Christmas Day.  He is in 5^th grade at Jefferson North Elementary.  His favorite subject is math and he loves anything with math or money.  His favorite board game is Monopoly.  He is in junior youth at church.  He played baseball this past summer. 

 Grandma made sure that we had a picture of the grandkids in their matching shirts.

Our bonus daughter, Nicole, and her family keep busy also.  Their daughter, Ashleigh, who is on the University of Kansas rowing team, had back surgery this fall which curtailed her rowing, but she is making good progress.  Their son, Austin, is a junior at Free State High School and excels in school. 

Dean continues at be archivist for the Kansas District of our church body.  That job took us to St. Louis in October for the synod’s Archivist’s Conference.  Dean continues to finish up research projects.   He did not receive any new contracts for this fiscal year, but has three proposals submitted for next fiscal year.    He also is active in the Downtown Topeka Optimist Club, Topeka Optimist Club, and the deaf ministry at our church.  Memorial Day weekend Dean’s class had a class reunion even though it was not a five-year interval.  Their class had lost some members since the last reunion and they decided not to wait any longer to get together again. 

Karlea continues to be active in the women’s group at church and is chair of her circle this year.  She also works on the quilts to be shipped to the Lutheran World Relief.  She often goes to Linwood to be at Glaums when the kids arrive home from school.   Karlea’s class had their 50^th reunion this fall.  It was a full weekend with the homecoming parade and game on Friday, breakfast on Saturday morning and banquet on Saturday evening.  Dean and Karlea also attended the Marysville High School alumni banquet Memorial Day weekend.

We continue to have season football tickets at K-State.  We decided to forego the bowl game this year, so will watch the game on television.  Dean and Karlea are treasurer and registrar for Kansas District LCMS Saints Alive After 55 which means there is a lot of work in May through July in preparation for the meeting the end of July. 

We both continue to enjoy working on genealogy.  On Memorial Day weekend besides the class reunion and alumni banquet we visited cemeteries in Nebraska and Brown, Nemaha, Marshall and Smith Counties in Kansas.  We squeezed in some visits with relatives in between cemeteries.   We didn’t make it to southern Kansas to the cemeteries for Karlea’s side except for Cassoday where her parents are buried.   On our way home from St. Louis in October we met Karlea’s third cousin, Michael Wilson.  Although they had talked on the phone, they had never met.   We had a wonderful visit.  In April, two of Karlea’s mother’s first cousins, Clara, from Texas, and Mickey, from Alaska stopped for a visit.  We had a great time and really enjoyed their visit.  In June we attended the 50^th wedding anniversary celebration for Tony’s parents, Stan and Letha Glaum.    The joys of the year were tempered with the deaths of Dean’s only living uncle, Thayne Gordon, in October and Karlea’s cousin, Frank Rohmeyer, in February. 

Dean’s sister, LaNeta and her husband, and youngest daughter and family still live in Atchison.  Their oldest daughter had another tour of duty in Iraq this year, but is now out of the Air Force.  She and her family live in Florida.  Karlea’s brother, Graydon, and his family still live in western North Carolina and northern Georgia.  Karlea’s sister, Karen, and her family are still in Wichita.  Their daughter graduated from Kansas State University this month.  Graydon came to Kansas for hunting season, and we will be able to see him at that time.

We wish you each a very merry Christmas and a blessed new year.