2008

Merry Christmas,

Hope this Holiday Season finds you in good cheer. It’s always interesting to look back over the year and realize all that has happened. I (that would be husband, Dave) got the assignment to write the Christmas letter this year so I’m pretty sure my perspective and Karen’s on the past year are probably quite different..so you get my perspective. That is until Karen reads it, then it will be ours, and the edit will begin.

Karen continues to work at the Brookings Public Library and I still work for the State Dept. of Labor. We still live in Brookings with companion, Cain. Adam lives in Brookings and works for First Bank & Trust. He works with several banks regarding deposits and processing them. He started in March and it’s by far the best job he has ever had so he is pretty pleased with that. Alissa got promoted at First Bank & Trust to the Mortgage Dept. and she seems to enjoy that too. She lives in Volga with Scott and their dog, Jinx. Scott manages a fish hatchery in Bruce, SD. Sara now works for Daktronics as a Software Specialist. She likes her job too and lives just outside of Brookings with Frank and their dog, Penny. Frank is attending SDSU and works part time at Casey’s.

So, that’s the basics. Alissa bought a mobile home in March in Volga. So, we moved her out of her apartment and moved her over there after painting, etc. Karen spent quite a bit of time helping to get the trailer ready but my effort was pretty minimal...just some painting, cleaning rugs etc. Sara bought a mobile home in June. That was a different story as more extensive work needed to be done on the home. Again, we spent quite a bit of time getting it ready. Then in early October, Adam buys a mobile home that, to most sane people, the best approach to the home would be to buy a gallon of gas and some matches. For eight weeks, at most every opportunity, we worked on it. Now, I’m talking ripping down ceilings, sheetrocking and finishing the ceilings in all the rooms except the two bedrooms and hallway, putting in a new stool and tiling in the bathroom, along with lots of minor electrical and plumbing repairs. The entryway had to be gutted and a new roof put on. Then painting kitchen cupboards along with winterizing the place. It still needs some work but now most sane people agree....it’s a pretty nice place.

We put our house on the market in August as we made an offer on a modular home that sits on a half acre south of Brookings. We went through the process of getting our house all ready for sale including shingling the rest of our home. Our house never got an offer so the time expired on our offer and we got away from it. Didn’t know when we went into this(we made the offer in July) that the market was about to get all kinds of bad. The Realtor thought it would be a good idea to drop our price to sell it. I didn’t. So when we got the opportunity to bail....it was heels and elbows. I do feel a little bad because Karen really liked the other place..and I thought it was pretty nice too. But I figured if the value of my home dropped, the home I made an offer on did too Getting out of the whole thing was a relief to me. Plus, I really do like the home I live in.

The past year was fast-paced and brought alot of great changes for our family. As always, with the new adventures, we ended up learning quite a bit and felt really good about the accomplishments.

It will be interesting to see what 2009 brings.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love, Dave & Karen