2007 Holiday Letter from the Dears

December 30, 2007

Merry Christmas to all, I hope that we are finding everyone in good health, happy and prosperous. On the whole, the past year has been a very good one. The kids are growing into adults, the oldest two are driving, with Kayley looking forward to her permit in the next few short months.

Joshua just finished his third semester at Georgia Tech and is looking forward to returning for the spring term just after the Holidays. What a handsome guy he is growing into too. He makes the flights home with little fuss and calls us to find out how to make tacos in the kitchen of his apartment. Of course it sounds like the three guys he shares with are just as geeky and he wouldn't let us up to see the mess when we came down for a visit.

Alison will be graduating from Clearview this coming spring and is working on her college applications. She is interested in early childhood education and has been working at a pre-school in Mullica Hill since last summer. She and Kayley share many friends and appear to be a large part of the community social activities committee; I believe that the meetings are held daily in any and all rooms of our home.

Kayley is a sophomore and switched from Soccer to Volleyball this fall. As she likes to point out, the girl's volleyball team has the highest GPA of any team in the school. Of course, she also likes to point out that she makes a significant contribution to keep the team GPA at the top. She is planning to manage the boy's Volleyball team this spring.

Jake went to the Homecoming Dance with his friend Haley, along with Alison and Kayley. Not quite as much commotion as preparing for a wedding; but still a few busy days. Hair and nail appointments, dress fittings, flowers, suits and pictures all needed to be coordinated. Both sets of Grandparents and my Grandmother Dear were all here for the festivities and a good time was had by all.

Jake has continued with to play soccer on the Freshman team, although he was frustrated until the end of the season when they started to win. He was awarded the MVP for having more assists then anybody else on the team. He has been talking about applying to the Air Force or Naval Academy; although I think that he is just beginning to appreciate that they are Military Academies. "What do you mean they can make you cut your hair!" I can't quite imagine him at one of them but you never know.

Jason still has an interest in cooking and art, but we have not been the fully supportive parents needed to find regular outlets for his talents. He stayed around the house last weekend and wrote a 15 Chapter missive, because he knew that two girls in his class had written 4 Chapters and he wanted to beat them. You could say that he has a nerdy side, although it is somewhat masked by his quietness.

Cara is still chasing after her bigger siblings. When the girls got their nails done, she had hers done also. Kayley got a cute little polka dot dress for Homecoming; Cara got a similar one for Christmas. Ali goes shopping at the mall, and Cara goes along for support. She is still very effective at tweaking all of the big guys and girls; especially when their friends are around, but there are also times when she manages to almost fit in. None appreciate when she goes on their IM accounts and pretend to be them.

Nancy and I have been mostly working, no big trips or excitement. We have been shuttling to Atlanta, visiting schools with Alison and taking little trips for work of a week or less from time to time; but mostly it has just been every day living. We spiced it up with two International Students for a few weeks last summer, a few days in Florida last February and a visit from Grandmom Dear in November. If you're in the Neighborhood, please stop in for a visit or just drop us an email. Happy Holidays!

John and Nancy

Joshua, Alison, Kayley, Jacob, Jason and Cara

2007 Christmas Card

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Updated December 30, 2007