Roseville, MN
December 10, 2003
Dear Friends and Family,
Things look bleak. Money is tight. The lying liars are running things. We have troops in Iraq and no way to get them out again. The cold is setting in good today, after a foot of snow.
Glenn here. Money is tight for the State, and that means money is tight for us. The aid we get for Tom, our severely autistic son, has been cut, and the fees we pay have gone way up. Effectively our income has gone down 5 %.
And yet, this is still the world that God has made. Parents still love their children. The sun shines upon the earth, and the rain nourishes us. Spring will come, and will be welcome. And, in God’s own time, we will all be reunited and even this poor, soiled world will be remade. (Heh. Bet the first folks who heard about the new heavens and the new earth had no idea how badly we would need them.)
Another year has come and gone in this household, too. James has his driving permit, and is a junior in high school. We’re starting to try to figure out next steps for him.
For well over a year now James has been taking karate classes. He has passed three tests and now has an orange belt. Early this year, while observing in class, I noticed that not all the students were young. In fact, there were several parent-child pairs there. So I talked to the Master of the school and joined. I needed more exercise…. This has worked out quite well.
Tom is doing as well as Tom can do. He still tries very hard to say things, and they work on his enunciation at school and we do at home. He is generally much more gentle and compliant, and has a real interest in his books and activities. (Food, watching TV, food, car rides, playing with his fiddle toys, and, oh, yeah, he really likes to eat.)
I am still working as a Database Administrator for Hennepin County, in downtown Minneapolis. The job has more evening and weekend work than I had has a Systems Developer, but I get some time off in compensation. I am comfortable with the routine now.
At home I do quite a bit of woodworking, mostly with hand tools and old techniques. My favorite TV show is Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s Shop.
I still like to sew, knit, needlepoint, etc., etc. I work sporadically on the guitar but can’t say I’ve made a lot of progress.
Mia and I are still active in Clann Tartan, a historical re-enactment group, although our schedule limits our participation. Still, we get to the dance group almost every week. Country dancing has been part of our life off and on almost since we met, more than half a lifetime ago. Being able to dance regularly is a great blessing to us.
The garden rests peacefully under its fluffy white quilt today. We’ll keep this snow for a while–that should keep the frost from driving as deep as last year, I hope.
May your Christmas also be full of love and peace.
PS Immediately after finishing this, we all came down with The Cold. It’s been over a week and we’re still moaning, hacking, sneezing, and generally carrying on. Sorry this has taken so long to get out.
Go to Glenn's home page, or to Mia's. See our 2002 or 2004 Christmas letters or the index of letters.
©2003-2004 by Mia F. McDavid and Glenn T. McDavid.