The Official Family Christmas Letter

Thanks for stopping by my blog to read about our year. If this is your first time here, welcome! Feel free to come back anytime to see more glimpses into the Button Factory. And now, to our review of 2008...

We have settled into life in Virginia and finding more and more to love about the area. Our wonderful, wonderful church really makes this feel like home. I am teaching a first grade Sunday school class again this year, with Scott as my extra-extra help. The kids love him. Will and Katie really enjoy participating in everything the children's ministry offers, but the annual Trunk or Treat at Halloween and Sports Camp at the end of the school year are particular favorites.

Will is in second grade this year, and Katie is in Kindergarten. This is our third year of homeschooling and I love it as much as ever! The homeschooling community here has been a great support system and we've enjoyed many field trips, park days, co-ops and a creative writing club with our new friends.
(Will learned that feeding alpacas really tickles because they don't have bottom teeth. I learned that alpaca wool makes beautiful, supersoft, superspendy sweaters and wraps.)




Will is still taking Tae Kwon Do and is currently a brown belt (Brown is 3 belts below black.) His class recently began sparring and using weapons, which has rejuvenated his interest in the sport. Doesn't he look ferocious?




Katie is in her second year of ballet and really enjoys it. She has made several friends in her class and always looks forward to seeing them. I get the biggest kick out of seeing her in her little pink getup with her hair in a ballerina bun. So demure! As soon as class is over, though, she rips that bun out and shakes her hair back into her preferred wild style.

Scott changed jobs in early 2008 and is now wrapping up (in another 3 or 4 months, that is) a stint as an executive officer. I think the hours that they work border on criminal, but at least he works with cool people and is within walking distance of a Starbucks. That's all he really needs, right?


Scott's newest passion is sailing and it is infecting us all. Will and Katie know more boating terminology than any Air Force children I know. Katie can draw and label all the parts of a sailboat. (Do you know what a boom is? A vang?) Will is the knot-tying expert and is a huge help to Scott when we actually sail. The two of them participated in a day of sailboat racing this fall and came home so high that I thought for sure they had bought a boat. (We haven't--yet!--but they constantly discuss possible boat names and troll the internet in search of a deal.)

And here's a random picture from our summer vacation to Oregon. We spent a couple of hours at the coast with a couple of Scott's brothers and assorted nieces and nephews. The water along the Oregon coast is substantially colder than the water at any other beach I've ever been to. It was funny (but not surprising) to see people drinking coffee on the beach. That's the "world-famous" Haystack Rock in the background.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!