Greetings this
Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years!
The highlight of our year was hosting our whole family in
the British Virgin Islands for Thanksgiving.
All 11 of us were together for a wonderful, chaotic, adventure-filled
week! We sailed. We swam.
We snorkeled. We played on the beach. We cooked.
We saw a turtle and pelicans and iguanas and beautiful fish. Addie (8) mastered the paddleboard. Tali (7) is a fish. Dylan (6) learned to swim. Even baby Jackson (at 8 months) loved the water.
It was a trip for the memory books!
Thanksgiving Memories
Most of you receiving this have been following our current
sailing blog and we’re grateful for these connections. Thanks for your notes in response. Please keep sending them! This end-of-year letter is to let you know
that sailing hasn’t been the only thing we focused our energy on. For example:
Dave’s book, Listen
More, Laugh Often, Love Always, was finished and self-published. It contains the best of his comments to the
church during his years of service as a General Presbyter. With a little publicity effort, he’s now
sold a whopping 58 copies (at last count)!
J
Marney’s manuscript, Companions:
Accompanying Newcomers into Church Life and Faith, was completed this
year. She now has one offer to work with
Wipf & Stock to self-publish, and is waiting to see if the Methodists at Abingdon
may be interested. We hope it will be
completed in 2016.
Throughout the spring, we both enjoyed helping at the Santa Fe
Homeless Shelter on Fridays -- chopping
vegetables for the mid-day meal. Good
fellowship and service.
Dave’s effort to bring Science on a Sphere to northern New
Mexico (check out NOAA.gov/SOS) has been met with enthusiasm. Santa Fe Community College has agreed to host
a site and is taking the lead in the fund raising. As of two months ago, we had about $50,000 of
the $75,000 needed to sign a covenant with NOAA, and will keep pushing for the
remainder to purchase equipment and renovate the space.
We worshipped at two churches in Santa Fe (First &
Westminster), enjoying both of them for different reasons. Got to play a little music (Dave on guitar
and bass, Marney on her djembe drum). For
the summer, we attended the Ranchos de Taos congregation. We enjoy the mix of Anglo and Hispanic folks,
bilingual readings and singing, both there and at Westminster.
Our travels this year focused mostly on trips to the British
Virgin Islands to consider the idea of purchasing a boat. We did have a great sailing trip before that
with long-time friends the Millers and the Walkenhorsts, and a driving trip
east to North Carolina to visit seminary friends Peter and Donna Sword. We’ve seen the kids in Denver, New York and
Houston, and made several trips to Ft. Worth to visit our dear friends, Fred
and Barbara Ryle. After more than a year
of failing health, they both went home this fall, and it was hard not being with
the gathered community to celebrate their lives.
Our summer and fall in Taos were special, as always. Not as many improvement projects as last
year. Instead, we hosted three open-air
concerts by the creek (30-35 attending).
Kate and a friend, Nick Cohon, sang original compositions at one. Rebecca Caron and colleagues played chamber music
at another (2nd year for them).
And Ken Gallard and “Kathy and the Cruisers” gave us a great rock ‘n
roll dance party one Saturday night! We
took lots of hikes (Dave made it up Wheeler Peak again, this time with
grand-daughter Addie and her parents, Nick & Clare), and we found several
new trails that we’ll go on again.
We’re about to experience probably the most different
Christmas we’ve ever known! We’ll celebrate
Jesus’ birth at 5:00 am on Christmas morning in worship with the Methodists. We’ll be guests in the homes of some new
island friends, grateful for their hospitality.
We’ll enjoy our children and grandchildren via the amazing, but
sometimes tenuous, connections of the internet (may the wi-fi gods be good!) We’ll pray Robert Louis Stevenson’s Christmas
prayer, and remember with gratitude all the blessings we’ve been given -- not
least among them, your friendship and love.
In this season of light, we hold boldly to God’s hope for
the world. May 2016 bring new strides
for the common good, a few less demagogues, and peace and joy to each of you.
With all our love,
Dave and Marney
Front: Dylan, Tali, Dave, Marney, Jackson, Addie
Back: Nick, Clare, Kate, Karalee, Matt
“Frosty the Sandman”
Hawksnest Bay Beach,
St. John, USVI
P.S. Several of you
have asked about our mailing address.
It’s still: 22 Pueblo de Cielo #211, Santa Fe, NM 87506.
Christmas cards and other personal notes received by early in the new
year will be forwarded to one of the kids, so we’ll receive those in January
when we’re back in the US for a visit.
The rest, we’ll enjoy in June! J Email really is the more timely way to reach
us! If you want to talk on the phone,
email us to set up a time and we’ll call you.
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