Merry Christmas 2010!!

       

We hope this letter finds you well and that all of your problems are small ones. We've tried to squeeze everything we could out of 2010, a full and good year for us. Sarah and Rachel have taken their activities up a notch with piano lessons and American Heritage girls added to the Saints athletic program and home-school presentations.     Barbara continues to diligently teach our home-school classes, and attends the Florida home-school conference in Orlando every year. Sometimes Don gets to teach the science classes and loves embellishing the experiments. Us parents have enjoyed giving them a good bit more responsibility this year, getting them more involved in daily tasks.

Our cat Little B passed away this year after nearly 20 years of pampering. The girls handled it surprisingly well. One of their projects for American Heritage girls was a guide to pet care in honor of our past pets.     Don has had a fun time introducing Sarah and Rachel to great cultural events, like Monster Jam for example. :-) We got pit passes and were able to go right up to the trucks. We enjoyed the wheelies, the crushing, the bike show, and we already have tickets to the February event.
Sarah and Rachel are a wonderful blend of practical workers and feminine grace. They enjoy helping Don out with household projects, like setting up and tearing down Christmas lights in the yard. They enjoy the monthly kid's workshop at Home Depot. Don is teaching them practical workshop and is helping them learn to use different tools.
 
We got season passes to the local Butterfly World. It is a great place to go to see hundreds of butterflies. One even landed on Sarah's hair for a short visit.
 
Barbara stays busy beyond just homeschooling and parenting - she has been the president of the Broward County Genealogical Society, and has been the leader of the Home Educators' Support Group at our church. 		    She enjoys a Thursday night Bible study and tries to tend the garden when time permits.
 
Don found out in March that McAfee is going to close its Deerfield Beach facility. This could have been bad news for his career, but he was included in a small group of engineers that can continue with the company by working from home. Don moved a whole rack full of networking equipment from the office into the garage, and has been setting up a work-from-home environment that he really enjoys. No more commuting! Also, Don is now on his sixth corporate buyout, and will be working for Intel next year (from home). He's already learned the "bom-bom-bom-bom" song.

We had some fun birthday parties this year. Rachel's party was a science party at Museum of Discovery and Science. All of her guest got to make their own exfoliating (I can't believe I know that word) skin product. Sarah's party was at Pump It Up, which is an indoor warehouse of bounce houses, big enough for parents, too. Fun!

We always enjoy Harvest Festival at our church with its rides and tons of candy. This year the American Heritage Girls group went to visit the city hall and got to meet with the Mayor of Plantation. The picture with the dolphins is from Sea World - we made a quick trip up to meet with Don's family for a couple of days.

   

We are so thankful for our friends and family!. We made quite a few trips up to Disney this year (I lost count) and got to see some of you on your Florida vacations. Just let us know if you head to Orlando, and we might run up and crash your vacation.

We have enjoyed the small group fellowship through our church community group. We all have felt spiritual growth under our top-notch teaching in Sunday morning Bible classes (which Don records and posts online) and under the preaching of our new pastor.

In the fall we made a road trip to Orlando, Charleston, Augusta, Brevard, and Orlando (yes, 2 times). We got to visit Don's family in the area including Don's sister and brother-in-law in Mount Pleasant, the girls only female first cousin Taryn Law, Don's cousing Wayne out in the woods of Georgia, and Kaye, Jane, and Becky at the Tucker farm in Norwood, which the girls just loved. I don't think there is a dirt road left anywhere in South Florida, so Sarah and Rachel felt like they were in another country.     In Charleston, we explored Fort Sumter. While in Augusta, Don attended his 30 year class reunion and had a memorable time catching up with the Class of '80. While we were up in the mountains, we went to pick raspberries and blueberries, explored parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and made it to the top of the East Coast at Mount Mitchell. We also got to do some fun hiking in the beautiful woods.
And of course, we had to have one more trip to Disney on the way home. During one of our trips to Disney, we stayed in the Contemporary Resort. We had a nice view of Cinderella's castle from our room.

We hope your Christmas is full of joy and the blessings of the Savior who arrived as a baby!
With love, The Laws.