A 2008 Alphabet - Our Christmas Letter

Although we'd have loved to mail this out to every one of our friends, postage is prohibitive. So, here is our Christmas letter.

A 2008 Alphabet

AYSO soccer continues to be a mainstay of Wagner life. All four children played the spring season, but that was the last season for David and Emily. This fall, Lisa coached Suzy's U8 team and David refereed the games. James moved up to the U10 level.

Bob keeps busy with the kids, the cars, and the house. He also volunteers with the homeless shelter hosted by our church and helps Lisa teach Sunday School.

Court date for the disability hearing was held September 16^th. We are still waiting on that decision. Bob received a settlement from the worker's compensation insurance company in June, after 19 months of waiting. As my mom laughingly says about the amount, “Yes, your ship came in, but it was more of a canoe.”

David turns fourteen at the end of the year and is in 8^th grade. Building things and listening to audio books are two of his interests. His design won the 2007-08 yearbook cover contest for Seeds of Faith. I think he's taller than his mom now!

Emily is eleven and in 6^th grade. She got her ears pierced and her hair is longer than mine has ever been! She loves to play with dolls, to read, to draw and to do crafts.

Financial Peace University is keeping Lisa and Bob busy on Wednesday nights. This Dave Ramsey class is teaching us a lot about budgeting and other financial issues.

Glasses laying at the bottom of a river was the most frustrating event of David's first week at sleep away camp. Thankfully the rest of the week was far more rewarding!

Home education continues to fill our days with a lifestyle of learning. Our homeschool co-op is a true blessing (and I have passed on the mantle of leadership)!

Internet has moved into the new millennium and we have finally caught up. High speed internet is wonderful and makes enough of an impact on our lives to be mentioned here!

James just turned nine and will be starting 4^th grade in January. (Yes, we homeschool!) He is very active and sturdy and loves to play outside. He is a willing worker, too! He started art classes this year with David and Emily and he loves to draw.

Keepers at Home is a girls club (like scouting) for both Emily and Suzy. Friends of mine are the leaders and I was very pleased to have this opportunity for the girls.

Lisa is taking a year to focus on writing thanks to the settlement. She quit her factory job in September after a six-week layoff. She is also taking a year's sabbatical from homeschool group leadership. We are praying about our direction after the year is up.

Muskegon was Bob and Lisa's destination for a long weekend to celebrate their 20^th wedding anniversary.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) filled up November for 5 members of the Wagner family. This is Lisa's 2nd year and she completed a 75,000 word novel which she will edit and market in 2009. The kids each worked on a story as well.

Ohio, Cleveland to be specific, was the destination of Lisa and her sister Janet in May where they spent a fun relaxing weekend at a bed & breakfast together!

Pop-up Camper – this was our splurge with the worker's compensation settlement. We were only able to take one camping trip, but we hope to camp a lot more next summer!

Query letters were sent out to literary agents, hoping to land Lisa a book contract. Every author has a huge file of rejection letters, you know.

Rollicking Readers is the name of the book club Lisa started with her good friend Darlene. We decided to read all six of Jane Austen's works and invited friends to join us. It has really taken off and we will continue in 2009 with other classic works.

Suzanne is six years old and in the 1^st grade. She loves swimming, drawing, dressing up, and princesses. Math is Suzy's favorite subject and she is learning to read. She is growing strong, healthy, and pretty and she has definite opinions about many things.

Thrift stores are our favorite stores. We all love browsing through the items and finding treasures! Garage sales and rummage sales are also like magnets to all of the Wagners.

Underwater was what the kids were on our day trip to Lake Michigan in August. It was one of the best family days we've had in a long time! We hope to go back in 2009!

Vehicles come and vehicles go. Our beautiful blue '99 Taurus left, having been squashed in a parking lot by an unmanned EMS vehicle. Thankfully no one was in the Taurus at the time. We just purchased a 2000 Dodge Caravan to replace it.

Writing has been occupying a great deal of Lisa's time. Forget-Me-Not, the 50,000 word novel she wrote in November 2007, has been edited and is being marketed to literary agents. Lisa is planning a part two to the story. She also wrote two historical romances - a 15,000 word short story set in Ancient Egypt and a 75,000 word novel set in the American Old West. Still looking for an agent and a publisher! Know anyone?

Xanthic (having a yellow or yellowish color) describes our house now. (Word credit goes to David!)

Yellow (or to be more precise, Melted Butter) is the color we painted our house this fall for a bright sunshine-y change from grey.

Zeus was one of our two pet rabbits this year. We also had a cockatiel named Pokey for a few months. The only remaining pet is a newt named Bolt who belongs to James.

Cornerstone Home Learning – www.cornerstonehomelearning.blogspot.com/

Mirkwood Reflections – Media Reviews by Lisa - www.mirkwoodreflections.blogspot.com/

Cell phones: Lisa 810-706-6293 Bob 810-542-0657

Merry Christmas!