Happy New Year
from your Friends in Texas!
What's up with those people, anyway?
Liz got a cool opportunity this year to start a 3-year stint on the Texas Library Association's Lone Star Reading List committee. They choose an annual list of 20 of the best books published for middle school readers that year (resulting in tens of thousands of copies of those books being sold each year--publishers love it!). This has resulted in boxes and boxes and boxes of brand-new books being delivered to our doorstep, with Liz reading several hundred of them over the past year. She is continues to sing with the Dallas Symphony Chorus despite the terrible traffic going downtown, and also won a state-wide award for a book program at the Wester Library.
Daniel and Cassie are still in Utah, where Cassie is working as a medical lab technologist and Daniel is doing freelance editing while hunting the still-elusive full-time editing job. A job-hunting trip to NYC may be in the cards for Daniel early in 2016.
Ben and Jasmine have the college finish line in sight: Ben will graduate with a degree in Business Administration, and Jasmine will graduate as a registered dental hygienist, in May. They're already talking about what they're looking for in their first house, which will certainly need to have parking for lots of cars--including the 1956 Cadillac that's finally up and running! Check out his Youtube channel: TheCorvetteBen for all things car!
Christian and long-time sweetie Amy Taylor tied the knot earlier this year, and they've surprised us all by leading the pack in the grandchild department--yes, it's true. Liz and Jared will at long last become grandparents sometime in June. (They kind of think a girl would be a really interesting change of pace, but they'll be happy with whatever kind of grandchild presents itself!) Christian will be graduating from UT in May, and is tentatively planning to go to Officer Candidate School and then full-time in the Marine Corps, where we're sure no one will ever accuse him of being Rotten to the Corps.
Thomas is enjoying a great experience doing missionary work in the California Carlsbad mission. He's already been gone a year, and will be arriving home just in time for Christmas next year. He's doing a terrific job, and we couldn't be prouder of him.
And that's it! We're always glad to hear from you, and hope that your holidays are bright and that your New Year 2016 will be one of the best!