CLICK HERE for 2014 Christmas Letter


Merry Christmas 2014!  We are excited to be starting the second year in our new state.  We miss our family and friends in California, but the move has been so good for us and we are daily thankful for God’s timing and providence for us.  Here are a few updates from our year:

January: January was all about putting new flooring in our new-to-us home so we could actually move in.  Cindy’s sister Rose and brother-in-law Gary came to put in the wood floor in the kitchen and dining room, while Cindy installed tile in the hallway and laundry/mud room.  We explored a few sites around our new home and enjoyed the local tradition that Christmas lights stay up for more than a month after Christmas (which helps to continue the cheer with the early dark evenings).

February:  We moved into our new home with help from church friends, and Lukas turned 10.  We also welcomed two kittens to our family!

March:  It was still cold, but time to start planning for the garden and for chickens. Tom started working on the big chicken coop.  We had a decent-sized hail storm.  Toward the end of the month, it started to get warmer.
April:  We got our first chicks!  Tom started building a smaller coop so they would have a place to live this year.  Konrad lost his first tooth!

May:  Dominik turned 4.  We started planting things in our garden and delighted to see the grape vines budding out.

June:  We transferred the chicks to the coop.  Cindy started teaching Dominik to read.  Fast forward to December and he’s about halfway through the book and doing well.  We went camping!  It was really beautiful.

July:  We did a lot of work in the garden.

August:  Lukas and Konrad showed their chickens at the fair and we really started harvesting food from the garden.  Natalie had an MRI that showed the pineal mass in her brain has stayed the same size and the cord syrinx in her spine has disappeared:  so thankful!  We started school at the end of the month:  Lukas in 5th grade, Natalie in 3rd grade, Konrad in 2nd grade and Dominik in preschool.

September:  Lukas was cleared to eat peanuts!  It’s such a blessing to no longer have a peanut allergy concern in our house…although we have learned a lot from having the allergy.

October:  October was a month of harvesting from our garden before frost came.  We picked grapes from our vines, and drove 30 minutes to pick plums and peaches.  Cindy made a lot of jam…but it’s disappearing fast that it must not be as much as she thought it was.

November:  Natalie lost her first two teeth!  We had our first snow storm of the season that dropped 9 inches.  We celebrated our first year in our new state.

December:  Natalie turned 9.  Konrad turned 7.  We’ve had California weather for almost a month (since that snowstorm in November).  We hope the trees budding out in December doesn’t ruin spring!  But it would be boring if the weather were the same this winter as it was last winter, right?

We wish you God’s blessings for a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year!
Tom, Cindy, Lukas, Natalie, Konrad and Dominik

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