Letters of Christmas Past.

Our family has sent out yearly christmas letters for who knows how long. My mom keeps everything. This year she came up with the cool idea to give us each a copy of all the christmas letters from 1984 - 2006. There are lots of memories in there and i thought it'd be cool to share some excerpts. Parts may be difficult to understand without background information, but you'll get it.
enjoy........

1984- Jared's love is nursery school. He can't wait to go on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He's making lots of friends and enjoying himself. He's also feeling his oats with his brothers and standing his ground. No one pushes him around. Of course, that makes for some fun bouts sometimes.

1985- another highlight of our year was a trip to Disney World in Orlando in July. We sunned on the beaches of St. Petersburg, enjoyed a visit to Kennedy Space Center, and greeted Miceky and friends with a smile.....
Jared started kindergarten this year and loves it. He takes special care of our new hamster "Nibbles".

1988- Jared is a third grader at Quarryville Elementary School. His big thing this year was getting glasses, which he was looking forward to. He now tells everyone, "and now I look like my daddy." To show you how active he is, in a short time he has bent or brokern off 3 arms on his glasses in sporting events......
Jared loves Garfield. In his room you find a complete Garfield library, posters, and stuffed animals.
This seemed to be the "year of the pet" at the Hankee house. Jared started it off with a hamster for his birthday, which died after one week. We still can't figure ou twhat happened. We now have two rabbits which belong to Seth and Tom. They bring them into the house regularly and even want to train them to walk on a leash. (Janet and I might try that with them if it works with the rabbits).

1990- Bruce's father died in September, after a year-long bout with brain cancer.....
In mid-October Tom announced that he was leavning our home, feeling the call to independent living and hte opportunity to "be on his own."

1992- Jared officially announced that Bruce is now the shortest one in the family.

1993- One of the highlights of the year for us was hosting an exchange student from Spain, Miguel Alonzo, for 4 weeks in July. He fit irhgt into the family and we enjoyed taking him with us to Pine Lake Family Camp in Wisconsin.
Jared is an 8th grader at Lancaster Christian and has decided that he will spend his high school years at Lancaster Mennonite High School. Jared played goalie in LCS's soccer team and is currently playing on the basketball team.

1997- Jared, who turned 18 in November and got his braces off as a birthday present, is a senior at Lancaster Mennonite High School. Jared and several of his friends have a "Happy Campers" group. They love to camp out under the stars, even in sub-zero weather. In August, 1996, Jared spent three weeks in Pamplona, Spain, visiting an exchange guest, Miguel Alonzo, that we hosted several times. He works part-time at a local Chinese restaurant and still loveds to play his guitar with friends and at school chapel services.

1998- Jared just completed his first semester at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va, where he is majoring in Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies and singing in the EMU Chorale.

1999- Jared left for Albania November 31 and will return home August 15,2000. On March 8 Janet's Father, Homer Luckenbill, Jr., suffered a stroke and brain hemmorage that left him critically ill.

2000- After fasting and praying for several months at the end of his mission, the Lord led Jared to move into Lancaster at 362 S. Ann St., Lancaster, PA into a discipleship house with 5 other Christian friends.

2003- This time last year janet, Bruce and Seth celbrated Christmas in Germany while visiting our son, Jared, during his InterMenno mission experience. Jared returned home in August from his year in Germany and Switzerland.

After 21 years as pastor of St. Paul's Church, Quarryville, Bruce has accepted a call to pastor Greenmonte Mennonite Church in Stuarts Draft, VA. The Hand of God has been so evident in this call in so many ways. We sold our house on Friday, November 21, the first day on the market.

2004- Jared is still serving in Germany as the coordinator of the German Mennonite Church's refugee resettlement and asylum ministry.

2006- Jared completed 3 years of mission in Germany, arriving home july 31. he is living with us and has a temporary job building church steeples in waynesboro until he decided what the next step will be. Jared left in early september and completed a seven week cross country road trip to california, putting 10,000 miles on his car. He is enjoying reconnecting with seth and playing guitar on the church's worship team.


I know that i mostly included what was written about me, but it would have been so.............. much. i'm you're intested, i'll tell you what happened to who on what year. There was generally about a paragraph per person each year.

diary entry from Feb 14. 2007

"Well, It's valentines day and the power is out. No wishing anyone a happy V-day by email or anything like that. No Yoko Ono for me.

It's funny, but this is the type of evening that I've been wanting for a while. It feels like switzerland. The lights are all out, the stars are shining like nobody's business, candles are lit, I'm just sitting and relaxing. No TV, no internet, no distractions. Just peace and quiet and time that just welcomes you to be at ease.

It's almost as if i can look across the valley to see the snow shining by moonlight and the farmhouses that dot the hillside. Warm tea in my hand, my hostparents' guitar and just.......... time.

I think there's a big difference in being isolated from the world with your view blocked by trees or mountains so that you can't see anyting... and being isolated with the ability to look out over the world that is quiet and yet distinctly seperate from you. Alone, just being, and nudging the world along and witnessing the small wonders. A cow bell from across the valley. Smoke from a farm house chimney glowing in the night.

Just taking in the world."

thinkin.

so....... i'm sick. i missed 2 days of work, saturday is almost gone and i'm still pretty darn sick. i was hoping to beat this thing over the weekend, but it's looking like that won't happen.
i started housesitting wednesday night for a couple from my church that's out of the country for a couple months. that means i'm sick in a house by myself. the tv isn't working right now, so i've been reading some.
but if being sick is good for anything, it's good for making you think. think about life, family, the past, friends, faith, love, where you're headed, how nasty it is to be sick.
who knows. if i stay sick much longer, i may have it all figured out.