Dear Family and Friends, Christmas 2007

We wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season and Happy New Year! As 2007 comes to a close, our family is counting our blessings. We have truly enjoyed this past year in England! Some of our highlights include:

Stan has finished his year at the UK Defence Academy and completed JSCSC (Joint Command and Staff College). It was an academic year – completing paper after paper, listening to lectures, and spending hours studying. But mostly, he enjoyed playing rugby for the Defence Academy team and making some amazing friendships with other military members from all over the world. While Stan was working hard, I spent the year hoping it would never end! I kept busy with an Int’l Cooking Group, Bunco, and other social activities. It was a fun year. We learned some new things – Stan learned how to slice cheese the proper way so that he didn’t horrify the entire room (Hint: don’t slice off the tip of the cheese!), and I learned that I could eat all different types of food and LOVE them! What a great year, and we are thankful for the friendships we made!

In July after Stan’s completion of the course, we moved to our new house located in the outskirts of London. We moved in the middle of terrible rainstorms & flooding, but everything made it okay. Stan started his new job working with the Royal Air Force with a deployment to Malaysia, a 3 week exercise, and it hasn’t slowed down much since. He will go to Kenya in Jan. and various other locations next year. It will be interesting for him, and he’s looking forward to the adventures (hopefully they don’t include being eaten by a lion!). The children started school at ACS Int’l School, and absolutely love it. Blake is in grade 5 and involved in tennis, swimming, and running, Wade is in grade 2 and playing tennis and soccer, Kathryn is in Pre-K. and is in gymnastics and ballet. Academically they are doing wonderfully, and it is a great experience for them. I am keeping busy with a computer course & volunteering. This fall we have enjoyed a full round of visitors from both our families and friends, and it has been fun to explore England with them. London is very accessible from our new house. Our plans for adventure this next year include Normandy, Ireland, Norway, skiing in Germany and our first visit back to the U.S. for Easter.

We always welcome visitors to our Lawrie B&B! Please keep in touch!
Love,

Stan, Karen, Blake, Wade & Kathryn

Galleries Lafayette, Paris, France

Rock of Gibraltar, Gibraltar, UK

Hall of Mirrors, Chateau de Versailles, France

La Sacrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

Tour Eiffel, Paris, France

Sacre-Coeur Cathedral, Paris, France