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Our Christmas cards went out a couple days ago, and for those of you getting one, this will be in there, but for everyone else who might be interested, here's our annual Christmas letter! Hope you all have a fun, safe Christmas and a wonderful New Years! See you in 2010!
...
To our dearest family and friends,
Season’s Greetings from Maple Grove, MN! It’s hard to believe 2009 is already coming to an end. It was bound to happen though, so we thought it was about time to sit down and write our annual Christmas letter. Here’s where I would usually say something like “Boy, what a year!” or “I don’t even know where to begin!”, but this year was a little different. Oh sure, we had our fair share of ups and downs, but for the most part it was a wonderfully peaceful twelve months, and between you and me, that’s not such a bad thing sometimes.
For Leona, much of the year has been about establishing and advancing her career as an English teacher. After successfully securing a position for the 2008-09 school year, she was unsure of where her path would take her, what with impending budget cuts and all, but in May she was offered a full time job for the following year! She’s still at Maple Grove Jr. High, but this year she’s teaching mostly seventh graders along with a class of ninth graders thrown in for good measure.
On top of that, she’s also the school’s PLC coordinator, which is a program for teacher collaboration, and a WEB coordinator, which stands for “Where Everybody Belongs”. WEB is a program for seventh graders where ninth graders show them the ropes for the first few months of the new school year. To add to that even, in a couple of weeks she’s going to start teaching an after-school course for kids who have failed a trimester of English and need to make up the credits. She’s got an awfully full schedule, but she’s been more than up to it so far, and she’s really making a name for herself in the district.
Leona’s been just as active in advancing her education and skill sets. Back in April she went to a three-day seminar for the aforementioned WEB program which allowed her to accept the coordinator position and gave her much insight into what it’s like for incoming seventh-graders. It also got her a nice stay at Madden’s up on Gull Lake! Then over her summer break, she took the last of her classes to get her Master’s degree in English Education. She’s on track to have quite the career!
Eric is still working at Free Spirit Publishing (FSP) in their accounting department, but at times this year he didn’t know what part of the business he was working in. Back in July, FSP let their warehouse manager go, and for a few months after that Eric did split shifts working mornings in the office and afternoons up in the warehouse. It was a great learning experience and really helped to establish his position as a valuable member of the team. He was also influential in creating two different processes that streamlined some rather tedious work. He’s proud to say that for the first time in his working life he’ll have held a full-time job for an entire calendar year! It’s a great place to work and he hopes to stay for a while.
In his never-ending quest to lose weight and stay in shape, Eric continues to use the treadmill his folks so kindly gave us last year. That, along with work on the Bowflex and a daily Pilates routine, has helped him to get into what might be the best shape he’s ever been in. On top of that, back in the spring he rediscovered bike-riding! For many years now, his old bike has been languishing in the rafters up at the Cabin. Well after getting the “itch” he dragged it home only to find that it needed some substantial work. With that out of the way, he spent much of the rest of the summer zooming all over Maple Grove and up into Elm Creek Park Reserve. I think this could be the start of a wonderful relationship!
We did have two relatively big additions to our family this year, and no, no babies yet, well unless you’re one of those people that see their pets like children. Back in February we brought another cat home to our little house that already has two other cats and a dog. Her name is Stella and she’s grey on top with a white belly. She fits in pretty well, only getting into fights with the other cats once or twice a day. Her favorite activities are watching the birds from the treadmill and chasing her tail. The other addition was a new car for Leona! She got a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe. It’s a little black SUV, and she loves driving it! For both of us, it’s our first ever new car, and it’s been a blast!
Besides that, not a whole lot went on this year, and like I said, sometimes that’s a good thing. Too much excitement will give you gray hairs before your time! Hope you all had a wonderful year and best wishes for 2010!
Sincerely,
Eric and Leona Anderson
...
To our dearest family and friends,
Season’s Greetings from Maple Grove, MN! It’s hard to believe 2009 is already coming to an end. It was bound to happen though, so we thought it was about time to sit down and write our annual Christmas letter. Here’s where I would usually say something like “Boy, what a year!” or “I don’t even know where to begin!”, but this year was a little different. Oh sure, we had our fair share of ups and downs, but for the most part it was a wonderfully peaceful twelve months, and between you and me, that’s not such a bad thing sometimes.
For Leona, much of the year has been about establishing and advancing her career as an English teacher. After successfully securing a position for the 2008-09 school year, she was unsure of where her path would take her, what with impending budget cuts and all, but in May she was offered a full time job for the following year! She’s still at Maple Grove Jr. High, but this year she’s teaching mostly seventh graders along with a class of ninth graders thrown in for good measure.
On top of that, she’s also the school’s PLC coordinator, which is a program for teacher collaboration, and a WEB coordinator, which stands for “Where Everybody Belongs”. WEB is a program for seventh graders where ninth graders show them the ropes for the first few months of the new school year. To add to that even, in a couple of weeks she’s going to start teaching an after-school course for kids who have failed a trimester of English and need to make up the credits. She’s got an awfully full schedule, but she’s been more than up to it so far, and she’s really making a name for herself in the district.
Leona’s been just as active in advancing her education and skill sets. Back in April she went to a three-day seminar for the aforementioned WEB program which allowed her to accept the coordinator position and gave her much insight into what it’s like for incoming seventh-graders. It also got her a nice stay at Madden’s up on Gull Lake! Then over her summer break, she took the last of her classes to get her Master’s degree in English Education. She’s on track to have quite the career!
Eric is still working at Free Spirit Publishing (FSP) in their accounting department, but at times this year he didn’t know what part of the business he was working in. Back in July, FSP let their warehouse manager go, and for a few months after that Eric did split shifts working mornings in the office and afternoons up in the warehouse. It was a great learning experience and really helped to establish his position as a valuable member of the team. He was also influential in creating two different processes that streamlined some rather tedious work. He’s proud to say that for the first time in his working life he’ll have held a full-time job for an entire calendar year! It’s a great place to work and he hopes to stay for a while.
In his never-ending quest to lose weight and stay in shape, Eric continues to use the treadmill his folks so kindly gave us last year. That, along with work on the Bowflex and a daily Pilates routine, has helped him to get into what might be the best shape he’s ever been in. On top of that, back in the spring he rediscovered bike-riding! For many years now, his old bike has been languishing in the rafters up at the Cabin. Well after getting the “itch” he dragged it home only to find that it needed some substantial work. With that out of the way, he spent much of the rest of the summer zooming all over Maple Grove and up into Elm Creek Park Reserve. I think this could be the start of a wonderful relationship!
We did have two relatively big additions to our family this year, and no, no babies yet, well unless you’re one of those people that see their pets like children. Back in February we brought another cat home to our little house that already has two other cats and a dog. Her name is Stella and she’s grey on top with a white belly. She fits in pretty well, only getting into fights with the other cats once or twice a day. Her favorite activities are watching the birds from the treadmill and chasing her tail. The other addition was a new car for Leona! She got a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe. It’s a little black SUV, and she loves driving it! For both of us, it’s our first ever new car, and it’s been a blast!
Besides that, not a whole lot went on this year, and like I said, sometimes that’s a good thing. Too much excitement will give you gray hairs before your time! Hope you all had a wonderful year and best wishes for 2010!
Sincerely,
Eric and Leona Anderson