Christmas Letter

I debated about this for a while, and decided, why not?   I always loved reading the Christmas letters and notes that my family received when I was a child, especially if it were people that lived far away.  I thought it was neat to hear about what had been going on with them since the previous Christmas.  Of course these days with all of the social media and instant communications, we pretty much know what our friends and family are up to.  And if you are friends with me on facebook, you probably already know most of what I will be sharing here, but maybe I will have a few new things for you.


Greetings from North Alabama!
2013 has been the year of new challenges, but in a good way.   In January, one of our good friends threw down what I will call the Special 5K Challenge.  In order to keep us all motivated to stay in shape, she suggested that we do a 5K a month.  And so I did, after I recovered from having the flu in January.  As a result, we learned about several charities this year that I will cover in a future blog. Thomas decided to pursue his own challenge with participating in USPSA shooting matches each month at Catherdal Caverns as well as teaching an NRA certified handgun course each month.  I even agreed to be a student in the September class.

Due to the untimely arrival of the flu, we had to miss a very important first birthday.  So a few weeks later when I was recovered, we went to see the birthday boy but decided to stay the night at the Chattanooga Choo Choo in one of their sleeper cars.  This was a cool experience - and I do mean the temperature too!  The heater quick working sometime during the early morning hours and woke us.  Needless to say, we were the first folks at the breakfast buffet that morning!  The cars are decorated in antiques and just really nifty.  

 We took a few days in June and went to Pigeon Forge to "do the touristy thing" for the first time.  Even though it rained half of the time, we incorporated getting wet, and muddy, into the plan.( I wrote about some of the things we did in earlier blogs.)  We definitely plan to go back; Dollywood definitely requires two days to do it right!  As you can see below, we left rather dampish.

We have a sad note for this year as well.  We lost our sweet Shadow to what we suspect was cancer.  She came to us just a couple of weeks before we got married hiding under the front porch steps.  I always wanted a short-haired black cat, so I guess God sent her our way.  She was the stereo-typical kitty, and most of our friends and family never saw her because she was always hiding.  Bandit has adjusted well to being an only child and is only more spoiled every day. 

In the fall, Thomas was able to experience his first Auburn football game.  (It was my third.)  His nephew Allen plays the trombone in the Auburn band, and we told him we would come to a game to watch him.  Between runs and matches, the only game we could attend was the Georgia game.  It was VERY exciting to watch the Tigers win with 87,450 of our closest friends.    It was truly a memorable event!

 

 We wish you and your family a very happy holiday season.  We hope that you have a fabulous 2014!

Thomas, Andi, & Bandit