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Merry Christmas
We’re already receiving letters and cards, so it must be that time. The year seems to have passed very quickly.
Daniel continues as a proud KU student on the Lawrence campus.
He changed majors at the end of the spring semester from chemistry to
psychology with chemistry and history minors.
Of course, this means a couple more years of school.
He is fencing with the KU club and a Lawrence club, and he travels to
Iowa and Nebraska for fencing competitions.
Daniel joins Eric at Charlie’s on Monday nights for a guys’ night of
woodworking.
Alan still loves being in Las Vegas.
He is finishing his second year of full time employment. He took his engineering exam this fall, and he expects the
results by April. He bowls on a
couple teams; and, when the weather permits, he hikes in the Red Rock Park west
of town. He’s the local supplier
of Gate’s barbecue sauce for friends there.
He’s looking forward to attending a Chief’s game here in KC with
Eric, Daniel and Charlie on Christmas Eve day.
Eric still enjoys traveling down to Louisburg to his office. He did not enjoy going in the ditch the first snow of the
season, so he finally gave up his pickup for a new Honda CRV. He keeps busy in non-working hours with his stamp collection
and woodworking. He and Daniel have
been busy at the farm this fall helping Margie clear the stone fencerow around
the barn. After about 20 years of
neglect, the “saplings” are now full grown trees needing a little more care
to clear.
Margie is finishing up the farm trust work of the past year. We sold a couple fields that were not a part of the original
Shaft homestead that Margie’s parents bought as newlyweds.
Three of the four sisters are splitting the remaining 160 acres, with the
intent of leaving the quarter section farm intact.
Margie and a forester spent a long day tagging trees for a harvest, which
should help thin out the timber. Daniel
and Margie have traded smashed fingers in an attempt to fix the stone fence. Margie started a new position at KU MED this fall, the
respiratory therapy educator. This
new position seems to include a lot of extraneous tasks remotely connected to
educating, but she’s enjoying having her weekends and most evenings back.
Since we don’t have family matters keeping us here, we have done more
traveling this last year. In
February, Eric and Margie took a Caribbean cruise to celebrate 30 years of
marriage. Eric went on a medical mission trip to Mexico in March, and
to Guatemala right after hurricane Stan struck in October.
Margie, Jeanne and Daniel visited Alan in Vegas during spring break.
Eric and Margie traveled to our yearly conference in Marco Island in May,
Jenny’s wedding on Catalina Island in July, Grand Rapids, Michigan in August
for a stamp conference, and San Francisco for Eric’s national convention in
October. Margie and Daniel are playing with the idea of going to Fort Worth next
weekend to cheer on the KU football team. Eric
keeps his webpage pretty current with pictures and news:
www.kansasfolks.net |