2008 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas to our dear friends,

It seems that it's that time again to reflect over the past year and how we have seen God work in our lives. The year started off well with my 49th birthday at Leah's cooking school. She and her friend Beth (who lived with us) made me braised duck breast with fancy risotto and veggies, she made Cornish game hen for Wayne. Beth made a special dessert for me which came with candles! We were all very impressed with the girl’s accomplishments.

We became first time auntie and uncle with the birth of Stephanie and Ed's baby, Kendra Carly On who was born in June. She is absolutely the most beautiful and favourite niece of mine! The kids were thrilled to finally have a cousin!

For one week, Josh and I went to Thetis island for Pioneer Pacific family camp. I thought it might be sad being there since the last time I was there was when I received the news my Father had passed away. I was on a low at that time and the weather being rainy didn't help my mood. But I think overall the experience was good and I really enjoy the team we work with.

The house that we have lived in for the last 16 years was sold by our landlord in August (boo hoo). The new landlord wants to tear down the house in the spring so we will look for a new home then. Our challenge is, our landlord had never raised the rent in all those years. Rents are much higher now but we look forward to what God has in mind for us!

Wayne and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary this year by going to El Salvador for a week. Wayne was invited to speak at the ITF Central America & Caribbean conference and took me along to a posh all-inclusive resort. It was nice to get away to a hot tropical place that was beautiful and relaxing. Wayne's talks were very well received. The girls and friends took care of Josh but I made sure that he had lots of play dates arranged.

Wayne also was asked to speak at conferences in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. He's still involved with leadership at the church and occasional preaching.

Josh Stuff
Josh's French program finished at Inman this year so he moved to his sister's old school. It was a pretty easy transition since he went with 23 other students. It was fun for me to see that there was still 8 staff there from when the girls went there and some of the parents too. It's nice for Josh to walk to school on his own. Hopefully when we move it will still be nearby. He is still on a soccer team and enjoys that a lot, his tennis skills are coming along too. This year is particularly busy as he goes to sports 6 times a week.
His favourite activities are talking to his friends about chaotic trading cards and playing his Nintendo DS.

Kayla Stuff
Kayla had a busy year. She celebrated her 17th birthday with 30 friends at a Hawaiian beach party theme at home. She was a camp counsellor for the first time at Anvil island girls camp 5, and she volunteered to be on the media crew for camp 7. She was also a camper at camp 8! She also celebrated a milestone by being baptized at camp. Our youth pastors came up with us to baptize her on a warm sunny day. Kayla is enjoying her final year in high school, she is still in the leadership class and also on the field hockey and basketball teams.
She also is learning how to drive, she's taking lessons and Wayne takes her out on the road too. She's busy looking for the perfect dresses for grad and looking forward to all the activities coming up. For her part time job she changed from bussing tables at Earl's restaurant to working at a clothing store at the mall.

Leah Stuff
Leah graduated from cooking school in February and started cooking part time at the Firefighters club, but after a few months she decided that the cooking job was not what she wanted especially since it was working weekend days and evenings.
She was offered full time hours at the daycare so she happy to work there. She wants to save money and go to Australia for 4 months with Beth in Sept of 2009. Her life changed drastically as she is going out with her first boyfriend!!! She met Matthew at work and they just celebrated their 7 month anniversary! He is over a lot and Josh likes him since Matthew loves to play with kids! She has a busy life as she also tries to fit in teaching Sunday School, leading a girls bible study and singing with the worship team at church.

Final J Thoughts…
I love doing volunteer work at the new school and I even joined the parent council! I am still going to my support group for mood disorders and I feel that God is calling me to start a group at our church. So the plans are to start the group in January (I am a little excited and scared). I am confident the Lord will equip me for the task.
If you're interested in what the group does look on-line at www.livingroomsupport.org.

That's all for us,
The Eldertons