Place to look at our pictures

http://gallery.me.com/cheriterry

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2009 Christmas Letter

Left to Right & Back to Front: Heather Spears Cowley, Libby Spears Schaper, Cheri, Terry, Brianna Spears, Bridget Harr, Pacey Mills, Cameron Cowley, Tyler Schaper, Leah Schaper, Darren Cowley, Cohen Mills, Pat Schaper

This picture was taken on the family cruise. It was formal night, but Bri had already gone to her cabin and changed. The poor photographer had a tough job. It was about 11 p.m. and Cohen was wired, but I think he did a great job, don’t you?

What a Year it has been!

Some of you may recall that last year I stated that it was impossible to get the whole family together at once. That must have inspired the kids to make a liar out of me. Despite the fact that we had a cruise to Alaska planned as well as a tour of Portugal and Spain, we were challenged to take a cruise with all the kids and grandkids to the Bahamas. And we did!

Although it has been a busy year of travel for us,Terry even squeezed in a lot of work for UOP. He is toying with the idea of not renewing his contract in 2010, but I think my honey-do list might be incentive to stay on board with UOP (ha, ha).

Okay, I’ll back up and tell this story a little more in chronological order. We headed to Orlando for Christmas with the Cowley family last year. It was interesting to experience a warm Christmas. A college in Orlando had set up a tent with an ice skating rink, so we got to watch Heather teach Cameron to ice skate. They both did very well.

Shortly after Resurrection Sunday, our Pastor had to have some surgery, so for the Sunday immediately after we had a substitute suggested by one of his daughters. Brent Avery came from Oklahoma City to do an abbreviated version of his Passover Seder. It was amazing to see how so much of the ceremony points to Jesus Christ, right down to the bread that is “buried” in a special bag disappearing by the end of the ceremony when the leader of the seder goes to retrieve it. I looked for his website (http://www.memministries.org/) and found links there to a Messianic Rabbi who had written a book “The Seven Festivals of the Messiah”. The book is online (http://www.hebroots.org/hhmi.html#). This is my new fascination.

In June, we flew to Alaska for a week of land touring. We landed in Fairbanks, visited Denali, made a rest stop at McKinley park, stopped in Anchorage for lunch on the way to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days. From there we rode the bus thru the Anton Anderson Tunnel to Whittier to catch our ship for our first cruise. We cruised the inside passage down to Vancouver. What beautiful scenery we saw! Fiords and glaciers galore! We stopped at various port towns along the way. We wanted to get right back on the ship and do it over.

The Family Cruise

By August, many details had complicated everyone’s plans to arrive in Port Canaveral in time for the cruise. Bri and Bridget were moving from Portland, Maine, to Santa Barbara, California. Bridget had received the delightful news that she was accepted as a grad student there with financial help despite the financial problems in California. They had to plan and coordinate their packing for the move and the cruise as well as plan for their two cats (one of whom is not a happy traveler). They visited friends and family most of the way down the coast and drove in lots of pouring rain.

We also drove in a lot of pouring rain from here to Cape Canaveral and got a hotel room that provided parking while we were on the cruise as well as a shuttle ride to the ship.

Libby and her kids, her fiance, and his family flew from OKC. There was an almost last-minute decision to have their wedding on the cruise, since we had all of both families there. Everyone’s budget was already spent for the cruise and cruise weddings are not cheap, so Heather conducted the ceremony. Since her internet ordination is probably not legal in the Bahamas, they made the marriage legal in Oklahoma on their return to Norman. Both the Spears and Schaper parents are delighted, and we have both inherited two bonus grandchildren. Libby and Pat have a great working relationship with John and his wife, as to what is best for the kids. I don’t know how they all keep up with the schedule of who takes the kids where and when or who’s house they are at this week, but they seem to manage.

Heather and her family only had to travel from Orlando, so Darren’s dad chauffeured them and Bri and Bridget and saved them lots of parking fees.

It was a nice, relaxing cruise, the weather was great, and we did not have to outrun any hurricanes.

Grandkids Back in School and Other Stuff

The cruise was over just in time for the kids to get back to prepare for school. Bri and Bridget had a little longer, and that is a good thing. They saw more family and friends on their way to California. Then they had to move into the apartment and get settled. Bri is serving coffee at Borders while searching for a job that will utilize her GIS training and skills. We are looking forward to a few visits out there over the next few years.

Heather had a strange growth removed from under her kneecap. The doctors are still puzzled, but at least we know it is benign. He doctor is referring her to an oncologist anyway, because he is a specialist in all kinds of tumors. She recovered enough she sang with the Messiah Choral Society in Orlando a few weeks ago and is back to leading her friends in their exercises.

Cohen had had an enlarged lymph node removed shortly before the cruise. It also was benign, and the doctor now believes his tonsils were the source of the problem. If the insurance ever pays on the lymph node surgery, they may have those tonsils removed.

We took off for our tour of Portugal and Spain in September. The terrain reminded me of Texas panhandle and New Mexico except for the coastal areas. I loved that trip. It inspired interest in their history and I love Gaudi! His architecture reminds me of a Dr. Seuss book. I’ll try to get more pictures on here, but right now time is short and putting pictures on here is a slow process.

Tyler is in his first year of middle school. There have been some stresses, but he is a good student and is making the adjustment. He is a talented musician; one of those kids you do not have to remind to practice!

Leah is in 5th grade. She has sort of an auditory dyslexia, but since her maternal grandmother got some testing done the school is doing more to help her. Several of her textbooks are recorded, so she can listen and follow along at the same time. Leah has a very artistic talent. I expect she will shine in that area.

Cameron is already in 4th grade. She is still a super reader, I don’t think her classmates have caught up with her. Changing her medication seems to have taken care of the winky tic she had developed. Heather thinks it may not help her as much to pay close attention to the teacher, but it is not too bad a trade off. Cameron has a great teacher this year, so things should go reasonably well. The movie she was going to be in this year had a problem with insurance or something, so she has some extra free time this fall. The premier for last years movie, Assassin Blues, was postponed, but I hope to get a DVD as soon as one is available.

Pacey is in 3rd grade and still a model student, even if she is a little bossy. Her wonderful Girl Scout leader started teaching school this year, so she does not have time to lead the troop. I guess no one else wants to follow her act, so Pacey was open to try some new things. She is a pretty fast little swimmer, so they enrolled her in the program at the Y. Apparently, they did not want to do any training, so she decided to wait and take more lessons before jumping into competition. She also started piano lessons and seems to love them. Her teacher has made some nice comments about her abilities and progress.

Last, but not least, can you believe Cohen already started preschool? He is learning his alphabet and knows most of the sounds. I think he could already count some. We went to his last soccer game of the season. What a riot!

As usual our December is bitter sweet even after 17 years since Wendy’s murder, but we look forward to the day when we will see her again in heaven.

I’ve just about squeezed all the words I can on these to pages, so I must quickly wish y’all a blessed and MERRY CHRISTMAS and a healthy and prosperous 2010. Let us hear from you. Hearing from friends and relatives is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, or even after Christmas.