End of the Year planning

I ought to be doing things to plan for the end of the year and the beginning of the next year.  Helena and I have traditionally sent out a "Christmas letter" to family and friends. This is a hard year for us to do it, because we lost Helena's mother in January.  Marion had lived with us for nineteen years, since the death of Helena's father.  I tried to put together a first draft of the letter over the weekend.  It's going to be hard.

But there were a lot of other developments this year.  Our son Christopher and his roommate Rob were victims of an apartment fire.  Fortunately, they did not lose too much, as the fire was really in the apartment above theirs.  They did have to stay with us for a couple of months until they could get a new place.  Chris and Rob both work in the computer department  at Dillard's Department Store (which, incidentally, would be a great place to do your Christmas shopping.  

Ben graduated from Lisa Academy and started in the EIT program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  He and some of his classmates went to Turkey last year for spring break.

We had the first visible snowfall of the season here last night.  Thanks to Helena's insistence that we get the Christmas lights up early, our house was decorated for the season when we had the snowfall.   

So now I have to devote myself to some of the end of the year projects I have in store.