2010 Christmas Letter

                                                                             December 2010

          As Christmas cards and letters slowly filter in, I realize how desperately far behind I am!   It is long past time for me to get busy writing my own annual missive.

          I remember being told that every year will speed by more rapidly than the last.  That is certainly proving to be true!   This past year has, in many ways, been uneventful but in others has seen much change.   

Matthew has grown from a boy to a man, complete with moustache and crackly voice!   He switched schools this year and has benefitted greatly from the change.  He quickly found his niche in his new environment and is doing well socially and academically.  He is enjoying the opportunity to be part of a band and has learned two new instruments.  In addition to continuing to play the piano, he also plays the tenor saxophone and timpani.  In January he will also be trying his hand at guitar. 

Matt played basketball last winter and baseball again in the spring.  He is also part of our church youth group and keeps very busy with their weekly activities.  We have found ourselves in that stage of life where a major part of our parenting job is taxi service!

Dawsyn has experienced a more stable year health-wise than some in our resent past.  She has averaged only 24 seizures a month this year which is a marked improvement on past years.  This decrease in seizure activity has meant that she is better able to learn and we’ve seen considerable improvement in her reading, math and verbal language skills.   However, this past November, we met a new neurologist who is confident that we can have much better seizure control than what we currently have.  He strongly feels that Dawsyn is overmedicated which is something we have been concerned about for years!  He has suggested a number of possible treatments and we have made some big decisions. We are very excited to be reducing her medications and seeing the accompanying alertness and eagerness to learn.  Dawsyn will also be receiving a Vagus Nerve Stimulator which is intended to interrupt seizure activity with electric charges (it is similar to a pacemaker for heart patients).  We look forward to continued improvement in Dawsyn’s overall health and abilities. 

For Ben and I, nothing much seems to change from year to year.   Ben continues to work for UFA and enjoys fishing and photography in his spare time.  We both try to golf a least once a week when the weather allows and are always sad to see the greens covered for the winter.  I continue to do a lousy job of keeping house but do enjoy cooking so manage to at least feed my family decently!  I am still leading a Ladies Bible Study once a week and thoroughly enjoy my preparation and teaching time.

We are at a loss to explain how we somehow went through the entire summer without a holiday or even a weekend camping trip!  We love to camp and were quite disappointed not to have taken the trailer out at all.  We hope to make up for it next summer!   Fortunately, we were able to take our annual trip to Mexico in March and thoroughly enjoyed our time relaxing by the pool, walking the sandy beaches and spending precious time with Paola and her little family.   Our tickets are already booked for our 2011 trip! 

We are looking forward to Christmas here at home and then spending a couple of days with my siblings and their families at Mom and Dad’s over New Years.   To you, we wish a Christmas and New Year filled with God’s peace and blessing!

                                                Love from,

                                                     Ben, Marvel,

Matthew & Dawsyn

P.S.  To see more of Ben's awesome photos, go to http://benandmarvel.wordpress.com.