2004 Christmas Letter
Merry
Christmas everyone! Or Happy
Christmas for those in the
Welcome to our 2004 annual
Christmas letter. This year was
one of many challenges, but as we look back to what was accomplished and
forward to 2005, we are filled with a great sense of happiness.
We have lived in
Health was a recurring theme in
2004. Mark underwent a
successful brain surgery in January to remove an acoustic neuroma on his
nerve of hearing. Though
non-cancerous, it was nonetheless dangerous and needed to come out.
Mark has regained most of his balance, which was affected by the
surgery, but sadly lost all of the hearing in his right ear.
This comes in handy, though, if he wants to ignore anyone sitting on
his right side!
This coming New Year, Mark will
be undergoing a much less invasive procedure to correct a deviated septum in
his nose, and then a subsequent procedure to clean out a nasty sinus
infection which did not respond to antibiotics.
After that, we will be done with operations for awhile!
Our cats are doing well too!
Daisy is still a stinker (she has now lived with us for ten years),
and Sammy, after a thorough campaign, is finally free of fleas.
Mark’s work has been
challenging with a couple of big projects he was involved with including a
company wide upgrade to Windows XP and a bunch of integration work as a
result of recent mergers with his firm.
But, it’s good to be busy!
Janet has continued to work on
her Masters of Divinity degree through Fuller Theological Seminary.
This year, she got to do some practical application of her studies as
a Pastoral Care intern at our church. In
this role, Janet worked with special needs children, seniors, and others who
came to the church and needed some kind assistance.
Although Janet has completed her formal internship, she still
continues to conduct many of these duties.
Had some pleasant visits this
year.
On June 25, we headed to Canada
for our summer vacation which lasted 17 days and took us to Penticton,
Kelowna, Vernon and Salmon Arm in British Columbia and then to Banff,
Calgary and Drumheller in Alberta.
We got to see tons of family and friends, visit the
About a month after we returned,
on August 6, we got word that Janet’s Grandmother Alice McNeill had passed
away and so we returned to
In addition to Grandma McNeill, a few other friends
and family members passed away this year.
On November 6, our High School Pastor Brett Janzen passed away.
And recently, on December 6, Mark’s uncle, Bill Redwood, who Mark
had a chance to visit with during his trip in September 2003, passed away in
the United Kingdom. Both
will be missed.
We had one notable new addition to the family in 2004:
Kate Elise McNeill our latest niece was born on November 6 to Andrew
and Leah McNeill in
Some other brief notes from 2004:
- Went to the Billy Graham
Crusade in
- Babysat Caleb Yeomans (age 3)
for a couple of days to give his parents a chance for a romantic getaway to
- Janet went to a taping of the daytime television
show Dr. Phil.
- Mark went to the
- We went to see the Dalai Lama who was visiting the
area.
This Christmas Janet will be staying in
Have a wonderful Christmas season, and a happy and
prosperous New Year.
Love, Mark and Janet.
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