With the Christmas cards flooding in and December slowly disappearing from my calendar, I am reminded that, once again, it is time for Klep and I to send forth our annual Christmas wishes to all of you scattered around the globe who mean so very much to us! 2012 has less than seven days left in it and it has been a year full of all life has to offer, both sad and happy. This will be forever the year that we bade my mother good-by in September.
It will also be the year we felt the love and comfort of loved ones and our Heavenly Father as we all went through this time of loss.
It will be the year that our oldest grand daughter Ava Grace became a first grader and little sister Leila Kate started preschool. It will be the year I spent more time than I wanted to in the hospital and Klep spent more time than he wanted to playing nurse!
2012 was also a year when we enjoyed our sojourns to Tennessee in April and October and the other months here in Jennings; the year we road tripped Kentucky; the year we discovered more fried pies than we needed to; watched some good sunrises on the beach; and shared a lot of good old fashioned lazy days at home.
2012 will be the year we got together more with our cousins and bid our dear cousin Annie B. good-bye.Thanksgiving 2012 will always be the first one without Grandma, but will go down as a joyful celebration of those of us who remember her. The day can be summed up in Leila’s little song she sang as she made play dough cookies, “Happy, happy! Happy, happy!”
Christmas Season 2012 will be the one which was scheduled around my second surgery of the year. We had open house where we celebrated the season with carols and food and about sixty-five friends. Our church cantata on the 9th was beautiful as we joined voices with a neighboring church to sing our musical, “Silent Night, Holy Night”
We had hoped to squeeze in a trip to South Carolina to share Christmas with our Karolina Kleppers, but the bug laid us both low and we have delayed that until early in the new year. Now, we look forward to a quiet day at home spent with Rob and Traci. John, Pam, Daniel, and Matthew have visited this Christmas Eve along with our friends Phillip and Judy.
And we look forward to closing out 2012 with a cruise to the eastern Caribbean along with Rob and Traci.
May your Christmas be bright and joyful! May you be surrounded by love and feel the hope and peace that Our Savior promised us. And, may the New Year, 2013, bring us all closer together.
Love,
Barbara & Klep
