Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!

From our house just south of the Florida-Georgia line, we send our warm wishes to all of you and to your extended families for the sweetest Christmas ever and the most satisfying year of 2015!    As the last days of this tired old year are torn from the calendar, we find that all in all it hasn’t been such a bad year in the broadest scheme of things.  We’ve had our aches and pains, our sad farewells,  our joys and sorrows, our gains and losses, but, all in all, God has been good to us.

We’ve put a fair number of miles on Ruepert (the Escape) this year starting in mid January when Barbara was in dire need of some sunshine and escape from cold, grey days.  We drove down to Anna Maria Island for a few days and relished the sunsets over the ocean even though a cold front followed us.

After spending most of February with Klep’s cataract surgery (he wasn’t released to drive for about a month) which involved a few minor glitches, we organized the annual Share Day at New Hope in March, our tenth one.  Barbara allowed as how the Lord was going to need to send her a sign if she was ever going to be involved in an eleventh one.  The day dawned threatening and drippy, but the group had planned carefully for cover for everything and by five minutes to eight in the morning a hoard of people were gathered.  After we all gathered in a large circle for prayer, Klep lifted the barrier as the bottom fell out of the skies.  Even in the pouring rain, we had the largest crowd ever and heard good stories of how people were blessed by our sharing.  We are now planning for #11 and Barbara is not asking for another sign!

This has been a year of reunions for us.  In April and October we had our biannual reunions with Klep’s first cousins while we enjoyed the quiet beauty of the holler.  After our annual VBS where we once again did crafts, we headed out In August for our annual road trip which started with the annual golf tournament for MS, Scrambling for the Cause, and continued to Branson where we took in multiple shows. Next was a first reunion with a cousin from Rogersville, Missouri (a descendent of Rogersville, TN Kleppers) whom we had never before met.  We then went on to Wisconsin where my good friends Shirley and Bonnie and our spouses got together at the Slutz’s lake cabin for a wonderful week of good friends catching up

 In October we met a few Hendrick cousins at Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky and got to see the moon bow. Which can be seen on full moon nights and of course the rain bows in the day time.

In November we gathered at the B & B in Mayo for a Jackson cousin reunion and had seventy for an afternoon of fun.

After the joy of family around us Thanksgiving, we prepared for our annual open house.  Back by popular demand was Klep’s Tennessee table featuring RC Colas, Moon Pies and Goo Goo clusters.  Can you believe that there are now four flavors of moon pies?

Now, we sit back and wait for the year to play out enjoying different musical events, light displays, plays, and parades,  We will make a trip to South Carolina to share Christmas Eve-eve-eve with the grand girls and their parents. .

 We never know exactly who will be here on Christmas Day, but it will be jammies and games and a casual buffet for dinner.  Our greatest gift from each other is the love we share and the time we spend together.  We’ve all (except for the children) pretty much given up on buying stuff.

We plan to finish out the year catching just as many bowl games as we can.  After all, college football season will end after the eleventh of January!

May the Lord bless you with blue skies and sunshine aplenty with enough clouds and rain mixed in to keep life interesting.