Merry Christmas - a bit early...

I am taking off all of next week in order to get my house ready for company, purchase and wrap presents, make goodies galore, spend time with my family and nap.  Not necessarily in that order.  If I need to have some quiet private time with various members of the family, I'll be back to my office.  Or if I need to escape company...  Or if the inhouse computer is busy and I need to check my email...  Or if I need to tuck the dogs away because they're being loud with the company...  Or if we need to wrap presents in private...  Or I need to eat that candy without judgemental eyes...  Or to download pictures...  But other than those reasons and about 15 others, I won't be back in my office until the Monday after Christmas.

So I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas now and give you the Christmas letter that I made Robb write.  Have a wonderful Christmas!!!  Love McVal

Christmas 2015
If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.  Great things can be accomplished when left to the last minute.  This is a fundamental truth as evident in many of my projects and term papers in college, not to mention most movies with a bomb deactivation plot.  Try explaining this to Val when she wants me to finish this Christmas letter. (By finish, she really means start).  Starting this letter December 24th has been vetoed.  So here we go.  Welcome to the 2015 McVal Family Christmas Letter.

Leon, our 3 year old grandson, Ryan’s son, is growing more and more every day.  He is so tall for his age that I keep telling him he is turning into a giant.  His response, “Not me want to be a giant, me Batman.”  Leon shares his time between our house, and his mom’s.  He is attending the same preschool that his dad and aunts attended.  (They had to let him in.  He’s a legacy.)  One of his favorite activities is watching “dinosaur toy” videos on Youtube.  These are actual videos of people playing with dinosaur toys, or as I call it, videos for kids too lazy to play with their own toys.  In April I arrived home to be greeted by Leon, talking about the hike he and his dad went on.  He talked about all kinds of things they saw but especially the snake they found.  I didn’t think too much about it until that night when putting Leon to bed, we found an overturned ice cream bucket in his room.  He then informed us that his dad had caught the snake and brought it home.  We looked everywhere for the snake but didn’t find it.  A week and a half later, I was in Arkansas and received a call that the snake had been found.  Val, Meri, and Leon had traveled to Minnesota to visit Maddy while I was gone.  After spending the night in a hotel, they were on their way to XXXXXXX to visit Val’s folks.  Meri was looking in her overnight bag for something at her feet, and suddenly the snake slithered across her foot.  Everyone remained calm, but the car was immediately stopped.  Val grabbed the snake and tossed it into the ditch.  It’s living a wonderful life now near LeMars.

Meredith (Meri) is anxiously awaiting turning 16 in January and getting her license.  She bought herself a used Ford Ranger last year and is looking forward to putting her own miles on it.  She has already informed me that we won’t be carpooling anymore.  I’m really going to miss her one syllable responses to my attempts at conversation.  Meri worked two jobs over the summer, a job babysitting and a job at the local antique mall.  The antique mall has continued through the school year.  She is a sophomore in high school.  She is very involved, playing the clarinet in band, baritone sax in jazz band, singing in choir and chamber choir and acting in the spring musical and fall play as well as treasurer for her 4H club.

Maddy turned 21 in October and is a junior attending college in Minnesota, studying elementary education.  She had an internship over the summer in Colorado at a large Lutheran Church working with their summer programs and vacation bible school.  She is an R.A. this year and is singing in the College Choir.  She has been dating Matthew, also an education major, for the past year.  Matthew has shown a remarkable ability to put up with the eccentricities of our family and has even contributed some of his own.

Ryan is living at our home, job searching after his job at Staples ended, and is thinking about attending a local college.  He is enjoying spending his days with Leon.  Ryan has been dating Jennifer for the past year.  Whenever she comes by the house, you can hear Leon, but now all us shout “JEN!!!”, like from the TV show Cheers.

My mother Margaret continues to live with us.  She has been dealing with some health issues, regarding pneumonia and back issues, and has had a few hospital stays.  She spends her time attending Bible study, playing with her dog and visiting family.

Val’s parents, Mel and Connie have had a rough year with their own health issues.  In January, Mel had a fall off of a train car at work, breaking his leg and back.  Recovering from this and some heart issues has been a long term job.  Connie has had a progressing issue with memory and due to that is now living in a nursing home, while Mel is in a senior apartment.  Since regaining his ability to drive, Mel has been able to visit Connie almost daily.

For our vacation this summer, we spent several days in Colorado visiting Maddy at her internship.  Val, Meri, Leon and I made the drive out, and spent our days seeing the sites, and helping out at a soccer camp.  Highlights of the trip, other than seeing Maddy, were bumper cars, arcade games, ordering pizza three days in a row, seeing the new Minion movie, dress shopping, watching Hotel Transylvania eight times in the car, and checking to see if Leon’s fist would fit into the nostril of the buffalo statue.  For your information, it does.

Val continues to telecommute for her job in California.  Her activities include preschool Sunday school teacher, editing the newsletter for her sewing group, ladies guild at Church, and snake handling.   As in past years, I’m working at XXXX in XXXXX and still playing the bagpipes.

With the Christmas Season upon us, always keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas.  God, in his mercy, sent Jesus to suffer in our place, to save us from our sins and to restore peace on earth.  Peace between God and man.  Have a blessed and peaceful Christmas.

Love The McMullens
Robb, Val, Ryan, Maddy, Meri and Leon