I missed last years Christmas Letter which has been my only annual update on this blog for too long! Before I miss this years I wanted to sit down and reflect on this past year as well as some of what we are looking forward to in 2024.
The start of each year we tend to focus on school knowing that Spring brings warmer weather and more opportunities to be outdoors and adventuring. We continued with Gather Round Unit Studies and we are loving learning together. David has been doing his courses online and in September Angeline and Samara started their Science courses online as they get closer to grades 10 & 9.
I feel like our biggest news is that David is scheduled to graduate this June! I was trying to convince him to take his time and postpone grad a year but he is very motivated to finish "on time" and has been doing amazing with his heavy course load. Other big news for David is that he passed his Learners Drivers test and now has an "N." We were so proud that he passed first try but I'm not sure I was ready for him to take another step towards independence. He has spent the last 2 summers volunteering at Camp Bob and I believe that is his plan for this coming summer as well. Just like when he was a baby learning to roll over, crawl and then walk... I am feeling each progression to adulthood with a mixture of joy and sadness.
Angeline, Samara and Rebekah worked on swimming lessons leading up to and through summer passing swimmer 6 with Rebekah and Angeline going on to pass Swimmer 7. They are currently waiting for Swimmer 8 to come up as an option at our local pool. Joshua made a lot of progress in swimming this year as well and was able to recently pass Swimmer 4. He is looking forward to Swimmer 5 in January. BIG news for Naomi is that she is finally actually tall enough to take Swimmer 1 (you have to be 3'9"... she is signed up for January. She only just managed to get out of her 5 point harness shortly before turning 7! I've used this line for her before but she continues to prove the saying that "good things come in small packages." The oldest 5 (and Jonathan) are all playing Badminton twice a week as well.
I started working part-time in September as the Student Ministries Coordinator at our church. It has been a fun and challenging change. So thankful that Jon has been able to help more and more with homeschooling, especially MATH!
Our summer highlights are the same things we look forward to every summer... mostly camping and time together at the lake. So thankful that we can spend so much time at the lake (my last swim was October 7th) ... can't wait to jump in again (but I will wait until May).
I haven't sent cards out in years but we are thankful for those who have sent cards our way and we want to wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed 2024.
Much Love,
the Neufelds
