Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

I can't believe another year has already gone by! What a wonderful year we have had. I am so thankful for everything... God takes good care of us! Mike and I will be celebrating our 15th anniversary this month...What a great 15 years it has been. To all of our friends in Germany... We miss you very much and still think about you often. We will be visiting in August 2006, so look for us around then! To all of our family and friends near to us...You probably already know what is going on in our lives, but maybe not! So here's the run down...

Two important happenings in this last year that affect us all, are that we decided to host a German exchange student (Biggi). It has been great so far. She is a great girl and can't even think about what it will be like when she goes home at the end of the school year. The second thing is that because of the tragedy in New Orleans, their NBA basketball team is playing in Oklahoma City. We got season passes, and it has been a blast so far. I didn't even imagine that it could be so fun. I am sad that they are here because of such a bad situation, but happy that we can support the team.

Mike is busy working, working, working. He still travels a bunch, but it is nice when he is home. He is also accumulating lots of frequent flyer miles and free hotel rooms, which is becoming a great blessing. We are all flying to Washington D.C. in March with free tickets! We might even all fly to Germany in August with free tickets... That is so cool! He doesn't really have any time to do much else. He is sometimes the head usher during one of the services at our church which he really enjoys. He enjoys playing with Morgen, hanging out with Katie, and deep discussions with Biggi. He also enjoys a date night with me every once in a while. We especially like going to a basketball game and then getting coffee afterwards.

Samona (thats me) is busy playing, playing, playing...With Morgen that is! I am also taking a calculus class which has been fun. I now only need physics 1 & 2 to be ready for the dosimetry program at Oklahoma University (OUHSC), whenever it feels right to start it. Otherwise my life is driving Katie and Biggi around and around...There's theater, and karate, and piano, and the mall, and this friends house, and that friends house, and oh yes...did I mention the mall? Biggi, Katie, and I also volunteer with the 4th and 5th graders at church. The room is called "Studio 45" and it suppose to be like a movie theater. We even serve popcorn!

Katie is doing great. She is becoming a teenager next year, and that sounds scary to me, but I am pretty sure she already feels and acts like a teenager. She attended a piano composition camp this summer, and she composed her own piece! I was very proud of her. We are preparing for her Christmas recital right now. She is also playing Sister Margarette in the musical "Sound of Music". We will see it in January so I can't comment on it yet other than she has really enjoyed the rehearsals so far. She is also doing karate once a week which she enjoys.

Biggi has done so well in school. Her grades are mostly A's, and her English teacher told me that she is better in English class than any of the other students! She likes to ask Americans lots of questions because she wants to get the most out of her experience here and learn all she can. She loves the basketball games, and she also really liked the OU football game that we attended. She also is a big help with Morgen and plays with her a bunch. Biggi and Katie seem to get along well, and are sometimes silly together.

Morgen is the funnest of all! She is so cute and fun right now, but she is very strong willed! She sings "Jesus Loves Me" all the time...It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen. She just starts singing it out of the blue at the grocery store or anywhere she pleases. Morgen is going to be sad when Biggi leaves...I am not even sure she will understand. She also got a new Dora house for her birthday, and she plays with it all the time.

We hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and New Year, and we hope to see you soon!

With much love,
Michael, Samona, Katie, Morgen, and Biggi