1999 Christmas Newsletter (and the only one we've ever done)
Dear family, friends and loved ones:
The Christmas season is upon us and instead of sending out cards this year we are attempting our first holiday newsletter. So bear with us as we attempt to let you know the happenings from our year 1999.
The beginning of the year we opened our home to my aunt Patty who was waiting for a double lung transplant. We felt like we were running a bread and breakfast with all the relatives coming in and out of our home (but we loved every minute of it). After many countless thoughts and prayers, Patty received her new lungs on my 30th birthday!! So we will always celebrate my birthday with a cake in the shape of lungs!! She is recovering very slowly and is on a step down unit now after spending many months in ICU at Duke Hospital.
This summer I had off from school and took my nephews (Scotty and Joey) sight-seeing around our great state of North Carolina. We went to the Outer Banks to see both the Bodie Island and Hatterhas Lighthouses. While we were there, we went to Jockey’s Ridge (which is the largest natural sand dune on the east coast). I let the boys rolls down the entire way (needless to say we brought a lot of sand home with us). We also visited the Wright Brothers Museum. We then went to Bath, NC to see where the ole Pirate Blackbeard lived. Sadly his house was destroyed by a fire some years back so all we saw was the spot it once stood. We also went fossil digging in Aurora, NC--we only found sharks teeth though!! We also went to an Estuarium, it is where a river meets the sea. It was great having them down most of the summer!!
This fall it was back to another full semester at college. Then we had to do battle with several hurricanes. First came Dennis the Menace that hit us twice both times dropping an excessive amount of rain. Then came Floyd with even more rain and wind. Then came the floods. We were very lucky that we only had minor roof damage in our utility room and one leak in a fireplace in one of the bedrooms. Our little town was like an island for several days. We are only 5-10 minutes from Princeville (the town that was completely under water) and Tarboro. We had some minor flooding in town with a lot of fallen trees. The country club’s first hole was completely under water, except for the green...that made for a really bad water hazard on the golf course!! Jonathan had to go to work (medical) and was stuck in Greenville for 5 straight days!! I volunteered at one of the high school shelters with the Red Cross. There is a lot of devastation in Pitt County and surrounding areas. We were completely cut off from our friends in Greenville and Jonathan’s parents in Grifton. His parents had water come within 25 yds. of their house. They lost power and phone for several days so it was really intense not knowing how they were. It was nothing like they showed on TV. It looks like a war zone in most places. Irene came and went with even more rain but seemed like a thunderstorm compared to Floyd.
On a lighter note, we are all ready for Christmas. The entire house is covered with Christmas nostalgia. We have two trees up inside (in each bay window) and one on the outside in the gazebo. All our presents are wrapped and under the tree. We’ve even had to put bells on most of them to keep the cat from chewing the bows!! We’ve opened a few presents early, one being this computer and the other a new living room suite (grown up furniture!!) Now all we need is a few rug-rats running around the place, oh wait we do have Sadie and Bailey (our Yorkies)!! Oh well, maybe next year we’ll write about a bundle of joy -- until then we’ll keep practicing-Ha!Ha! I’ve finished up all my finals and have a break from school until January 6th. Some news about our house--it was in a Martin County Architectural book listed as one of the most prominent representatives of Queen Victorian architecture in Martin County!! We felt so honored, we thought our house turned 100 this year, when in fact it doesn’t turn 100 until next year!! Although it doesn’t look like we will have a white Christmas here (with temps in the upper 60’s), we will be going home to Virginia and maybe we’ll see some there. We hope all is well with you and your family and that we had more time to visit each and every one of you. We hope you like the enclosed picture and Christmas Poem (I can’t take the credit for it, it came in a Christmas card last year and no one knows who wrote it). We’ll be ringing in the New Year with friends in Raleigh, this is probably the one New Years we’ll go all out for. We hope you have a safe and blessed New Year wherever you may be.
WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
May God bless and keep you in His constant care through the next millenium!!
