It is hard to believe that another year has passed by and it is time for Christmas and the family party!

At the beginning of the year, Ansje has back surgery and had 3 of her lower vertebrae fused together! It was a lot bigger operations than I had expected and took longer to get back on my feet than I wanted. If anyone is considering back surgery, talk to me first!!

DeMoyne has had another season of racing his birds. He went to Holland and was able to go to several different lofts in Germany, Belgium and Holland. He was looking for birds that would be able to race long distances and feels that he found some and will be breeding them for the coming year of 2005.

We were able to take a weeks vacation to Florida in October. It was great to be able to spend time with Tina and Ralph and also have Louky and Paul and Jack and Oeke there at the same time. It had been a long time since we had the opportunity of all being together.

I had two new babies born in our family this year. Alexandra, whose parents are Jen and Mike and Tierney, whose parents are Kim and Jeremiah! DeMoyne also had two babies born in his family. Candyce, whose parents are Ann and Steve Jaynes, DeMoyne's youngest daughter and Brynn, who was born to Krista and Dustin, DeMoyne's oldest grand daughter. DeMoyne now has 2 great grand children and 11 grand children. In my family I have 11 grand children. It is always amazing to me how quickly your family becomes larger and larger. You start with two people and end up with many, many more!

DeMoyne and I would like you wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a New Year full of happiness and joy!