David Mattix:  

Christmas 2008 Newsletter composed by my beautiful wife, Dianne. Greetings, everyone, and Merry Christmas! We hope this letter finds you all happy and healthy. It¿s hard to believe another year has come and gone. Here we are again celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus. Last year ended with a visit from Auntie Denise for Christmas. Then we packed our bags and headed to Houston, to visit Mimi and Pawpaw, and a lot of our relatives in Texas. In February, we enjoyed our annual ski trip to Park City, UT. What a great week it was! The girls are doing such a great job, considering they only get to ski once a year. What a glorious day it is when my youngest daughter asks me if I¿d go down the black diamond mogul run with her! Hooray! Dave skied with the girls while Choia and I had some great fun tearing up some fresh powder. What could be better than that? We cherish that time we have together as a family. Over spring break, the girls and I, and a friend of mine, Donna, and her grandson went to Disneyworld, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. The weather was fantastic and we had a great time! Megan and Choia came for Easter and also spent Fourth of July weekend with us. This year we watched the fireworks from the boat, right under the site where they were launching them. We had a great view! It was a beautiful night. PJ and Duane were also with us for both holidays and Thanksgiving and Christmas and they help us with the girls all throughout the year. It wouldn¿t be possible for the girls to do all they do without the help of PJ & Duane. In July, we took a really fun vacation. Dave and the girls and I went to St. Louis. We went up in the Arch and went to the City Museum. After that, Daddy went home and the girls and I traveled to Chicago. Auntie Denise picked us up there and we packed up the camper and spent a couple of days in the wilderness. We swam and cooked and enjoyed each other, came back to Milwaukee and spent a few days there. We even took a tandem bike ride around Lake Michigan. After camping, we met Grammy and Papa in Wisconsin, visited Grandma A. and went to the Wisconsin State Fair. Love those cream puffs! Then, after a detour to the Jelly Belly Factory, we traveled to Chicago for a few nights. While we were in Chicago, we laughed, ate well and went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. We had a wonderful time in Chicago. It was really great spending time with Grammy, Papa an...Expand for more