Dear Family and Friends,

Our most exciting news is that we are buying a home in Germantown,
Maryland, 20 miles northwest of where we live now. However, the event
with the most impact this year was the death of June's father, Merlin.
He suffered a fatal stroke in Wisconsin in October. We joined June's
family in Wisconsin for his funeral.

That trip was just part of our travelling year. In the spring, June,
Brian and Maggie-dog spent a week with June's parents in Florida.
Maryland's snowiest winter on record left nowhere for Maggie to swim for
physical therapy while recovering from knee surgery. She loved swimming
in the lake at the trailer park! In May, we all traveled to Florida
(sans Maggie) to join's June family for her niece's wedding in Miami.
At the end of June, we three flew to Panama for the 8th International
Coral Reef Symposium. Mark's mother joined us a week later allowing
June to attend the last days of the ICRS. It was wonderful to see many
friends and colleagues. We visited Panamá Viejo and went on a short
boat trip in the Panama Canal. Then the four of us were off on a short
field trip to the San Blas Islands on the Caribbean coast of Panama.

In early October, we drove to Sebring, FL for a wonderful weekend of
biking at the Southern Tandem Rally. A highlight of the trip was a stop
at the Kennedy Space Center. And with Mark's 20th highschool reunion
and Thanksgiving in Louisville with Mark's mom -- Whew, we've given
the suitcases a workout this year!

We all went on Cycle Across Maryland this summer. Mark was a CAM Tour
teen mentor again, and we all trained with the teens during the spring.
He and Brian rode the tandem the first two and last two days of the
Tour; with June serving as a "CAM Ham" amateur radio operator.

Brian began kindergarten in the fall. He said the most exciting part
was riding the schoolbus! Brian has learned to read very well at home,
we're guessing he's at a first grade level. He also has become a
"Lego-maniac" and loves building Lego projects. We have been busy with
school, career and church. June became a deacon in the church in
January, taught Sunday school and rejoined the choir in the fall. Mark
joined June in the bell choir, so now we're both ding-a-lings! He
continues on the Session board and chairs one committee. The scope of
Mark's work at his office has changed -- managing a program on climate
modelling -- and Brian declared he wants to live where it snows in winter,
so we began house-hunting.

We have had some trials this year which have brought us closer to our
church family and strengthened our faith. We wouldn't want to think
about facing traumatic events without God and our faith family!

To finish the year, we are very excited about our new house. It sits
on 1.5 acres, is across the road from a church retreat center and farm
and is an 11 year-old passive solar home with a solarium and a basement
suite for June's mom. We hope to move at the end of January to our new
address: 11212 Neelsville Church Rd., Germantown, MD 20876 (approximate location on this map).

We wish you all a joyous Christmas and health and happiness
in the coming year.

Animations and music courtesy of "Old Jim"