MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Now arrives the last Christmas card of the year 2001, and once again it comes from me! The forever busy Gandy - Burnell family seems to always be a day late and a dollar short. But our wishes of cheer and a great new year are sincere!
Our newest addition to the family is ..... TYLER ARTHUR BURNELL. Our cute grandson was born March 10, 2oo1. Proud parents are Robert and Lexi Burnell. His big brother JAYMEN MARCUS BURNELL turned 3 years old just 2 days before he was born (March 10th). Robert and Lexi's whirlwind romance began on the internet. Lexi wrote Robert thru yahoo messenger, and they started calling each other on the phone. Next thing I knew Robert flew to Oregon in July to bring Lexi down to Texas with him. They married at Grandma's church "South Austin Christian Church" on November 10, 2000. 2 months after Tyler was born they packed all of their belongings in a U-Haul trailer and moved to California. They now manage an Apartment Building that belongs to Lexi's grandfather. This was my first year to have to send presents off to one of my kids and now grandkids. What an experience that was! Craig and I had to work together to mash all the gifts into one box. I found a large box in the garage that had been used in the move to our new house. We pushed in the sides working together to get it tight. One of us held and the other taped! Finally with much effort and strength we wrapped that box tight with lots of strong tape! Now it is making it's long journey all the way from Texas to California with lots of great Christmas gifts for two special boys and a wonderful Dad and Mom!
Jennifer Diane Gandy married Toby Gunst in August 2001. They have been dating for many years. They had a beautiful wedding in Germany. So this will be their first Christmas together as husband and wife! Jason Cole Gandy is now 15 and is still in Germany with his Mom. Craig was able to spend some time with Jason when he went to Germany to be with Jeff. Jeff was in a 2nd automobile accident in November 1999. He had to spend almost a year in the hospital. Then Craig went back to Germany in November 2000 and brought Jeff back to Texas to live with us. He had his own apartment in the same complex as ours. Craig would go back and forth from Jeff's house to ours. Jeff has been in great health this year. He has not had to go to the Doctor even once since being here. He has gained over 30 pounds and looking great. He spends hours on the computer. He is one of the top Chess players in Yahoo games. When he first came over he had not ever used a computer. Now he is an expert. He is able to use his hands very well and continues to receive God's healing miracles every day. We pray for instant healing, but his healing is a constant daily improvement. Last month a friend at Church told me that he is so amazed with how Jeff is always so cheerful. Then he added, "But I am sure you see his bad days." To which I took a minute to contemplate, and replied "No actually I cannot think of one time that I have seen Jeff in a bad mood. He stays cheerful almost all the time." That is something we should all learn from Jeff. He has more reasons than most of us to be upset or unhappy, but he chooses to be positive and happy. And to do this he stays close to God and starts his days reading the Bible and spending time with God. We are so glad to have Jeff here in our family!
In November of 2001 both of our apartments were flooded when the Tornado came through Austin. We watched outside our window as a beautiful waterfall cascaded down from the tennis courts and right into our living room! After living with mold and mildew for a month we decided Apartment living was not for us... even if I just had to walk across the street to go to work. So Craig circled every 4 bedroom house for lease in the Austin Newspaper and drove by the ones that had addresses in the paper. He fell in love with the backyard at the house at 12600 Silver Spur and called the number to make an appointment with the owner the next day. We moved in that week!! Now we are almost completely settled in, and loving every room! There is a huge formal living room which is The Office with 4 computers all connected to the internet, Then there is the elegant formal dining room with a huge murial of a waterfall (and this one is not flooding our home!). We have a fabulous family room with a Texas style fireplace. A big kitchen that was big enough for 4 of us females to make Christmas cookies working side by side! That was a dream I always had.. a kitchen big enough to have a cookie making party!!! Plus there is a huge laundry room and a big 2 car garage. And as I mentioned the back yard is absolutely wonderful, especially with all of Craig's beautiful plants on the back patio. Starting today at 6 pm I am taking my first non-sick vacation time since I have been working at Gallup (2 years 5 months). And I am going to stay in our New Home and enjoy every minute of my time here this holiday season!!! And I am so excited!!
Now back to the kids... Lew and Christina Burnell have built a home in Cedar Park, which is just NW of Austin. When those 2 were little kids they fought all the time, so who would have guessed that they would go in together to buy a house! They must have got all their fighting out of them, because they live happily together in that big house. And what a great idea it was for them to buy instead of renting an apartment. Robert had started out living there too, but as you already know he got a message from a gal in Oregon and.....
Lew is still with The Money Box as a manager. He has a store in South Austin that he manages. He use to be in the store in Cedar Park, but he wanted a bigger store, and now he drives across town in is brand new Wrangler! Christina is still working at the Starwood Hotels. She spends her time working and working and working, and then going home to take care of her beautiful daughter Jasmine Marie Bailey who will be 2 one Christmas Eve. She is the most wonderful Christmas present we ever got in this family! She is absolutely precious. Do I sound like a proud grandma? She comes over a lot for us to play with and we have lots of fun. She is at that adorable age where she is into everything! Christina went to Florida with a male/female softball team to a regional softball tournament. They did not win but she had a lot of fun.
Bradley left home last December but he returned in August of this year. He got real involved in Church and got all the kids that are still at home involved in a big Church production in October. It was called "Virtual Hell". You would walk in to a maze of different scenes, as the actors and actresses preformed. Brad played a young man in a hotel room who just realized he got AIDS, Jennifer was a prostitute in a street scene, Jonathan was a demon, Jamie was the littlest angel in Heaven and finally they convinced Craig to play the part of Jesus in the Heaven scene. They preformed for 9 nights for 3-5 hours every night until Halloween. So they were very committed to this project for the whole month. It was a great experience for the family. I even spent a few nights there as a counselor. Brad fell in love with a girl named Rebecca Bradford in April 2000. He met her at the swimming pool at the apartments we lived in. They are together now living with the man next door. I am hoping that he gives her a ring this Christmas and that a wedding will be planned in the year 2001.
Jennifer Burnell is growing up too fast! She has a boyfriend named Moses. Now that is a great name to live up to! He is a nice young man who wants to join the Marines after he graduates. You can find Jennifer in a chat room under the name of Lil Angel. She loves to chat! She spends her time playing her guitar and singing when she is not on-line.
Jonathan is incredible. He constantly reads his Bible. His ambition is to be a Preacher. And he will make a great Preacher! He already knows the Bible better than most Christian adults. He loves the word of God, and he motivates all of us to go to Church and to read our Bibles! He still watches a few baseball games when it is season, and I am sure he will play Baseball again. He is an incredible Pitcher, and all around player. He also likes to play Basketball in the driveway! His Dad put a ball in his hands when he was just a week old and he has had some kind of ball in his hands ever since!
And now to our baby... Jamie Michelle Gandy! Who always reminds us that she is no longer a baby at age 10, but she will always be our baby. She is an absolute Joy to us all. She use to sing "I am Daddy's Joy Joy Girl" when she was a little girl, and she has always lived up to that song! She loves to watch pokemon and knows all of the names of the hundreds of pokemon's. She loves her new room that she shares with Jonathan. They have just finished decorating it and making everything look really nice.
And that is the latest news from the Gandy & Burnell family!
May your Christmas be Merry and may the year of 2002 bring your family great health, happiness and a closer walk with God!
Love,
