Dear friends and family, I can't believe another year has passed us by. And what a year 2009 was. There is so much to tell. I will start with Steve - not only is his medical practice flourishing because he is a skilled and highly-regarded surgeon, he is also a wonderful father finding the time to coach both Mac's pole vaulting and travel soccer teams and work with Amelia on her pageant training. And can you believe, he still managed to hand-dig a pool in our back yard? He carved the stones for the decking himself from a boulder we found on our 17-acre estate. As you can see from the pictures, he is quite the mason.
I wish I could say that we had enjoyed the pool more, but between Amelia's horse shows (12 first place ribbons this year!) and Mac's travel soccer (he's team captain, again), they rarely have time for swimming, aside from the weekly meets at the country club.
And speaking of Amelia, puberty has finally set in and let me say, wow! We are going to have ourselves one rocking-hot teenager living under our roof soon. What a beauty! She is still making straight As at the Academy and when she isn't showing horses, she is doing community service as part of her duties as Miss Northeast-of-Atlanta PreTeen. We are very proud of her and her coach assures us she has a very promising future in pageanting.
Mac is still homeschooling until we can find a school that can accommodate his intelligence. After blowing the Mensa test out of the water (we don't know where he gets it!), he was able to refocus his energy and efforts on pole-vaulting and has developed quite a reputation in the North and Middle Georgia pole-vaulting community.
When I am not in the H3(my mobile office!), driving the kids from place to place, I like to spend time decorating - let's face it, 8300sq feet takes a lot of planning - not to mention fabric! I am still running regularly and am actually running (the Sante Fe Jingle Marathon!) while typing this up. So as you might guess, I stay pretty busy too.
I hope this letter finds you well and that your 2010 is as good as ours will be.
Have a blessed holiday season.
Nicole, Steve, Amelia & Mac
