Hello 2012, hello blog readers

Sorry mom, I haven't written in a few months. Candace has been rolling on her blog with regular posts about our family life.
Soon I'll start logging about some of the books that I have read this past year.
First, a quick update:

In November our friends Kate and Joseph got married the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so we did not travel like we have in all the years before. In fact, I cooked a turkey for the first time in my life. We had friends from the community with us, and it was a nice meal at home. As I think of it, we didn't have the usual Thanksgiving, where people come into town for a few days and then spend several days together, and then leave. It was as brief as a couple hours with people.
During the meal one of the guests (a counselor and medical doctor, who does research on the brain) suggested we all share happy memories from times with our families when we were growing up. He said that there is plenty of research to guarantee that if we spend our time that way, we'll all feel really good at the end of the night. So we did, and we did.
In December a friend came into town - Mike, from back in Clovis, NM. Mike's working in Hooper Bay Alaska these days, as a school administrator. The town and the school are very stressful and sad situations, so it was nice to have him with us on his break.

St. Louis Arch as seen from the observation car on our train

We took a train trip to Arkansas for Christmas with Candace's family. That was great too. Savanah and Scott Landerholm were with us before they got back on a plane to their second mission experience for this year, in Galway Ireland.
And in a week, Candace and I will travel without the kids (thanks to you, Mom and Da) to New Mexico for a conference on Nature and the Human Soul. We are excited for the opportunity on several levels. Good teaching (probably), Mexican food, seeing friends, dreaming about a new community, meeting with Mennonites and Methodists, being out in the wilderness a bit... and being without children for the first time ever, since having kids started for us!

Soon, another book review...