Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas!!

Our life has been very busy this past year. Peter turned 16 on January 2nd. We had a birthday party with the Ruggles family for him. He took driver's education in Hoxie where our grandparents live. It was fun spending three weeks with them. We spent our weekends at Aunt Gloria's watching TV and helping her unpack boxes from her move to Colby.

Peter is now a junior at WHS. He continues to enjoy school. Some of his courses this year included Honors Chemistry and Trig/Pre-Calc. He is doing well in both. Next semester he is taking a Network Tech class. He continues to enjoy computers. He spent a couple days during the summer helping Steve ghost (hard drive duplication) computers at the college.

Peter spends most of his time watching TV, playing on the computer, or reading books. He worked at the Library again this summer and helped with the craft time during the summer reading program. Peter has changed a lot this past year. He has finally outgrown Ruth. He is about five inches taller than her. His hair is getting pretty long too.

Ruth has kept us busy this past year. She turned 15 on April 3rd. She celebrated it with a sleepover with her friends. Ruth finished her freshman year in May. She was ready for summer. Ruth took Driver's Ed. with Peter during the summer. She was excited to get her restrictive license. She got to do her first solo to one of her many babysitting jobs.

Ruth was a counselor of 3rd grade girls at Church Camp the first week of August. She had a wild bunch of girls but really enjoyed them. After camp she spent two weeks with her Aunt Sharon in Biloxi, Mississippi. She watched Sharon's kids during the day while Sharon did her reserve duty.

Ruth started her sophomore year in August. Volleyball started the first day of school too. Ruth was on the JV again but had a blast. This season was the best season she has ever had. She is currently weight lifting to keep in shape.

Ruth is still playing her clarinet in band. She had fun during marching season at the football games even though it was really cold for some of them. They have now moved into concert season and Ruth is once again playing the Contra Alto Clarinet. Her stand partner is one of her best friends and Mr. A. told them at conferences that they talk too much (I know it is hard to imagine Ruth talking to much:)

Steve is still working at Southwestern in the Computer Information Center. He has been there for nine years and continues to enjoy it. Veva continues to enjoy being a housewife. She keeps herself busy driving the kid's places and managing the house.

Our family was also busy this past year with trips. Over spring break Steve went to Honduras with three other men on a mission's trip for one week. They helped build a house for a lady that had nine kids. Thanks to all those who prayed and gave a financial gift to make it possible for Steve to go to Honduras. Steve was home for a week before he started feeling sick. He went to the doctor and found out he had malaria. Steve took pills to kill the parasite, but the kind of malaria he has goes dormant in the liver so he will possibly have to deal with it the rest of his life. Please pray for healing for him. If you want to see our picture, go to www.rugglesrelatives.org/missiontrip /honduras.

During the week of the Fourth of July our family went to Salida, CO with Veva's sister, Gloria, Grandma and Grandpa Adams, and Gloria's friends the Grants. We went whitewater rafting with Buel, Gloria's son. It was a blast. Even Veva went and had fun but half a day was enough for her after one of the Grant's fell in. If you want to see our picture, go to www.rugglesrelatives.org/steveruggles/rafting.htm

We also took a trip to Las Vegas over Thanksgiving. We went to there for Ed's, Steve's brother-in-law's, retirement for the Ai r Force. We had a fun time with Steve's family. Steve came down with malaria again on the way to Las Vegas. He hadn't felt good for a week but we didn't realize that he had malaria until Saturday afternoon. Thankfully we were able to get some medicine once we got to Las Vegas and he is doing better. We were tired after 24 hours of driving in a cramped van. On the way to Las Vegas we stopped to see the Grand Canyon. It was really pretty but really cold. It was really nice to have six drivers. Veva's friend Wendy and her son Chris rode with us. After Ed's retirement ceremony, we drove them on to San Diego, where Wendy's husband is stationed. Harvey took us on a tour of his ship which was really neat. We also enjoyed stopping to see family and friends in Los Angeles and Lake Havasu.

Thanks to all of you who have opened your home to us this past year. We enjoyed the time we spent with you. We thank God for each and every one of you and we pray that you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!