Christmas Times 2003

 

If I said 2003 has been uneventful, I’d be kidding myself. Lori and I just returned from an intense 52 hours in Buffalo getting Mom back home after a hospital stay and rehab. If we only knew God’s plan…

 

Christopher achieved drive-age (his lingo) this year. After all the prep work, he met an examiner having a bad day and got the chance to take the test one more time before success.  We found him a 1995 Mazda MX-3 and we usually see him when it needs gas! He’s the trumpet section leader in Duluth High’s marching band, was in State Honor Band, and spent a summer week at UGA for band camp. The mission trip with youth group took him to North Carolina to glean corn and he also spent a week at youth conference in Montreat. He’s an only child most of the time now and you’d have to ask him if he enjoys the impact of our undivided attention.

 

Brandon went to Georgia Tech and never came back. At the end of his freshman year we moved him out of the dorm and into a suite and he spent the summer doing math research and working into the aerospace systems design lab. He also did some ushering/security during events at a new arena a mile from our house. I hope he’ll always remember the afternoon he got the chance to work backstage for ZZ Top converting a database and walking away with a cool $300…in cash! He pledged Delta Chi this fall and has a schedule so full that I occasionally find him still awake when I go online in the morning to see what time he wants to get up! He’s just found out that he’s headed to Europe next summer for 12 weeks of travel and study at Oxford.

 

In late March, Lori and I went to New Orleans with the marching band to chaperone their annual outing. Lori’s band duties have escalated this year, so Nicky and I spent many an evening from July through November fending for ourselves. She went up north in June with Mema to visit with her family and my Mom.

 

  I keep telling the kids to enjoy their time in school because eventually they’ll have to get up and go to work everyday…which to the best of my recollection, I’ve been doing without much of a break this year. I’m gearing up for another battle with our state legislature, this time trying to keep in tact a scholarship program allowing kids to attend college at no cost based on their good grades.

 

We’re just hoping for a peaceful holiday season.  Not unlike the inspiration and optimism from the birth of a child, we hope God’s plan grants you and yours a blessed renewal.

                                                                  ~ The Luders