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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Christmas Letter 2008

Christmas Greetings! 2007 was a year of vacations for the Murphys, more so than past years.

In April the whole family joined Will on his five-day Living Science Spring Expedition to Jekyll Island. The weather was chilly, but the kids enjoyed checking out all the sea creatures on the beach. We took a boat to Cumberland Island to see the ruins and wild horses, and toured the St. Simons Island Lighthouse.

The July Miller-family Myrtle Beach vacation was another fun time. It was the first year Anna and Matthew ventured out into the bigger surf, meaning Dave also spent lots of time in the water!

IThe big trip came in August, when we flew out to San Francisco for a week. Yosemite National Park was overwhelmingly beautiful, the sequoias huge. We hit Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, the University of California in Berkeley, Napa Valley, and saw the seal rocks in the Pacific. Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s record on a Tuesday, and three days later we saw him hit number 758 against the Pirates.

Matthew turned nine, and continues to entertain our family with his creativity and humor. He still loves to play with Playmobil and make videos, and is looking forward to taking classes at Living Science. His favorite coach selected him again for baseball, and Matthew responded with his best season yet, consistently collecting extra-base hits and making key plays in the field, helping them win another championship.

Ballet became just one of Anna’s activities. Now eleven, she enjoyed sitting with the older Living Science girls on the spring expedition, then began 5th grade there in the fall. She helped Ceil repaint and remodel her room, and has begun cooking as well. Visiting Chinatown was her favorite part of the San Francisco trip. She snapped all kinds of pictures on her new digital camera, and with Matthew was all over the Webkins craze.

Will (14) became even more involved at Living Science, taking several classes and training to become a Servant Leader. He took up basketball for the first time, playing on a competitive home-school team with several good friends. In baseball Will had perhaps his best year ever, playing 80 games & leading all three teams in most hitting and pitching categories. Against one tough team he struck out eleven in 4-2/3 innings. After Thanksgiving he paintballed & attended the Clemson/Carolina game in Columbia, then the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

Ceil squeezed in time for many of her favorite things: a women’s Beth Moore Bible Study, a knitting class, cooking for others, snapping pictures, & sewing Halloween costumes and Christmas presents. Home-school preparation and running the kids around takes up so much time, but she was still able to keep up with girlfriends near and far. She & Will still help in the 4-year old class at North Point.

Dave enjoyed coaching Will in the spring, especially making out batting orders and positioning players on defense. He work tripped to Birmingham and Orlando. In Houston he visited a college roommate and saw the Astros play. He ran his 20th Peachtree Road Race with Will and the Broadwell men, visiting from Virginia. In October he saw Georgia Tech beat Miami, in one of the last games ever played in the Orange Bowl. The next weekend he chaperoned Will’s Living Science Senior Retreat to Tybee Island and Savannah. One hobby is compiling family events and photos at www.sacrificefly.blogspot.com

We were fortunate to be able to complete several home-maintenance projects, though there’s always more to do. In this age of activity, we struggled to balance events with time with family and friends. We were also able to squeeze in cherished time at home as well.

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