Saturday, December 24, 2005

Christmas Eve, 2005

Since I started my professional blog, Learning about Lean, I’ve written on family items on Christmas eve. I did so again today and paste the post here as well. It’s fascinating to look at my comments from 2002, 2003, and 2004. Things progress and grow. And some things remain the same.

We were thrilled in late July to have David return safely from his tour of duty as a medic in the Sunni Triangle in western Iraq. Words don’t really capture what we felt to have him there and the joy of his return.
He, Susan, Nathan and Andrew are now together, stationed in Colorado Springs, spending their first Christmas together in three years.

Our middle son
Nathan is really finding a niche in Human Resources in Portland, Oregon. Hard to believe our youngest Matt is deep into planning for college. But I guess the math works, as Gretchen and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this year. Oh my.

I remain very grateful for my
Dad, who died 12 years ago today. The values and insight I learned from him will never leave. I hope I’ve passed those same values on to my sons. I’m a very fortunate guy.

Where will 2006 go? Don’t we wonder about that every year?! To the degree that we each focus on others, apart from ourselves and seek to serve in the worlds we find ourselves, we will have opportunity.

I’m grateful for Immanuel, God with us, as we celebrate the birth of Christ tomorrow. This faith undergirds everything for me. It is an exciting and humbling journey.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

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