Family Newsletter - Christmas 2010

In a break with tradition, and a vague attempt to move with the 21^st Century, this year’s traditional round robin family newsletter is being done as a blog – pictures and all. We hope it makes for some moderately interesting reading and helps you catch up a little of what Debbi, Hannah, Aimie, Samuel and Steve have been up to over the last twelve months.

It has been a year of highs and lows. The biggest low point was the sudden and unexpected loss of Lorna Spencer, Debbi’s aunt. She died tragically in the early autumn. The whole family was shocked – she was a young woman, full of life, gentleness and humour, and she and Uncle Phil were in the midst of starting a new chapter in their life together in Abu Dhabi. Her funeral in Scotland brought a huge gathering of the clans – she will be much missed by all the family.

One of the unexpected highs of the year was the unexpected visit to Hannah and Sam’s school of one of the family’s favourite authors, Michael Rosen. He had been invited in as a surprise retirement present for Hannah’s teacher, and a great day was had by all as he led and assembly, poetry workshops, and did a lengthy book signing after school.

And it has been a year of new challenges. On that score, the biggest has been that Samuel was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome in July. It was quite a shock, though not a surprise, as we had knew that Sam was different and had difficulties in some areas. His school have been wonderful and we have all been learning together how to help Sam and how to develop his skills. In many ways the diagnosist has just given us a name for Sam being Sam. He has recently started to identify some of the ways he is different and unique and is making connections and asking questions. He remains a bright, loving, eccentric, intelligent boy, with obsessions for numbers, time and Doctor Who.

Debbi has been incredibly busy this year (when isn’t she?), continuing to run a busy Parents & Toddlers group and organising the church Family Fellowship Group with Steve. We went with 6 other families from the group on a very enjoyable, if rather soggy, camping weekend in May and (now having waterproofed the tent) plan to do it again with an even larger group in the coming year. The cake making has started to really take off with taking on several cake making commissions and a desire to get more professional. With almost running the house, keeping the children on the straight and narrow, and Steve in order (!), it is incredible she has time to do anything else! But she has most recently started to volunteer as a parent helper in the children’s school in the Deputy Head’s class every Monday morning. She has been quite alarmed by how much she has enjoyed being in the classroom again but horrified at how much the job and technology has changed since retiring to have the kids. Debbi is looking to the future and for God’s guidance about her next steps in the coming years.

Hannah turned ten this year, and is growing up far too fast for her poor old parents. She has developed a passion for knitting, needlecraft and the music of Abba, continues playing the flute, singing in the school and church Christmas choir, and has developed her own sense of style in everything.

Aimie continues to love pre-school almost fanatically, and generally enjoys ruling the roost at home – or at least she thinking she does! Her earlier obsessions for shoes, hats and bags have not waned significantly, but she is developing an interest in helping mummy about the house and enlarging her social circle of similarly small blonde girls and some sweet young men too. She starts at school in September (much to the disbelief of her parents) and is very excited by the prospect.

Steve has been whizzing off again – this year to Transylvania and Uruguay, and all across the UK, speaking at and running conferences and training days for health professionals and churches. He has also recruited a new full time field worker to support student nurses, and is working on several new publications. In what he laughingly calls spare time he continues to be a keen runner (although yet to enter any official events, his ambition is to do the London and New York marathons before his ankles give out), Twitterer and growing fan of the music of Arvo Pärt. He continues to take an active role with Debbi in running the church Family Fellowship Group and helping lead Cafe Church once a month.

We headed off again on a camping holiday with Steve and Fiona (Debbi’s parents) – this time to Norfolk, and discovered the beauty of the North Norfolk coastline, and the delights of Cromer and Norwich. In the church we went through an interregnum this year, as Glyn, our vicar of fifteen years moved on. It has been an interesting year, as we moved out and started new things as a congregation, and a lot of people found themselves stretching their wings – so it has overall been a very positive experience, led very ably by our curate, Dave Green. We now have a new vicar, Martyn Saunders, and Debbi and the kids have already started to get to know his wife Jeanette and children.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully we will have a chance to meet up and hear more of your news in the coming year.