December 2006

Dear Friends,

          This is my (Tav) first attempt at a Christmas letter. Not because our lives suddenly became more interesting, but because I am finally realizing how important you are to our lives. This is my feeble attempt to share some of us with you.

Our life seems to consist of nothing but running from one event to another and I know that we allow the urgent things of our lives to overwhelm the important. I have been working at making the important more urgent as I can now see time flowing past our lives ever faster, and real life doesn’t always allow “do overs”. I draw some comfort from the idea that we should all have eternity in heaven to love and laugh with one another.  

          My electrical contracting business continues to do well. Winters have always been a challenge to me with the short days, cold weather, and barren landscape. Trying to be “joy filled” and “jolly” for the wife and children makes me wish I could have some recreational pharmaceuticals for Christmas. My brother, Jim, came to help us with the business in May. He has been a blessing to our family in many ways; helping watch children, and drive teenagers hither and yon.

Kathleen continues to home school the children in spite of the fact that we now see how they are turning out. Seriously, the kids are doing great and continue to blow away the standardized testing. We just hope that Kathleen continues to hold up under the stress of raising, loving and educating the children while helping me with the business and having a life of her own.

          Tayva got her driver’s license this summer after she turned 16 and is a very good driver. Although her mom is terrified every minute her daughter is driving due to the miserable road conditions and the mentally emotionally or sobriety challenged drivers that race up and down our roads. Tayva also got a job as a nanny/mother’s helper on the beach in Florida. She says she had a great time for the 3 months she was there, but she hates sand and spent most of her free time reading in the basement or at the coffee shop.

          When we went to pick her up, I took the whole family to Walt Disney World.  Kathie loved it.  Some of the kids liked it some of the time. I feel that Disney World fun is some thing that they do to you. Some sort of manufactured mass produced fun that they slap on you as they shove you past Mickey to the line for the next ride. Other than that it was great. Kameron was the least excited to be there as he wanted to be back in West Virginia because his girlfriend from Texas was visiting. So I used the standard Walt Disney World speech that I had overheard several fathers give to encourage their beloved offspring. It goes something like this: “Shut your mouth and have some fun or I will twist your lips off”. If you like you can add how much it is costing you to listen to all of their whining and sniveling by the day or minute or second, depending on your math skills and the amount of information your wife gave you on the actual cost of feeding the Mouse.

          Kameron is doing very well at developing a life outside our immediate family. He is a natural born leader, enjoys acting, soccer and hanging out with his friends. He is anxious to get his learners permit on his 15^th birthday (the 26^th) because he believes once he can drive he will never have to come home again except for underwear and money.

          Kaitlyn celebrated her tenth birthday on August 22 and is rapidly becoming a grace-filled young lady.  She loves art and music and is generally kind to her brothers and sisters.

          Tyler at seven is interested in games, spending time with friends and how the lawnmower works.

          Kylee at four is her usual charming self. We believe she will be the first Pierce child to go pro with her charm and wit.

          There is much to be grateful for. We are overfed, over entertained, well clothed and live well.  We truly live lives of abundance. If you get a chance to pray for us please pray that we will learn to be content with what we have, and that I will stay motivated to push our family forward financially and spiritually. We are most grateful for our friends and family and if you read this far you are probably one or the other, so thank you for participating in our lives.

Love, Tav, Kathie & crew