A Bit of an Update

My parents arrived last night from Oregon. My niece graduates tomorrow from Texas A&M, so over the next few days we plan to celebrate an early Christmas with everyone together. What a blessing!

I'm making progress on the dissertation. My committee chair recommends a summer or fall graduation, rather than spring. Now that I have only one paper left to grade and a few grades left to enter to close out the semester of teaching, I hope to buckle down soon and get after what's left. Then I'll need some readers to help me find typos.

In the spring I am slated to teach Advanced Creative Writing and Journalism. The latter is full with a waiting list, but I still have some openings for the ACW class. Gary is putting together a February trip to Africa that focuses on working with kids. It's open to public participation, if you want to think about joining his team.

We decorated the tree last night. Wherever we travel, we buy an ornament. So when we decorate, it's fun to remember backpacking the Grand Canyon, the 20th anniversary trip to Maui, visiting the Guggenheim Museum, waterskiing on Lake of the Ozarks, and hunting through bazaars in Istanbul. Our tree stands as a reminder of wonderful experiences shared and years of blessing as a family. One ornament has a photo of our daughter in her toothless stage. I believe we took that shot only last week.