I thought I would share my annual Christmas letter and photo collage I sent out with my Christmas cards this year. Since I consider all of you wonderful people who take the time to visit me here as my friends, you should also benefit (or suffer) from my love of the written word. Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope your holidays are wonderful.

Dear friends and family,

It is time for the annual year in review letter from the Owens family and this year finds Curtis and me happily celebrating our 30^th anniversary living in the proverbial empty nest. Until a couple of weeks ago, the two extra bedrooms were completely empty except for the few abandoned prom and banquet dresses hanging in one closet. We bought a new bed for ourselves and put our old one into one of the bedrooms so Allison would have somewhere to sleep when she came home for Thanksgiving. Those empty bedrooms served us well in October, though, when we had several of Allison’s friends stay with us during Texas-OU weekend. They brought sleeping bags and camped out in the back of our house. We had a great time with all those young people in the house.

Karen and Seth moved out in May and are living nearby in a small duplex. Karen has changed jobs and is the accounting manager for a small cleaning company that contracts out the cleaning of office buildings. She has been going to school two nights a week and we watch Seth on those nights. She is also seeing a very nice guy named Joe who makes her very happy and that makes us happy, too.

Seth is four, a very handsome little guy, and loves anything that has to do with balls. He especially loves football right now and he and Curtis toss the ball back and forth outside until it gets dark every time he comes over. He also loves superheroes and is obsessed with being big and strong.

Allison is at the University of Texas in Austin working on a biology degree. She is enjoying her third year there and is on track to graduate in May of 2009. She was awarded a full tuition scholarship from the Hartman Foundation at the start of this past semester. They are a group who work to encourage future math and science teachers. She also received another scholarship from the Austin Independent School District. With the extra money, she doesn’t have to work as much as she did last year. She has moved into an apartment with a friend from high school and plans to stay in Austin until graduation and maybe even afterwards to teach in the Austin school district. She is involved with the University Catholic Center and belongs to a group called STRONG who put on weekend retreats for teenagers in the Austin area. She is also working a couple of days a week at the River City Youth Foundation, an after school program for low income kids.

Curtis has been promoted to plant manager at Southern Star Concrete. He is thriving on all of the extra responsibility and doing well. He loves being a grandpa to his favorite little boy and he enjoys visits from his girls.

I am still plugging away at Tom Thumb. I love scrapbooking and am doing well with it. I’ve even won a few contests. I’ve made some new friends through it and am having such a great time. I also really enjoy photography and am learning to use my new fancy camera. I want to find a class to take. Be warned. Anybody who comes near me best be ready to have their picture taken!

I hope 2008 is good for all of you and that you enjoy many blessings.

Love, Curtis and Detta