Christmas Letter
King Family News for 2013
Art and Ronda King sending you joyful Christmas greetings! Our family Newsworthy Events chronicled here:
Feb Great skiing with Rose cousins at Ferguson Ridge, Oregon.
Mar A Scion XB joins the family and is christened “Gangsta”. Grandpa Frank breaks his hip and goes under the knife for a replacement. His recovery is good for a 98 year old.
May Art and Ronda, and the four youngest children spend some wonderful days at Eagle Crest in central Oregon. A family adventure to Palouse Falls takes us scrambling down into the gorge for our first ever visit to the falls looking up.
June The family gathers and Taylor graduates high school at WWVA and flies out the next day for his job at summer camp in Wisconsin.
July We pick many pounds of luscious local cherries. The new garden blooms. Elissa and David lose another precious baby at 20 weeks. They cry. We cry.
Aug We spent six days camping at Takhlakh Lake near Mount Adams. Five children with us for the week, and joined by four more children and two significant others for the weekend. That made 13 of us for feasting, playing in the water, hiking and such good times. The water was warm. There were no mosquitoes. The woods were alive with huckleberries.
Theron wins “Best of Show” Youth division for his watercolor at the County Fair.
Sep School starts. Sierra and Taylor at WWU, Caleb a Junior and Theron a Freshmen at WWVA. Willa in 8th grade at Rogers School. Rylee alone in homeschool.
Hannah flies away for the school year in Cameroon. Her student mission post is at a small hospital in Buea, on the slopes of 14,000ft Mt Cameroon.
Oct With one weeks training, Hannah becomes a pharmacist in Africa. 6’ 7” Caleb makes varsity starter on the WWVA basketball team.
Nov Out of 15 violinists, Willa makes first chair in her school orchestra. All hands are called for applesauce day. We start with a 900-lb bin of Fuji’s and make 262 quarts of sauce. Nine of our children are home for Thanksgiving. We miss Elissa and Hannah.
Dec We find a Christmas tree farm in the Blue Mountains and bring home a tree. Festive plans are a-foot for Christmas Joys.
Wrap-up A flood-tide of teenagers in the house give us much to be thankful for. We look forward to getting your updates. May the true Spirit of Christmas be with you and your family.
With Love from all of us; Art & Ronda, David & Elissa, Brenden, Bethani, Sierra, Hannah, Ian, Taylor, Caleb (17), Theron (16), Willa (14), Rylee (9), Mossen (5), Cheyenne (3)
Favorite Books of 2013
- Art: Why the West Rules – For Now by Morris, Free Man of Color by Hambly
- David: Emergency War Surgery
- Elissa: Leaving the Saints by Beck
- Brenden: Animal Farm by Orwell
- Bethani: Kisses from Katie by Davis, Killing Lincoln by O'Reilly
- Mossen: Just Me and My Dad
- Cheyenne: Bernstien Bears Visit the Dentist
