I envy you the ability to write a letter that doesn’t just sound braggy. Somehow when you throw Clarks into the mix, it always ends up sounding like we’re bragging.

THAT is what I have always disliked about OUR writing a family letter. (Especially when everything else Jeff and I are doing is intended to take our children’s attention off themselves…it just seems like we’re making our own job harder.) No matter how we have done it, our pride just seeps through every sentence.

Sweetie, I think many people would envy you the amount of things you have already completed for the holidays. Most folks aren’t even thinking in that direction yet.

I pray you will find that sense of peaceful rest, as you complete your holiday plans!

Your story about the job problems…glad that is over for you! Very frustrating indeed. I married an only son, a firstborn as an only daughter, first born. But I grew up in an extremely male dominated house…and my dad has always felt females are most inferior. So I suppose I may not have been the usual oldest only daughter either. And my husband was not the usual oldest only son. His parents worshipped his sister and he was made to as well. We were really not prepared either for marriage, not in hardly any way. So it is a miracle that we are here today, still together…in fact, it came finally when we began our current faith path that both of us now know what our roles are and better how to relate to each other. We only wish we had known these things while our children were growing up. But we can still tell others…so I guess there is always some value in all experience.