Christmas 2005

We have thoroughly enjoyed our first full year with both of us retired. Everyone says it, and I know it sounds trite, but it seems that we are busier than ever. Elaine is active in the Abilene Woman’s Club and plays dinner music for them on a regular basis.  She also continues to work with children’s choirs at church and spends a good bit of time each day practicing the piano and composing. Charlie is a student again! He is taking a Spanish class at Hardin-Simmons and his lack of success in that endeavor is evidenced by the fact that this entire Christmas letter is written in English!

The past year included a significant milestone as we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary on October 2nd. We celebrated the event with Tom Lovvorn and his wife Anna and Pat Bonds and his wife Valerie. Tom was Charlie’s roommate in college and Pat was the best man at our wedding. We celebrated by spending the weekend at Lookout Estates in Ruidoso, New Mexico. The final celebration of the event, however, does not take place until February when we take a fourteen day Australia - New Zealand cruise. You will just have to wait until next year’s Christmas letter to hear about that!

Sean is still living in Dallas. He works through a “temp agency” and most of the time works at the corporate headquarters of Baylor Medical Center. He also had two articles published this year in a business magazine. Of course, the main focus of his life continues to be music. He is still with the band The pAper chAse. They had a couple of tours this year including one in Europe and have a new album coming out soon. He has also been doing some solo work playing the piano and singing and has several piano students.

We continue to be amazed at the way God is blessing the Sermons4Kids ministry. There are now more than 29,000 subscribers in 130 countries receiving Charlie’s sermons each week by email. In addition, the web site will have approximately one million visitors this year. Consejo LatinoAmericano de Iglesia, an organization in South America, is now publishing the Spanish version of the sermons on their web site and is also translating them into Portuguese. A few weeks ago, a woman in Latvia began translating the sermons into Latvian and publishes them on her web site.

It has been a wonderful year. We hope that it has been for you and your family as well. We wish you a joyous Christmas and pray for God’s richest blessings upon you in the year to come. Or, as Charlie would say…

¡Feliz Navidad y un Año Nuevo próspero!

Elaine and Charlie