This one is on Christmas card stock, typed in very small elite type and very close lines, with four pictures... our house in Blytheville, Roni as a Brownie (they started in 2nd grade, still, and there weren't Daisies), the three kids at Hallowe'en, Monica as Raggedy Ann, S. as a clown, and Roni as a ghost(? filmy white costume, white mask... no, I see my caption... princess. I made these costumes then), and the family, including kitten Zonker. It's all very faded, but I look very young. That house was probably the best we'll ever own, but Roni discovered it for sale a couple of months ago for only a couple of thousand more than we bought it for.

The merriest of Christmases and the happiest of new years!

1973 was a year of separation for us. Rich spent 6 months in Guam, from Easter till October.

Jan took the children to Six Flags over mid-America near St. Louis in June [ there were only three Six Flags at the time, this was a Big Deal. One thing I remember is we saw a lizard at the motel, to everyone's delight. It was a test trip to see if I could do the longer one.], and in August they all drove to Wyoming for a two-week visit. [The drive across Kansas is a Very Long Day. I saw a lot of my friends as well as family, it was a nice time.]

The children took swimming lessons, and Jan was an aide during the rest of the summer. [The following year I took, and passed, life-saving which was pretty exciting with the teens swimming circles around me.] Roni read 255 books and Monica 96, for (would you believe?) second and third places in the base library summer reading program. Their prizes were magazine subscriptions.

Rich found the house last December---- Jan and the children spent Christmas in Pittsburgh while he was acting squadron commander here.

The USA seemed strange at first and it was astonishing to browse through the supermarkets. Such choices --- and such prices!! [I'm not sure what I mean, but I suspect we were in an inflationary period and things were expensive.]

Jan still misses England though she's beginning to lose her accent [ On the Wyoming trip, I could hear the western twang and they thought I was Brit. I was stunned to have lost my accent. ]... she says perhaps she'll like Arkansas better with a husband home, a working air conditioner --- and a job! She starts work as a kindergarten teacher in January. [ This is one of the times I thought God was directing me... I had heard from someone that I should be a teacher. I applied to Arkansas State for education classes and wasn't good enough (!) so I pretty well gave it up, and in *ONE DAY* I got three calls from people offering me teaching jobs. I'd helped at the Catholic School so that wasn't too surprising, but the public school (jr. high, eeeeeeek!) was a total bolt from the blue. I did pretty well teaching, except I had to have the principal come in to teach vowels. "What rhymes with sail?" "Bail" --and they meant the kind of bail that rings. Some mothers were worried when I would use words like "carnivorous"... no it's not on the test but I think kids should be exposed to the idea that there's a lot of interesting information out there. The principal wanted me to continue, but Rich was out of a job and we were looking to go somewhere, anywhere, else so I didn't. My first purchase with my OWN money? A piano for $200!]

Veronica joined the Brownies. She marched in a parade.

Monica graduated from kindergarten and has the diploma to prove it.

The girls go to the nearby Catholic School and have made lots of new friends. They sound native!

S. goes to nursery school three mornings a week and is learning a lot.

He had a pizza birthday party when he turned 4. He's sometimes a picky eater, but never with pizza!

The whole family went to Pittsburgh in March and had a good time. Even though Monica, Roni, Steven, and Jan, in that order, got chicken pox!

We went to Ringling Brothers circus in Memphis and the children were asked to participate--they rode around in the cart like--well, like politicians--smiling and waving, and Jan had remembered the camera!

Did you know inflation has hit the tooth fairy, too? 25¢!

Among the goodies Rich brought back from Guam was a pachinko machine, sort of a cross between a slot machine and vertical pinball! Jan and the kids are addicts.

Jan's mother drove here with her from Pittsburgh, and came again to visit for Thanksgiving. We have had other visitors too.[One was one of Rich's ushers. He stayed in the house while Rich was gone, and the neighbors were realllllllly interested. "Will Rich's brother be staying long?" "Oh, he's not Rich's brother!" Heh.] We like company!

We bought a '74 Dodge van for a recreational vehicle. Still have the VW squareback, which few things in life work better than. [I managed to be the meat of a hit-run sandwich in 1978 in Sacramento to total this one. Sniff.]

The girls had a Hallowe'en supper and party. 26 guests came! Rich and Jan survived. [Rich stepped through the ceiling the week before, and I surprised myself by not saying "you idiot! My beautiful house!!" but instead "are you all right?" We incorporated the hole into the decorations... hanging a skeleton out of it.]

We added fluffy kitten Zonker to our menagerie. Sometime pets included turtles and a snake (a small one).

Besides floods and tornadoes, Arkansas has a fabulous assortment of creepy crawlies. Ick.

But, to be fair, there are the Ozarks, too. The whole family was impressed with Blanchard Springs Caverns [Monica, in the elevator: "Are we going to Hell?"] and the Ozark Folk Center. This was a November trip which wound up in Altus, Oklahoma, of all places, visiting a friend.

May there be no shortages of the important things at your house, but a surplus of Christmas cheer, joys of the season, and wonder at the remarkable goodness of God.

(signatures.)