Jennifer Williams Wise

Well, I think Brian's idea of posting a "Christmas card"/update here on the RHS site is a good one, so here I go...

2009 was a year of big changes for us. The company my husband had worked for for 13 years decided to shut down the division he had been working for, so after some job hunting and a couple of offers, we decided to move our family 2,700 miles to the other side of the country! We left the beautiful, BEAUTIFUL Pacific Northwest and headed for upstate New York! We miss a lot of things about our old stomping grounds, but we are closer to Kevin's parents (in Michigan), so that has been wonderful. I am learning to live with snow and cold again. I have to say... I didn't miss it. But since I love to travel, I am looking forward to exploring the East--Boston, Philly, NYC, here I come! Speaking of travel, we did have a really cool drive across the country when we moved. We hit several national parks (including Mt. Rushmore) and really enjoyed seeing this amazing country. In our Christmas card this year, I summed up our year in numbers:

The Wise Family 2009: Our Year in Numbers

5th birthday celebrated by Ethan
1 new job
12th birthday celebrated by Preston
3 days Preston spent in eastern Washington pulling a handcart on a pioneer trek
1 children’s theater musical (“Brigadoon”) Belinda was in
13 years living in Vancouver, WA (well, minus the 2 Israel years)
3,091 total miles we drove to move from Washington to New York
13 states and 1 Canadian province we drove through on the way
7 days to make the trip
12 extended family members we stopped to see along the way
30 days in an apartment while house hunting
2 bedrooms in the apartment
3 lucky kids who got to spend a week and a half of that 30 days at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Michigan
5 people who don’t ever want to live in a 2-bedroom apartment again
about 80 houses looked at/walked through
1 house sold
1 house purchased
8 plates of goodies brought by welcoming neighbors
2 new schools
#402 the bus Ethan takes to kindergarten
9th birthday celebrated by Belinda
4 parents (grandparents) who have come to visit already!
15th wedding anniversary celebrated by Kevin & Jennifer
and especially for you:
1 guest bedroom in our new house--come visit!

(I did post one picture from this trip down at the bottom on my profile page.)

Hope everyone is well. Merry Christmas!