Annual Family Letter

      I finished composing our annual letter that we send out to family and friends today. Thought I'd share it here in case we missed somebody who might be interested.

Happy New Year!    Well it’s a little later than usual that this annual letter is going out but you know what they say. Looking back, 2011 was another year of change at the Kreutzkamp’s, but this time not so much with Mom and Dad, but for our children.

David & Rachel moved into their new home at the end of January. It’s in a newer subdivision in Kitchener (about 9 years old) and has lots of space. We all had a nice time there when they hosted the family for Thanksgiving. In the summer they ventured into Algonquin park for their first canoe trip on their own (and had a good time too!). 

Josh started another new computer programming job in March but this company is also in Oakville so he continues to commute. He really likes his coworkers and continues to freelance on the side doing web hosting and helping develop a new iPhone app. He and Terry tried to get out golfing a bit this past summer. 

Alison graduated from WLU in sociology in April but had decided to take the next year off from school. In October she and her friend Julie began renting an apartment in Kitchener. Alison continues to work 3/4 time at the pool and In December she applied to go to teacher’s college next year. This fall it’s been great getting to know her new boyfriend Pete, who lives in Newmarket (so they’’re making lots of trips back and forth).

Joel finished up at the restaurant in August but completing culinary college was delayed until January (actually he starts next week, which means he’s moving to Toronto to go to George Brown for 4 months). This past fall he took some high school courses and worked part time at a grocery store. He’s enjoyed 2 trips this year - the Dominican Republic in March and snowboarding in Whistler over Christmas.

So Terry & Beth are definitely feeling the nest emptying. We fill our time with reading good books, going out to movies, visiting with family and friends, and enjoying music concerts (a highlight this year was having Randy Stonehill play in our living room - we’ve been listening to his music for over 30 years). Plus we try to find times when we can get the entire family together to share a meal - which of course can be a challenge, but is wonderful when we can pull it off.

We’ve become more involved at our new church as well, attending 2 weekly small group gatherings, going on retreats, helping out with Kid’s Camp in August, and spending a few days at the denomination’s Camp Kahquah near Magnetawan. We’ve also really enjoyed leading some children’s music on a semi-regular basis on Sunday mornings.

Holiday trips this year included:

• an overnight stay in Niagara Falls on Family Day weekend in February - a nice time until Beth fell skating and hit her head pretty hard
• spending most of March break with Mom and Dad in St. Pete’s, Florida - they were great hosts and we had a wonderful time.
• attending the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina in June - lots of interesting speakers who challenged us to look at our faith in new ways
• a week renting the Wiseman cottage near Huntsville - it’s always relaxing and beautiful, and nice when some of the kids can join us
• a trip north in August to visit relatives - great to reconnect with folks we don’t get to see often enough

Terry decided to start a weekly online journal (or ‘blog’) this year so you can read about any of these things (and much more) in a lot more detail at: 

www.tkreutzkamp.blogspot.com (he’d love it if you’d visit the website!)

So overall we’re very grateful for another year of growth and grace. And we’re also thankful for this chance to connect in this small way (that is, through this letter) with people who ae important to us. And even though we might not communicate with you a lot, you are definitely in our thoughts and prayers, and we sincerely wish you a blessed 2012.