Holiday Greetings!!!!

This "card" hopes to find you and yours well!

We made it home from England ahead of schedule. In fact, we are currently staying 3 hours southwest of home on the Maine/New Hampshire border. The lighthouse above is just down the street from us. We were planning on spending this whole year in England, maybe longer. But Jon's work schedule became unbearable. It's one thing to pull 14 hours a day for a deadline, but not when it becomes regular hours. He finally asked to be transferred to a new client. April 1st they sent us back to the states, along with 3/4 of the team. Everyone was glad to be off that project. The project was suppose to continue through the end, but everyone was sent home by June.

Before we left, we made one more big trip out. We went and saw Anne Hathoway's house, Shakespeare's birthplace, Oxford, Avesbury Circle and Stonehenge.

The first picture is the Hathoway house. You can see how thick the thatch roof is. The gardens were lovely. The house is full of antiques and reproductions.





Shakespeare house didn't impress as much. There was very little to see. They had a show of sorts before you went over to the house. It was rather Disneyified.


  

England is full of stone circles. One the best we saw was in Avesbury, west of London. The circle isn't small. It goes around the entire village. Unlike the famous Stonehendge, you can walk right up to these rocks, which vary in size. Some the size of a large dog, while others are at least 12 feet if not taller.

 

And of course the infamous Stonehenge, could not leave England without seeing it. Unfortunately, you can no longer get close to the rocks. The guard is as close as one can get. You can also see the height of the rocks. Across the road is a flock of sheep. They are the sheep of the original Legend of Stonehenge Sheep. But we left England before we had a chance to write it.

Our first landing back in the states was in Houston, Texas. We had left the RV there in hopes of selling it. Instead we picked it up and visited with some long time friends and headed for DFW. Jon started work pretty soon after returning, and flew up to New Hampshire. Diane and I stayed longer to visit with family and friends. Then the RV started having issues, so we ended up staying longer than planned. Jon flew back and we started our drive up to New Hampshire. We visited with a family along the way. Their eldest daughter and Diane did a writing class that I led, and did some literature classes together, and are currently doing a writing club twice a week. Skype is a wonderful thing. After we left them in Kentucky, the RV broke twice, so we were delayed more. But we finally made it. 

Through May and June nothing much really happened. We stayed in a long term hotel near Jon's office. When we stayed in the RV before, we had two older cats. This time we have two younger ones. Amore is middle aged at 7, so she does fine. Mai-lee was OK, but Chula needs running space. So the hotel gave him more flying space. We took several short trips to check out areas to possibly move to, and visited with homeschooling families whenever we could. One of our trips was up the Franconia, NH for the Lupine Festival for our anniversary. We go every year we can. It's simply breath taking. Lupine's are like bluebonnets - same family - but are usually 2 to 3.5 feet tall.

In July, Jon's company sent him to CA for a meeting and Diane and I headed for Washington state. There is a camp there - Satori - where she spent a wonderful week. When it was over, she was totally exhausted, and ready to sleep for a week. Then go back again. She is already counting down the days until she returns next year. This is a brainiac camp. It was very intense and she loved it! The classes covered everything from ballroom dancing, to art, to computer languages, medical diseases, and a whole class on fonts. She discovered she loves ballroom dancing and is quite good at it. One night they had a time travelers ball. Jon's mom made her a medieval costume. Jon was able to join me, and we toured the state while she was at camp. 

He returned back to work and Diane and I stayed a few more days. We had Diane evaluated while in Seattle. I've always known there was a piece of the puzzle missing, but we have never been able to track it down. Since she was so tired from camp, she could not compensate as well. Her evaluator told me it was no wonder we hadn't figured it out. They see many cases like her, where kids have been tested and such to no avail, only to find out it's stealth dyslexia. She now has an official diagnosis of dyslexia (for reading), dysgraphia (for writing), and dyscalculia (for math). As serious as it all sounds, Diane is doing just fine. She will graduate from high school this May at the ripe old age of 16. Since we have always homeschooled, we have been able to accommodate her needs. The last few years have become harder for her as she is no longer able to just muscle her way through things. She has started several therapies that will make it easier for her, and with an official diagnosis, she will be able to get accommodations in college. I felt very vindicate in how we homeschool, as most of the things the evaluator said we need to do or look for in a college, we do at home naturally. Because it suits her best. So to all those in the world who have criticized our homeschooling and how we homeschool - HA! The experts say it is exactly what she has needed all along.

While we were gone we had some cosmetic work done to the RV and moved back into her when we returned. We spent the rest of the summer living on the beach. Here you can see the view out our front window. It was lovely being so close to the water, that we could walk on the beach whenever we wanted. We did have to take the cats, especially Chula, out frequently to either walk on the lead or in their playpen that we built while in Texas. He needs a lot of stimulation, or is impossible to live with. I had a picture of him in the playpen, but I can't find it.

Diane's Latin class that we had so much hope for at the end of last year, turned into a nightmare. The teacher decided against doing an Independent Study Program, after she offered it to Diane. Things could not be resolved, so Diane dropped the class at midterm with an A. Unfortunately it left a very bad taste in her mouth. It took months, but she finally agreed to continue with me. I was brushing up on Latin skills, that I don't have, when I ran across another Latin teacher. After much back and forth, Diane finally agreed to try his class this fall. It has been a smash. And she is looking forward to the second semester next year. He has promised her harder work as well. And has sent me two Latin story books for her to translate. Her evaluators are very interested in this, as dyslexics don't do languages. But there is a small subset of them that do languages very well. I think he told me that in the twenty years they have been doing evaluations, they have met 4 or 5 kids in this subset. They want her to take another language this summer to see how it goes.



In September Diane turned Sweet Sixteen. We went out to dinner and a play, with cake and presents back at the RV.





September also began my health journey. I have been diagnosed with several bacterial infections. It has caused all sorts of symptoms or some of the symptoms might lead to something else that cause the infections. It's a chicken or the egg kind of thing. I hopefully bottomed out in Oct and seem to be back on the way up and getting stronger day by day. At my last appointment, she was saying at least May for complete healing - if I'm lucky. I'm on a strict diet and more supplements and pills than food. Jon says I'm on the bread and water diet, with no bread. The most frustrating this is I can do so little. I'm not use to just sitting around all the time, but I have little choice. Some days I can't even hold up a book to read or be able to concentrate on the words even if I could. Thankfully I've had Diane home with me to help me. Or I would be in real trouble.


In October we moved into a rental house for the winter. It appears Jon will be here until end of Jan, and then we don't know. But until then, we managed to find a place on the water again. Here is the view out the back of the house and I can see the ocean from the couch. Up until Dec, the weather has been warm enough in the house, that we could open the windows for a few hour each day. We have lots of south face windows, and Maine does sunshine in the winter.

I'm not moving much and not a whole is getting done or adventures happening. I was able to find enough recipes that I could have so we had a good Thanksgiving. I'm already working on what we can do for our Christmas dinner. Fortunately Jon is willing to do most of the cooking, as I am not able to do any. Diane helps in between her studies and extra classes. Next year will be even better as I regain my strength and stamina.


Down the road from the lighthouse is this Maine Christmas tree - it's made out of lobster traps.It sums up Maine pretty well.

And we just got some exciting news. Diane and Jon started a ballroom dance class last month. We tried to find her a teen group, but were not able too. The good part is that their instructor has just asked her to be his partner in the Pro Am Dance competition next month. Pretty impressive since she has about 14 hours of instruction in dancing, some of these people have been practicing all year. Diane is not a competitor and tends to avoid competition as a result. But these generally raise a lot of money for charity, so she's willing to try. The best part for her is that she will have to learn the whole dance routines, so more new steps and dancing time.

We wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year, with a couple of pleasant surprises.

Merry Christmas 2011 and Happy New Year!!!

From the New England Fenner's

Happy Christmas and Happy New Years from England!

So much has been happening this last year, that I gave up the idea of trying to blog as it happened. I'll try to do better next year, but don't hold your breath. Let's face it, I don't get much down time. :-)

January - March was spent in Montreal. The hard part about this was the back and forth with the client about how long we would be there. Each week they changed their minds. It made it very hard to get comfortable and enjoy ourselves, when we knew we may need to pack up and leave in a couple days. While there, we managed to see quite a few things. We went to the Biodome several times, which is a combination zoo and aquarium, that was built in the arena that held the Olympics in 1976. While at the Biodome, Jon decided his phone wasn't clean enough and dropped it in with the starfish to give it a bath.
 

Behind the Biodome was the Botanical Gardens. Since we were there in the winter, we just went the the greenhouses. But it was nice to go somewhere that was green in the middle of winter. We also attended their special butterfly festival, where they loaded one greenhouse full of butterflies for a few weeks.

Diane and I also made several trips to the local Museum of Art. We were fortunate enough to catch a Waterhouse exhibit. All of us also went to the Biosphere. Which is an ecological museum - or in that general line. It was nice, but really aimed at younger kids.

In February, we met up with an email homeschooling family and had a great time sledding. The mom had tutored Diane in some math the summer before. In exchange, Diane played mother's helper to their five year old daughter - over Skype. Both the girl and her younger brother decided to adopt Diane as a big sister. She has quite a following with the 8 and younger set.

For March we headed home for a couple of weeks. As you can see from our upsidedown Chula, nothing gets in the way of a really comfortable nap. And for the record, he sleeps on his back frequently. On our trip back from Montreal, we lucked into seeing some bears. The pictures aren't easy to make out, but it's a mama and her two cubs. 



April found us back in Montreal. Sometime Jon would stay there, while Diane and I stayed in Maine for a few weeks, getting caught up on things there. And other times, we would all be in Montreal. Finally, the client didn't need Jon anymore. So we took a week and bit and headed to Texas. We were planning on heading to London soon, so we drove the RV down to Houston, to a consignment place. If figured if we were in England for a year or two, there was no sense in keeping the RV. We are still waiting for her to sell, though, so maybe we are suppose to keep her. At least there, she is being looked after, started, etc. In May, the cats' paperwork was all but done. We just needed the final date for when we were heading for England.

 After arriving back in Maine, Jon got word to return to Montreal for another month. Our June England trip got bounced until July. June is lupine time in New Hampshire. Lupines are in the same family as blue bonnets, but they are the tall version and they come in many colors. Franconia Notch is known for their lupines. This field was purple/blue ones. Diane and I went back with him for a week and meet our old friends and some new homeschooling friends. Diane spent 3 days swimming and at the park playing with kids ages 2 to 16.  Then we returned to Maine and packed for London. We finally got official word and left on July 7th.

The Flight over was long but no issues. We almost didn't make it in to the country, though. The customs guard was not happy with Jon's work pass. It was good for 6 months, but most people come and go on it. We were staying the full 3 months. He finally got on the phone to the company's lawyer and an hour later informed us, that it wasn't quite proper, but he'd allow it this time. His parting remarks to us as he stamped the papers were that homeschooling (or home educating as it is called here) was illegal and we needed to make other arrangements. I knew better having checked the laws out and emailed with several home educators here in England. I just smiled and said we would check into it. In case anyone is interested, the home educating community is alive and well in England.

The cats, on the other hand, breezed through customs with no issue. Well, the staff decided the cats were awful sweet and were thinking of keeping them, but the turned them over. Especially when Chula started happily chatting to us about his trip. I think our stimulus craving cat enjoy the roar of the engines. The girls were fine too. No one seem upset or stress, but they weren't nearly as impressed. And in case anyone is interested, cats do get jet lag. There is nothing sadder than watching a cat fall asleep up against the hotel window watching the birds. He just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, but he certain wanted to. It was a good thing they got jet lag, as the first hotel we stayed in was tiny. There was no room for a 14 month old flying Siamese to fly. By the time he recovered from jet lag and was ready to zoom, we moved to a bigger place.

We started off staying in Islngton, while we looked around for somewhere to stay. Even so, we managed to get in some tourist sightseeing. We made it to Hyde Park, a small amount of the British Museum (we have been back twice more and still have much to see), Trafalgar Square, the Julibee bridge and went past the London Eye. We even managed to make it to my friends' summer party and move to our new place.

In August we also made it to the sea side and Diane started her online Latin class. We found out our new small city or large town has an 800 year old market. If you have ever seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks you have an idea of what I'm talking about. It's been in the same place that long, but the structure has changed - dead give was the parking garage on top. In August we made it to Kew Gardens (the Royal Botanical gardens), Diane and I visited Greenwich park with another home education family, and all of us went to the Natural History Museum. We only got to see one section of it as the crowds were "horrid". Diane and I took in Tate Modern - which was an experience. Diane likes modern art, but this was even too far out there for her. But we got to walk past the Globe after wards, so that helped make up for it

My step-sister's husband's half sister (say that 10 times fast) is also living in England. We got in touch with each other and she took us to a little county fair. They had an exhibit on bugs, and Diane proved once again she is her mother's child. But best of all, she got Diane into Green Bunch. Green Bunch is an organization of volunteer teens who work at the various reserves. Diane is working at the bird sanctuary in Abberton one Saturday a month. And by work, I mean get out the saws, hammers, and nails. Diane's group is making an outdoor learning area for the little kids. They have clear the path of brambles, built a fence and gate, removed trees, made a fire pit area with seating logs. Diane didn't help with all of that, as the project was well under way when she started. But the clearing of brambles, fence building, and tree remove can now be put on her resume! Best part is the teens want to be there, so they jump in quickly to work and frequently are slow to leave.
Diane has been loving it, and wishing it was more often. We rounded off the month we a train ride to the sea side!

September brought Diane's 15th birthday. With her attending Green Bunch, and it not being easy to get to by train or bus, we have been getting a rent car on those weekends. Jon is now use to driving on the wrong side of the road, from the wrong side of the car. England's countryside reminds us greatly of Maine - until you find a thatch roof. And the skinny roads are also a give way, that something is up. But while Diane has been in sawing and fence building, Jon and I have driven a huge portion of Essex county and some of Suffolk as well.

We took a day and did the Buckingham Palace tour. The Queen was Scotland, which is why the Palace was open for tours. We did not time it right and get to see the changing of the guard. They don't do the big change every day -only odd or even days, and we weren't there on the right one. We also got in with a home education group tour, and went to Parliament - both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. They tried to do a tour of Big Ben as well. They didn't get enough for a tour, but then we found out that since we aren't British citizens, they wouldn't have let us in. But we did walk by it on the way to Parliament - very hard not to as it is between the tube and Parliament. After the tour, we walked by 10 Downing Street, but the Prime Minister didn't invite us in for tea.

We found Diane a teen group of home educators to play with. With them we went to the Royal Opera and saw Don Pasquale. It was the first opera that any of us had been too. Fortunately, Jon has been able to take the odd afternoon off, and has been able to attend many of these great things with us. The Royal Opera is beautiful, unfortunately none of our pictures came out. After the opera, we wandered through Covent Garden and down to Cleopatra's Needle and the Sphinx' on the Thames. We also went to see the play Wicked for Diane's birthday. On the home education front, she joined a drama group to replace the workshops we used to do at home. I also started leading a writing group for her and a friend from Kentucky. We only get to meet on Skype once a week, but by the end of the program they will have written a book a piece.

In October, we took it slow. We went down to the white cliffs of Dover. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go over to the castle. But we did hike out along the cliffs. Mai-lee gave us quite a scare that month. We had to take the cats in for rabies shots to keep their passports current. Yes, they have their own passports now. Mai-lee reacted violent to the shot. In fact, we were afraid of losing her. They were able to give her the counter shot and it took. But there were several hours of wait and worry. She pulled through fine, but now all shots could cause a major issue for her. Then we spent Halloween at a party in north London.

In November, we went back to Maine. Since it looks like we will be here quite awhile, and then not returning to Maine right away after we leave England, we decided to sell the house. It was a bittersweet decision at best. Jon had to go home to redo his visa anyway. So that was a good time to go back and pack up the house. Selling in winter, especially in Maine, isn't the easiest thing to do in the best of economies. But we've already had a few showings, and now it's ready for spring. We made it back to London in time to have jet lag for Thanksgiving.

That brings us to December. So far we have been to the Book of the Dead exhibit at the British Museum with another couple of home educating families. Diane had a commercial she had to make for her Latin class (see it here). Most of it was made at the Museum of London. Nothing like showing real Roman things in a Roman commercial. And Diane and I got to see the Roman Wall for the first time. Jon passes it on his way to work.

Right now we have no idea how long we will be in England. Several time frames have been mentioned, but no real facts. Most likely we will be back in the States next Christmas or shortly there after. We have several things look forward to including spending Christmas Day and Boxing Day with friends in England. Seeing more of England and going to Ireland, Wales and Scotland - and if we are lucky over to Europe. Diane's Latin class is going to slow for her. It seems she has a real knack for Latin and possibly languages in general. So after much back and forth with her instructor, we are coming up with a new plan. Possibly an Independent Study Program - which means the sky will be the limit. We are also going to Disney in the spring with another family.

We hope this very long newsletter finds you and yours happy and content - and looking as forward to the new year as we are!

The English (temporarily) Fenner's

And we're OFF!!

Saturday morning, we finished the house sitting details and hit the road. Actually that was the plan. What happened was, I got food poisoning on Tues, which delayed packing. Even so, we were out the door by 3:30pm on Saturday. Not too bad.

The cats did great. Amore, who hates the carrier, announced her displeasure now and then. Mai-lee was quiet almost the whole way. And Chula, our sensory seeking flying cat, fell asleep two miles from home and stay that way for almost the whole trip.

The weather was good and so were the roads. We had about 2 hours of less than perfect conditions - the last hour on our side going up the mountain, and the first hour on the Canadian side coming off the mountain. Border crossing was a breeze - I think he might have been glad for the company. We had traveled straight up 27 and saw few drivers. The last hour or so, there was us, 3 moose, and the guy following us.

Jon and Diane were very excited to see their first moose. I saw mine a year ago fall, when I was working on the Wolf Survey Project (we went looking for wolves and instead found a bear, a snow owl, and 2 moose - so much for the guide). This time it was a mom with offspring, slipping down the road to find their trail. Then a few miles later there was a young male off to the side of road watching us - well, he does own the road, why shouldn't he watch?

Within 15 min's of crossing the border, we saw a brilliantly shining falling star. We took all this as a good omen, and arrived in Montreal sans problems at 11:30pm. We locked the cats in the bathroom with food and litter box and unloaded the rented minivan. Then released the prisoners.

Chula shot out of the bathroom like a load pistol and dove into the bedroom. Mai-lee stood at the bathroom door and considered her options. Amore was no where to be seen. Chula blasted out of the bedroom and zoomed into the next one, while Mai-lee enter the first cautiously and a bit shyly. Chula was on to the living room and kitchen and still no sign of Amore. As he raced back to the bathroom (to start it all over again), Mai-lee headed for the second bedroom. That, in a nut shell, is their personalities to a T. Amore did make it out of the bathroom - unnoticed, made the rounds, had a snack, and was tuck in under Diane's bed by the time we made it to bed.

I was surprised at how quickly the cats calmed down for the night - always a bad sign for sleeping. Around 3am Amore confronted me eyeball to eyeball (nearly put me on the ceiling, I might add) and had several things to say about this whole ordeal. I doubt any of them could be repeated in polite company. Around 4am, Chula climbed in between my legs and demanded his portion (put feet on legs and push!).

At 5am, Mai-lee couldn't sleep anymore and brought me her favorite pipe cleaner to share. All three of our cats fetch to some degree or other. Mai-lee's usually drops it with in 6 feet of you, and loses interested after the second toss. So I tossed it for her. She must of been feeling needy - 15 min's later I was still tossing it for her, as she kept bring it back to my pillow or shoulder. Went to the bathroom, and by the time I got back she had gone on to other things, but left me the soggy pipe cleaner on my pillow. Feel the love!

Sunday, we slept late and spent several hours arranging our new abode. We walked 3 min's to the nearest metro to get metro cards and check out the mini-mall. Then spent the rest as a down day. We were still tired from the driving.

Today, wasn't very exciting either. Although I did find a pipe cleaner tucked under the sheets with me this morning. Diane and I hung out at the apartment and Jon went to work. Oh, and when the maid came, Chula took an impromptu walk (a dash really) down the hallway. It certainly spiced up the maid's day! Tomorrow, Diane and I are off to somewhere exciting - as soon as we choose where we are going.

So far I only have one complaint - it's DRY! Maine in the winter is dry. This is DRY! Between yesterday and today, I've drank enough water to float the Titanic, and I'm still thirsty. It's so bad that we are leaving a simmering pot (sometimes a rolling boil) of water of the stove - constantly. Well, as long as someone is in the apartment and awake anyway.

Sorry I don't have any fabulous pictures to share. I thought about taking some of the moose – but since my camera was packed in the nether reaches of the van and it was dark, I decided to skip it. I didn't think anyone really cared to see pictures of us unpacking either. Next time I should have some, though.

Au Revoir!

Winter post

Well, I had hoped to do a better job on posting to the blog now that we are settled in a house. So far, that hasn't happened...but I'll keep trying. I last left off with the end of June - on to July...

Unlike last summer where we had lots of sun, but I was too busy at the theater to water much - this year we had so much rain, nothing grew. Well we did get about a dozen potatoes, some carrots and peas, and a few straggly beans. But that was it. Very sad.

And our hopes for playmates for Amore became extremely strained. However, by the end of August we took possession of 2 four month old Siamese mix kittens. Chula is our flame point male, and Mai-lee is our seal point with white mittens female. Amore was quite disgusted with the whole mess and went from eating little to not eating at all. But never fear, the kittens soon won her over. These days they can be found frequently in a pile of legs and noses. The bad part is that Amore is quite little. So at 7 mos old, both kittens out weigh and out size her. Chula is as happy in the air as he is on the ground, much to Amore's dislike, as she is usually his landing pad.

Since the job that Jon was really hoping for didn't come through, he was traveling a bit with interviews. Life was getting very complicated, so to make it easier Diane and I started cutting back on what we were doing, like leaving the library after 6 months. We had hoped it would just be a short break, but it won't be turning out that way.

October came and we started Llama Training with girls - 2 four footed ones, and 3 two footed ones. Diane talked another friend into joining them, so I was helping all three prepare for the spring fair. Both 4 footed and 2 footed girls took well to each other, and things were off to a good start. I also did two more kid workshops with our costume lady. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun and learned a new part of theater. And Diane participated in a drawing class with the local homeschool group and took some private sculpting lessons from a homeschool mom. She continues to spread in her art wings.

We also had auditions for our winter play. Diane went off for the lead in Best Christmas Pageant Ever!, but landed a supporting role instead. Since Jon was still off and on with interviews he passed, but I took on the role of stage manager. It was my first time as stage manager, so instead of picking an easy play - I picked one that has 20 kids. And I had no assigned helper (kid wrangler). Fortunately, I encouraged some of the adult cast and a few of the parents to help me out. And while that was going on, so was a lot of other things.

While Jon was gone on one of this interviews, 3 raccoons got into the barn and got about half of Diane's flock. She's now down to 8 hens. I was surprised as they walked right by the llamas, and the llamas just watched them go in. Llamas general get upset and attack if strange animals get in the field or paddock area. But I guess raccoons are cat-like enough that the girls didn't considered them a threat.

Good news - Jon was finally hired by Guidewire. Bad news - it's a traveling job and he will be gone a lot. So the Fenner Family's next adventure is starting. Diane and I will be going with him frequently. The advantage to homeschooling is - you can do it anywhere. The bad news is he will only be able to fill one year of his two year vice-presidency term of the Maine Llama Association.

Diane and I also attempted Nanowrimo again this year (writing 50,000 words on a novel). I also ran 3 kid support groups to get more kids doing it. I managed to limp through the support groups, but had to give up on it myself. Last year I did because of Freya and this year because of the llamas.

Jon spent all of the month of Nov and part of Dec out in California doing training. Just before he left Willow, our young llama, fell and hurt her eye. We got her basically recovered from that before he left. Then while he was gone we discovered it was much more serious. After a couple of weeks of intensive care, we had to put her down.

Diane had to give up going to SPLASH at MIT this year as well. I just couldn't manage to get her to Boston during the middle of all this. Which is a shame as she was signed up for many great classes again this year.

But the homeschoolers came through for me. Just before Jon left for CA, we had 4 cords of wood delivered. We managed to 1 stack out of the way. So a bunch of teens from our homeschool group came one Sat morning and finished the 3 cords in just under an hour!

Since llamas will literally die of loneliness, Panda can't stay here alone. We can't afford to get another llama friend for her at the moment, so I found a nice farm for her to go on a really long overnight. I also have found another homeschool family that will be willing to take on the chickens for awhile, so Diane, I, and the cats can go with Jon at least some of the time. I also will be leaving as the theater's director of children's programs. It will be easier to come and go if I don't have to worry about workshops and plays.

As you can see from this blog and the last one, we've had a very busy and unexpected year. Even so we wish for you a joyious holiday season and a wonderful new year!

The Fenner Family