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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Christmas Letter 2016

Friends and Family,

We find ourselves once again looking back over our year.  I know many of you follow us on Facebook and Instagram so I'm going to try to give you a few new things to see throughout this letter.

London







John and I have had an incredible first eighteen months in the UK.  If you want to see pictures of all our travels, some are on here and some are on my Facebook page.  We've hit beautiful places in Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Scotland this year with lots of little day trips to UK National Trust Sites.  I have to say my favorite places were Garmisch, Germany and Wengen, Switzerland.  It's really hard to pick favorites as they are all incredible in their own right.

Brussels, Belgium















I'm keeping busy these days trying to keep up with the photo editing and websites that I'm running.  I've done a little bit of drawing this year and continue to work on some crochet projects when time allows.  I was able to make it back to the states to see my girls and visit family for three weeks in November.  Our big news this year is the engagement of our daughter, Beki, to Corey in February.  So, we've been planning a May wedding for next year.

Pictures courtesy of Kyndal @ Inner Images Photography, Springfield, MO




The kids came out for two weeks over Christmas last year, but we'll be spending it alone this year which is a first in 25 years.  I am looking forward to Beki arriving on the 27th and having a little mom and daughter time before the BIG day.  Ari is a now working as a Shift Manager at Starbucks and still loves it.  And we love the occasional gifts of coffee we receive. 

Cologne, Germany




We have found a great church family allowing us to make friends with some in the community.  We just hosted the group Christmas party at which my new German Kinderpunsch (mulled, spiced fruit juice) was a huge success.


John is absolutely in his glory here in the UK...loving the job and enjoying his co-workers with whom many we have become good friends.  If he gets his way, we may be trying to stay an extra year.  He actually does work a lot and a lot of long days despite all the traveling you see us doing.  When we aren't running around another country, he reads tons trying to keep up with the US news and activities and spending time planning our next trip.

Hope to hear from some of you and hoping that we may see some of you here in the UK.  Plenty of space for visitors.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
John and Aimee

Friday, December 2, 2016

Swiss Alps

Our trip to Austria also included a visit to Wengen, Switzerland.  Wengen is only accessible by train.  You have to leave your car parked in the city below and ride the train up.  I have to say I think my favorite was Switzerland.  Although, we were there during non-peak tourist season so the village wasn't tainted with a million visitors.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves.  Our hotel had an awesome spa where I was able to relax in the hot tub after long walks in the mountains.  We took a few side trips from Wengen.  Drove all around Lake Interlaken which was just beautiful...breathtaking really.  We also took a train ride up to the top of the mountains where we had some incredible views.  Some of the pictures are of neighboring towns near Wengen.







































The Gift

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