Christmas Letter 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

We're approaching Thanksgiving and I find it hard to believe another year is ticking away.  John and I have had an amazing year.  We've traveled to some awesome places including Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, Greece, Italy, France, and Belgium.  The UK is treating us well, with great friends and all the travel opportunities.  We have less than a year remaining on our three year tour, however, we are waiting to hear if John will be approved an additional year.  He is very happy in his job and the work he is doing here.  He works with a great group of people and has had the opportunity to meet some pretty important people including the Prime Minister and Queen Elizabeth's husband, The Duke of Edinburgh.

Expiatory Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Barcelona, Spain

Porto Portugal

Krakow Castle, Poland

Crete, Greece

Notre Dame, Paris

Venice, Italy

Dolomites, Sesto-Sexten, Italy

We also, as many of you know, celebrated with family and friends at, our daughter, Beki's wedding.  Her and Corey both graduated this year and have settled into new full-time jobs.

I continue to fill time photographing and editing lots and lots of pictures from the many trips.  Many of my photos are listed on www.Etsy/AimeesShoppe, stop by for a peek!  In my spare time, I continue drawing and crocheting.  And after over two years, I finally got a full size electric piano so I can once again get my fingers playing.  I sure do miss the "baby."

We are very excited to be spending our first Christmas back in the states in three years!  So we look forward to seeing our Ohio family soon!

We thank God for all our wonderful friends here in the UK.  He has placed some amazing people in our life.  And we count our blessings for all the opportunities we've had so far.  We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

RAF Summer Ball

Brugge, Belgium

Love,
John and Aimee

A Cambridge Christmas

I know Christmas is over and you are all probably tired of seeing Christmas lights.  But, John and I didn't get a chance to go down into the city to see the lights until Christmas day.  Well, then things got kind of busy after that with Beki's arrival and our trip to Rome, which I'm still working on as well. 

Christmas day was a bit quiet for us.  The kids stayed in the states this year and we didn't plan a trip home for the holidays.  Going into Cambridge and doing what I do best, taking photos, was a treat as the streets were pretty empty of people.

 

 

I think this one was my favorite with the couple.

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