Christmas 2007

The whole family was home for Christmas--Andrea, Thomas, Eddie, Sara, Big Chris, Dan, Little Chris, Mary Anne, Charles, Dave, Matt, Annabelle, Elisabeth, Ben, Emily, and Jacob.

Dear Friends (and Family, too),

We are continuing our time honored McClelland family tradition of a Christmas/New Years (or later) newsletter. This enables us to catch our breath after the very full weeks preceding and during the holidays.

2007 was a great year for the McClelland family:

First and foremost, we expanded our family with two beautiful new grandchildren. Eddie and Andrea had their first child, Thomas Edward, on June 12 in Columbus, Ohio. Then Matt and Emily had their fourth child, Elisabeth Halter, on July 13 in Minneapolis. Of course, they are perfect specimens!

Second, Charles dialed back on work by resigning from Booz Allen Hamilton (a management consulting firm) where he had worked during the six years since his retirement from the Federal Government. He is currently working part time as an independent consultant, and enjoys listening to traffic reports from his office on the ground floor of our home. This change allowed more time for doing other things with Mary Anne such as trips to Puerto Rico (including Vieques and Culebra), Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor in Maine (including a stop to see the Westwoods in NH), and the Southern Caribbean on a cruise. For more info on current activities and pictures, see: http://mcclellands8.blogspot.com/.

And during Christmas week, we had our entire family together for the first time in more than two years. It was a wonderful experience to have sixteen individuals (six children, three spouses, and five grandchildren) staying under our roof on Christmas Eve. We expected Christmas morning to be a chaotic scene with so many people, but it was a blissful, peaceful experience. Later that week, we were blessed to be in the temple with all of our children.

A quick update on the “kids:”

Dan: Continues to live in Fairfax, VA, works in inventory management, and serves in his Elders’ Quorum Presidency.

Matt (wife—Emily): Completing 3^rd year of Dermatology residency and making plans to move family to Bend Oregon for practice. Welcomed new daughter Elisabeth (see above) and sent oldest child, Annabelle, off to kindergarten. For more info and some great videos, see: http://emilatt.blogspot.com/.

Sara (husband—Chris): Continued moving up the ladder at CSC and remodeling home in Potomac Falls, VA. Husband, Chris, got a new job at TallyGenicom and Chris and Sara spent a week+ in Hawaii on a much deserved vacation. For more info, see: http://hiltners.blogspot.com/.

Eddie (wife—Andrea): Continued working at PWC, passed all of the CPA exam, bought a home in Gahanna, OH, and welcomed new son, Thomas (see above). Wife, Andrea, is delighted to be a stay at home Mom. For more info see: http://mcclellands.blogspot.com/.

Chris and Dave: should graduate from BYU in 2008, Chris in Economics and Dave in Mechanical Engineering. Chris is head TA for Dr. Kearl’s Econ 110 class and the grader for Independent Study Econ 110. Dave is a TA for Mechanical Engineering Instrumentation. Both hope to continue their education after graduation.

Our dear friends, we hope and pray that the Lord will bless you and your loved ones in the year to come with the peace and joy that comes from an awareness and understanding of His eternal Plan of Salvation.

The McClelland Family

Grandma and Grandpa's favorite Christmas present--Grandkids under the tree! (Jacob, Annabelle, Elisabeth, Benjamin, and Thomas)

There was too much excitement for some of the kids so our manger scene consisted of Chris as Joseph, Annabelle as Mary, Sara as a ? (cow or donkey), and Elisabeth as baby Jesus.

The Christmas Day croquet match participants--Dan, Dave, Eddie, Chris, Matt, and Big Chris. The hard fought match was won by Big Chris about 2 hours after this picture was taken.