Our Christmas Letter

Our Christmas Letter
12/23/2016 9:31:00 PM by: Susan Lyttek

If I hadn’t promised last week, this might not have been on time!

Merry Christmas 2016 everyone!

As I’m sure with most of you, this year has been a mix of blessings and trials.

Starting with Karl, our youngest became 18 this year, graduated high school, completed the Awana Citation (the culmination of years of Bible study and volunteer work) and the Trail Life Freedom Awards, and voted in his first major election. Currently taking classes at NoVa, he is focusing in the Computer Science field and seems to have a knack for it. He continues to excel at classical guitar which thrills Gary beyond measure. He went to great lengths to learn and memorize one of Gary’s favorite pieces from a Windham Hill CD. Karl will often schedule his practice for when his dad gets home from work to help him decompress. I like that he has started adding some Bach to his repertoire.

Erik continues to work on his doctorate at Montclair State University. On his new front, he successfully impressed the sponsoring professor he wanted and is now making faster headway on his dissertation. Dr. Lal has taken Erik onto his team. He continues to teach environmental labs for the school and enjoys it (mostly). Erik’s other big news is more personal. At his church (First Baptist of Caldwell), he met a young lady and they officially started dating in August. He will be bringing Christina to Virginia over Christmas so she can see the sights (and spend more time with us!)

Gary excels at the National Nuclear Security Administration yet again. They love him there. His boss is even asking him to design and create a small business office for their agency. And while Gary likes the people, some days he doesn’t feel joy with the job anymore and tells me how many days he has left until retirement when he gets home. He successfully completed a trip out to San Antonio in November (they loved him) and I will be joining him in Kansas City in May at his next conference. In addition to the 9-5 stuff (more like 7-4 based on his working hours), he continues to invest in properties in North Carolina and recently contracted to have our upstairs bathroom remodeled. Since it was original to the house (1984) it needed it!

I guess that brings me to me. In a couple of ways, I wish I could leave this year out of the annual letter. At least the first quarter of it. I started off 2016 sick with bronchitis and then a sinus infection. The sick wouldn’t go away so I was on a second round of antibiotics. And the new dentist we had scared me. And I was taking DayQuil Severe to keep functioning instead of resting. Finally, on that fateful day in February, I hadn’t had anything to eat except coffee. I had created the perfect storm for my body. That afternoon, driving away from a dentist consultation, I began a cluster of panic attacks. I managed to recognize something was wrong and pulled into a parking lot. Karl rescued me from there a couple of hours later. I still don’t remember much of that day. After several tests to rule out brain issues, doctors determined my diagnosis above. But I still had to go through treatment to come to terms with losing my mind (however briefly) and had yet another med I couldn’t take (the severe cold medicine). It took until about May for me to truly feel like myself again. During those months I still worked and did things I needed to—I just felt fragile. But the second half of the year has been good. I quit WriteAtHome after almost fifteen years, I added a second French class to my co-op schedule, I went to see Wicked on Broadway with Wendy, Rebekah and Christina, and completed NaNoWriMo (writing a 50,000+ word novel), to name a few of the highlights.

So much more, good and bad, has happened this year, but to go into the full version would take more than the two pages I limit this to. We are all well at present and preparing to have a full house for Christmas, including my parents. And we want to take this moment to wish you and yours all the joy of this time as we celebrate the birth of the Savior of the World, Jesus Christ.

Love and best wishes for 2017— Gary, Susan, Erik, Karl…. and Checkers, too!

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