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Thursday, December 31, 2015

Christmas Letter 2015

I was terrible this year about getting out Christmas cards. I wrote our Christmas letter, printed [not nearly enough] pictures, stuffed envelopes, remembered to take them to one Christmas party, forgot them for the next, never got around to the last group of people... Anyway, I have decided that it's probably just... not going to happen unless you are part of the Pritchard family, and then your name is already on an envelope and I might get it to you sometime in 2016. Maybe.

So for the rest of you, who I really did intend to send a Christmas card to... Here's what you would have gotten.


The Pritchard Family
Christmas 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow! What a year! As we speed into this Christmas season, we are approaching our eighth month as an “official” family. Two-thousand fifteen brought with it joy and heartache and fun and so much more, but above all, it has brought love.
To share some highlights of the year, we would definitely have to start with April 26th. Our wedding day was perfect. We took an 11-day honeymoon to Naples, Florida and the Florida Keys, and we were able to see and do a lot of exciting things.
April 26th is not just the day that we became husband and wife; it is also the day that the three of us became a family. Rachael thinks she’s pretty special to have Mama (Amber) and Mommy (Heather). She is still a Daddy’s girl, but has plenty of love to go around… and it’s a good thing because she has a lot of people to love!
This spring was very eventful for Rachael as she also gained a step-father and step-sisters in March. She thinks her collegiate step-sisters are really cool and has picked up phrases from them like “I know, right?!” and the over-use of the word “like” (Amber may also be partially responsible for that one). She is a very loved little girl.
Amber is working part-time as a dental hygienist in Hickory and she is giving piano lessons to Rachael and a friend’s son. Brian recently left Polychem Alloy to start a new job at Bernhardt as a data systems analyst, which means he makes all of the data of the company more easily accessible.
Rachael started kindergarten this year and Amber is homeschooling her with the help of MawMaw Mary when Amber works. Rachael is excelling in math and language arts and performs above her age/ grade level in both. She enjoys doing fun things for science and getting to do her math on the computer. Rachael attends a homeschool group at a local church, is involved in the Adventure Club at church, and takes piano lessons and gymnastics.
We did a lot of travelling this year. Our family, or part of our family, has been to Jacksonville, Naples, Orlando, FL, and the Florida Keys; Hilton Head; Myrtle Beach (3 times); China; Louisville, KY; Roanoke, VA; Blue Ridge, GA; Pigeon Forge, TN; Cades Cove, TN; Austin, TX; and probably a few other places that we’re forgetting. We hope to be home a little more in 2016!
Through the joys and trials of this year, we have learned so much about love. Loving unconditionally. Loving sacrificially. Loving extravagantly and deeply. As we enter this Christmas season, we pray for a deeper understanding of a God who loves us so much that He would send His Son, who knew no sin, to become sin for us. We pray that in the coming year, each of us come to understand the deep love of God more and that we can each model it to those around us. We love each and every one of you and feel so blessed to have you in our lives.

“And now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13


Love,
The Pritchard’s