Christmas 2013

Dear Family & Friends,

Deb and Tony still live near Linwood and still have dogs, cats, chickens, goats, and horses.  Deb still works at Ridgeview Animal Clinic in Olathe as a veterinarian.  She is working on her master’s degree in public health and did her internship at the Douglas County Health Department this summer and fall.  Tony works for Burns McDonnell Engineering Firm in Kansas City as an electrical engineer.  He was made an associate earlier this fall.  Jennifer is 14 years old and a freshman at Basehor-Linwood High School.  Once again, she was selected May Student of the Month at school.  She plays the cello in the school strings orchestra and sings in the choir.  Grandma and Grandpa enjoy attending her concerts.  Jenn attended our church body’s Youth Gathering at Purdue University in July.  Jacob is 10 years old and in fifth grade at Linwood Elementary School.  He plays the viola.  Jacob spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa this summer while he was participating in Interactive Metronome training.  Jennifer and Jacob are taking tae kwon do lessons.  Their family continues to be active members of their church, Risen Savior at Basehor.

Mike and Melinda still live outside Valley Falls.  Mike still works for the State of Kansas and Melinda still works at Prairie Band Casino near Mayetta.  Jessica is 21 years old and works at Applebee’s Restaurant.  She is getting married December 28^th.  Her fiancé is in the army stationed near Savannah, GA.  Kelly is 17 years old and a senior at Valley Falls High School.  She played volleyball this fall and is playing basketball this winter.  Grandma and Grandpa try to attend as many of her games as possible. Kelly took a nursing course at Washburn Technical Institute this fall and passed her CNA test.  She plans to continue with nursing courses after graduation.  Kelly went to our church body’s National Youth Gathering in San Antonio, Texas this past summer.  Joshua will be 13 years old Christmas day and is an honor roll seventh grader at Jefferson North Middle School.   Joshua is in confirmation class at church and both Kelly and Joshua are in their respective youth group at church.

Jessica’s son, Colton, is 19 months old.  In early April he spent a couple of days in the hospital with pneumonia and bronchitis.   His favorite toys are balls and anything on wheels.  He makes a basket out of any receptacle he can find and does a good job of hitting his target!  Jessie and Colton live with us and it is a joy to see Colton change.  We will really miss him after he and Jessie move to Georgia.

We are still active in our church.   Dean takes pictures of new members and served on an adult education committee this year.  He still serves as archivist for the Kansas District of our church body.  In connection with that job he had booths at two events this year.  He also attended the synod’s archives conference in St. Louis in October.  Karlea is chair of her circle and on the LWML executive board.  She also works on quilts for Lutheran World Relief.  We still are treasurer and registrar for the Kansas District’s Saints Alive After 55.  We attended that meeting in Wichita on July 21-23.  Dean also is active in the Downtown Topeka Optimist Club and Topeka Engineer’s Club.

When the research project Dean is working on is completed, he has decided it is time to completely retire so he will have more time to spend on the district archives and genealogy.  In connection with genealogy Karlea is making application to DAR and Dean plans to apply to SAR in the near future.

While we did not have a Price Family Reunion this year most of us were together in February to help Aunt Catherine celebrate her 90^th birthday. We also were together in March for Karlea’s Uncle E.R.’s funeral and in May for Karlea’s cousin’s son’s wedding.  We attended the Flick Family Reunion at Aurora, Nebraska the first weekend in July and the Gordon Family Reunion in Garnett the second weekend in July. 

Dean’s high school class had their 55^th class reunion Memorial Day weekend.  That same weekend we also went to Smith County to attend the Athol reunion and to decorate graves.

In August we took a genealogy trip to Iowa, Illinois, and South Dakota.  We saw the towns where each of Karlea’s grandmothers was born.   We did lots of research and while in Illinois met two of Dean’s distant cousins with whom we spent some enjoyable time comparing genealogy notes and visiting cemeteries.  We also met and had a very enjoyable visit and dinner with two of Karlea’s second cousins and their spouses in Rockford, IL.

After having K-State season football tickets for 47 years we decided this year to give up our tickets.  It was a difficult decision to make.  We enjoyed watching them on T.V. (especially when they won!) and look forward to their bowl game.

On November 19 Dean hit a deer.  Thankfully, he was not injured, but our van was totaled. 

We hope the past year has been a good one for each of you and that you will have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.

                                                                                                                                Dean & Karlea Landman