Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Merry Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas!


We hope this finds you well and that you have had a good year. 2019 was not a “same as ever” year for me. Several life-changing events for me occurred this year. The first was my Mom’s death in May. While this was sad and I continue to miss her, it did bring about the reunion of all my siblings for her memorial service. In June, I lost my job with Lenovo. I had basically had the same job since 1990 and moved with it from Florida to North Carolina and from IBM to Lenovo. It was my first time being unemployed, but I did leave with a generous severance package. I was without a job for a little over 3 months. I am now back with IBM working in the same department that I started my career in: mainframe hardware performance. While most of my team is in Poughkeepsie, NY, I was allowed to stay in Cary. I am very happy with this new “old” position. I am learning a lot and really like what I am doing and my new team.

Miriam graduated from high school and is now at North Carolina State University majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering. She was co-captain of her high school robotics team that qualified for nationals in Houston. They did surprisingly well there ending up 9th out of 67 teams in their division. While in Houston, we enjoyed a visit to the Johnson Space Center and a nearby Italian restaurant with lots of NASA memorabilia. Miriam also participated in her final dance recital which included a solo senior dance. Bethany is in her final year at NC State also majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering. She had an internship this summer at Fidelity. Bethany has also been a teaching assistant at school. During her short break after her internship, Bethany went backpacking with her parents and sister.

Carl graduated in December from NC State double majoring in Communication and Computer Science. He received the Outstanding Student Award from the Department of Communication and was one of the valedictorians in the Department of Computer Science. Carl had an internship at IBM this summer. He is applying to graduate schools to continue his studies. Christian continues to work at Lenovo. He has enjoyed his various hobbies including buying Eurorack modules to make electronic music. Leslie-Jean keeps the household running and provides transportation as needed. She enjoys her weekly Bible study and has increased her running mileage this year. I increased my running training this year to prepare for the New York City Marathon which I had entered by winning a lottery entry. I was doing well until a stress fracture forced me to defer my entry to 2020.

This year’s trips turned out to be returns to places I had once lived. In October it was a return to Peoria, Illinois for my 40th high school reunion. It was great seeing classmates I had not seen in a while. I also enjoyed a tour of Peoria High School, a Gondola at Avanti’s, and a couple of nice runs seeing places around town. We also visited Chicago where we enjoyed an architecture tour river cruise and Chinatown. My next trip was to Poughkeepsie, New York to spend a week with my new work team. I enjoyed meeting most for the first time along with a few for the first time in many years. I also explored the area and saw where I used to live. On the way there, I spent a day in New York City seeing the “Christmas Spectacular” at Radio City Music Hall and “To Kill a Mockingbird” on Broadway starring Ed Harris. Both shows were very good. I have been an Oakland Raiders fan for over 50 years. I had seen them play in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and Miami, but never Oakland. Since the Raiders are moving to Las Vegas, this was the last year to see them in Oakland. We saw them lose to the Tennessee Titans but really enjoyed the game and atmosphere. While in the area, we visited Pleasanton where I used to live, Muir Woods, Chinatown, the Walt Disney Family Museum, and Fisherman’s Wharf.

This was a year of life-changing events for me. Christmas is the celebration of a life-changing event for all mankind: the birth of Jesus Christ. Matthew 1:22-23 tells us of this momentous event fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which means, ‘God with us.’” Not since the Garden of Eden had God dwelled with mankind and never as one of us. Mankind’s sin had separated us from God with no way for us to bridge the gap. Fortunately God bridged the gap for us by sending His son to us in the form of one of us through the birth of Jesus. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. Jesus lived a sinless life enabling Him to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins which He accomplished at Calvary on Good Friday. Jesus arose from the dead three days later on Easter becoming our forerunner to eternal life with Him in Heaven. We simply need to accept that we are sinners, believe Jesus is the Son of God, and accept His free gift of salvation provided through His sacrificial death and resurrection. This all started in mankind’s history at Christmas with the birth of Jesus, truly a life-changing event for all mankind.

May you have a very, merry Christmas with a great outlook for 2020!

Dan for the Colglaziers

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