Another year has come and gone with an ever increasing basket of memories to cherish. We pray that you have had a blessed year despite whatever economy does. Since we had extended our stay a year in Germany (to Oct 09), we were able to move on to Post at Kelley Barracks, another installation here in the Stuttgart area. Now home to AFRICOM, it’s about 10 km away from work at DISA-Europe. Though we weren’t excited about the act of moving, the new location is so much better for us. The children love the area, especially the great number of friends in the immediate neighborhood, and we enjoy closer access to base facilities. Neal is in his 19th year in the Air Force, and we are now thinking about the options of retiring or moving again next year. We’ll have to make that hard decision when offered the next position, probably late spring. Vivian is halfway through her 7th year of homeschooling. Hard to believe that we’ve been at it that long! How is it that it seems like we just started this, yet when we look at Matthew (almost eye-to-eye for Vivian!) it’s hard to imagine him in Kindergarten or first grade. This past year she’s been deeply involved in our home school group’s Co-Op, teaching various science subjects. The last two times have been chemistry and now she’s trying her hand at “fun with physics.” She’s received so much positive feedback and enjoying it well enough that she’s considering teaching when she ‘grows up’.
Daniel’s in 5th grade and has become quite the wizard with K’Nex construction, building all sorts of arcade-style games of his own design. Neal went with Daniel on a fishing overnighter. It wasn’t technically “ice fishing” but we did have a foot of snow on the ground, but had a great time and caught some great fish, that Daniel decided he doesn’t like actually eat all that much!
Ethan’s in 2nd and reminds us so much of Calvin from the comic strip with his dry wit and mischievousness. Now all three boys are involved in scouting. Ethan is eating it up, and can't get enough! He loves working on the achievements and learning about the skills associated with it.
Victoria’s in Kindergarten and is an amazing example of maternal instincts at work as she takes such tender care for all of her “babies” and “sisters” (whatever doll or stuffed animals that come into her possession!) She still loves everything pink and princess, though her last birthday party grew up a little bit, and was a “Hunting Princess” party, so they had an adventure searching the building for clues on a “Hunt” and later “Stormed the castle!”
We had a couple of visitors this year. Neal’s Aunt Virginia and uncle Archie visited us and toured Southern Germany after visiting their daughter Angela and her husband David who were in Belgium for a four month work detail with his company. After their visit, we met David and Angela too for a pleasant day at Cochem, a beautiful village from the medieval times on the Rhine river. In 2009 we are looking forward to a visit with Neal’s niece, Raechel.We traveled a decent amount this year. If you can make it to visit, we would love to have anyone visit for a time to see Europe. This is a great place to base and travel from to see a whole lot! Neal went along with a historic professional development tour of Southern France, following the lesser known allied liberation of southern France, Operation Anvil-Dragoon. He also went with Matthew and a few thousand other Boy Scouts to visit the D-Day Northern liberation sites in Normandy, France. Both of those trips were truly inspirational events—the locations themselves were beautiful and fascinating, and they showed the courage, determination and sacrifice the allied forces exemplified, and gave us the opportunity to honor them. We also packed up the kids and went on a Grecian cruise with the terminal port of Venice. We visited Athens; Mykonos (Delos); Katakolon (Olympia); Corfu; Split, Croatia; and back to Venice. Though it was a bit pricy, we liked it so much that we’ll probably do another one before we say farewell to Europe. We’re thinking about Egypt. We also took a week to visit Paris, and could have easily spent two, though the kids were crying “No more!” after trying to squeeze every bit of value out of our museum pass. We stayed in a cute little Eurocamp trailer (mobile chateau!) on the Seine River. We were experts in navigating the Parisian rails by the time we were done. Fortunately for the kids there were diversions at the campground, and we were able to reward them with a day at Disneyland for the last day. We also visited Prague, the Bavarian Alps, the Alsace region of France for a little degustation (wine tasting), and Berlin to see the Wall and to learn more about Germany after WWII. Neal and Ethan got some bonding time on the same Luther tour Vivian took with Matt and Daniel last year. Various day trips to Roman and Celtic ruins in the area rounded out the third year of our “Historical Odyssey of the Western World”.
As we start new year afresh, we pray that
you will have a blessed one, and that our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ keep us together!
Neal and Vivian,
Matthew, Daniel, Ethan, and
Victoria Schneider
