This is a picture of our family at our new house in Clanton! Our new address is 1403 Gate Post Road, Clanton AL 35046. We kept our old cell phone numbers. I've put in a "land line," but I'm getting so many calls looking for the person who used to have the number, I may trade it in. I wish he had paid his bills . . . .
Anyway, we finally got a dog! We were totally set up by some friends (thank you, by the way) to fall in love with sweet little Kenzie, an adorable 1-yr-old mutt (spayed, shots up-to-date, potty trained, and no chewing or other bad habits [thank you again])! She's a doll and I'll have a picture of her asap if it's not already here.
This year has been full of life-altering events for everyone in this Montalbano family. Here's a re-cap:
Daddy died in January. We were all with him and it was an unbelievably peaceful and beautiful thing to watch him leave this world. It has been an awful adjustment, not having him to talk to every day. I really miss Daddy.
We decided to move to Clanton as soon as we could sell our house. We put it on the market in May and sold in late July.
Annie and Lizzy began taking piano from my old piano teacher, Nancy Green, in Verbena. It's wonderful to watch them with her, and I'm so glad to have her in my life again.
We moved out of our home in Birmingham in August and stayed with Monty's parents for two weeks. We really enjoyed having that kind of time with them - what a rare opportunity! We moved into our new home in Clanton on August 16th and began unboxing and settling in. (I'll let you know when we are finished with that - it's mid-December now!)
My best friend from high school, Glenda, and I became good buddies again. We have so much in common even though we've lived apart for 25 years! We both have young children, too, so we are at a similar point in our lives.
The Owens family celebrated Thanksgiving with us Montalbanos in the new house. It was a relaxing and wonderful time to be together. I really enjoyed some great time with nieces Stacy and Beth. Rod brought the exotic meat as usual - deer roast and feral pig. I used Mother's china that her brother Allen had brought her from occupied Japan. What a beautiful table . . . well, three tables because there were 18 of us.
Looking ahead to Christmas, we made a decision to spend only $100 per child for gifts. We've purchased all the goodies, and - so far - we're doing well with that plan. We are really living a simplified life here, and it's really good.
Plans? We plan to get some animals and plant a larger-scale garden this coming year. Our goal is to move to some self-sufficiency using our land. I really want some chickens and some goats. I've also looked at growing edible mushrooms and raising koi fish. (Glenda already does that, so I'll have a great resource.)
I hope our Christmas card finds you and your family happy, healthy, and enjoying the holiday season. We look forward to hearing from you. As you reflect on your year and make plans and resolutions for 2009, look for all the blessings of the year. I hope you will see how they outnumber the problems by far. Merry Christmas, and best wishes for 2009.
Love,
Rebecca, Monty, Jessica, Noah, Annie, and Lizzy
