Lacy started the year off in a new job at Vanderbilt. Steve transferred to a new department at HCA. Lacy, Steve, Jim, Carolyn, Mark, Glenda and Sarah all went to Alaska together this summer. Lacy's grandmother Ruth passed away. Lacy goes to camp. Steve goes to Lollapalooza. Steve builds lots of things in the yard. Go Commodores - all the way to the Music City Bowl! Charlee visits from England - we go shopping, see some Blue Men and scream at Universal in Orlando. Lacy starts grad school. Steve goes to Vancouver and learns a lot. Grandmother and Grampy have been married 65 years ... and Grampy turns 90! Coach Steve and the Red Rhinos have a winning season. Steve and Lacy have been married 8 years and are starting 2009 off on the slopes in Boone.

The Extended Version:

I started a new job in January -- doing web development and graphic design at Vanderbilt University. One of the cool benefits of working there is their tuition benefit ... so I decided to take advantage of it and this summer applied to the VU Grad school to get my masters degree. I highly underestimated the amount of time it would require ... it took me several weeks to get back into the swing of things with the reading and writing assignments. I finished my first class 2 weeks ago and, surprisingly, am already looking forward to next semester :)

This summer our family did something we've not done in over a decade -- a "Family Vacation". It was most excellent! My parents, brother and sister-in-law and niece, and Steve and I all went on an Alaskan cruise. Steve and I flew up to Seattle a few days before the cruise and did the tourist bit with the Space Needle, Pike Place Market and, of course, visiting the very first Starbucks :) Then we took a lovely train ride to Vancouver where we met up with Mom, Dad, Mark, Glenda and Sarah. The cruise was amazing - Alaska is absolutely beautiful - breathtaking at times. We saw black and brown bears, bald eagles, elk ... we actually heard a glacier moving! The beauty of Alaska is unmatched... if you ever have the opportunity to go to Alaska - do it!

My Grandmother, Ruth Goins, passed away on May 3 after a long battle with cancer. My dad is one of five children - and they all have children - some of whom have children. So there are quite a few of us when we all get together :) After Grandmother's funeral, the whole family went back to her home for dinner and just to spend time together. I have to think - it would have made her so happy to see all of us there. My uncles David and Steve telling stories about growing up ... us laughing and enjoying being with family.

In July, I went to our church's student summer camp for the fourth year - down to Panama City Beach. The theme this year was "Wild West". Steve assisted with the decor/carpentry projects again this year ... we had all sorts of camp decor filling our garage for weeks: 7' tall cowboy boots (complete with blue jean legs sticking out of the top!), 150 yards of burlap, faux barbed wire, and even a covered wagon! It was a wonderful time with our students - even if we did have monsoon rain a few times that week and the beach was covered in green gunk for 2 days:)

Steve had another big summer of outdoor projects. To our longtime Christmas letter readers, I know, you're surprised. :P  He's methodically turning our boring backyard into a really beautful garden. He built two different patio areas and a water fountain - and we also planted a few trees, some rhododenrons, wisteria and knockout roses. The wave petunias we planted in June ... were STILL blooming in early November! Unreal! I'm hoping we'll actually have some wisteria blooms next summer on the gazebo :)

Steve went to Chicago in August for Lollapallooza ... here he is at the Rage Against the Machine concert.

We have season tickets to Vanderbilt football and have cheered the Commodores all the way to the Music City Bowl -- and we'll be there on December 31 when they face Boston College! (I got to build the bowl website for the athletics department - a fun project to end the year with!)

Charlee, our niece from England (parents are Kim and Jane - Steve's sister), came to stay with us for two weeks in August. (It was her first trip back to the states since coming over for our wedding eight years ago!) We had a great visit with her - did A LOT of shopping, sight-seeing and even squeezed in a 3 day trip down to Florida (spent 2 days at Universal Studios, saw Blue Man Group, and enjoyed a morning at Cocoa Beach). The two weeks went by way too quickly for all of us though. (Happy 16th Birthday to Charlee - December 23!)

Steve spent a week in Vancouver, Canada in November on a training course for work. He didn't get to do much sightseeing while he was there though ... in classes all day and it was dark by the time he was done for the day.

My grandparents (Hayden and Ita Lacy) don't do a Christmas letter ... but 2008 would have been a great year to write one. In March, they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary; in November, Grampy celebrated his 90th birthday! Much celebration was had and anniversary and birthday wishes overflowed :) We spent Thanksgiving at their house helping them plant new trees after a clearing of some massive pine trees that were too close to their house.

Towards the end of the summer, a friend of Steve's took on the coaching role of his daughter's soccer team (the Red Rhinos!) with another of the Dads. Neither of the Dads had ever played soccer, so Steve volunteered to help them out and that's how he came to be teaching 8 year old girls to play soccer. The Red Rhinos won their first match 15-0 and needless to say the girls and their parents thoroughly enjoyed it, and went on to have a great season -- winning six of their seven matches and scoring over 50 goals. It was a really rewarding experience watching them put into practice their newly learned soccer skills and they turned out to be a great bunch of enthusiastic girls. The parents enjoyed watching the matches too and asked if we would coach them again next summer!

We celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary on December 2. We're going to Boone, North Carolina during the first few days of 2009 for some snowboarding/skiing; Steve will be doing jumps and gracefully twirling his way down the slopes on his snowboard... and I'm just hoping I don't break a leg trying to get off the ski-lift in one piece!

May God Bless you, your family and friends in the coming year,

Steve & Lacy

Saw this typewriter on mightygoods.com in their gift ideas section.

"This portable style is the very last manual typewriter in production today. No power required! 44 keys w/ 88 symbols, one ribbon included that types both black & red ink and that oh so satisfying clickety-clack of the keys."

Oh how I LOVE typewriters. When I was growing up, my grandmother had a REALLY old typewriter in her back room. I would go in there every time I was down there, put a sheet of my school paper in the type writer, roll it up to the first line, and start typing a note to someone (usually my best friend, Karen - who I think still has some of these notes!) These notes were usually totally meaningless ... but I can recall many of them where I would be heartbroken - or insanely happy - but most of them weren't memorable notes. But I do remember loving using the typewriter. It made everything seem ... more. More important. More dramatic. Just ... MORE!

Even then, I loved the neatness of the typed note. The ability to have RED words. Double spacing. It was just cool. And click clack I would go. Then -- I'd roll out the paper -- and do the only thing a girl could do with a note then -- fold it into an intricate almost origami-like piece of beauty. You had to fold it just right too ... so that the little corner stuck out from the last folded edge - so your friend could easily unfold it.

I think I'm too cheap to spend $125 on this typewriter ... but my grandmother still has that old typewriter at her house. Over Christmas, I may just have to sit down and type a letter to Karen for old time's sake!