Christmas, 2005

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello again from God’s Frozen People! After a long, long, mild fall, Winter came in decisively around the end of November with snow and a long spell below freezing.

James has finished high school and moved into a program called CLT; Career Life Transitions. It’s designed for people like James who will be able to get a job and live independently, but aren’t ready for prime time yet. It helps them with independent living skills like cooking, cleaning, and getting exercise, and it helps them get their first jobs and cope with the big hurdle of finding and interviewing for that first time.

James has been doing very well this year. He is showing very nice maturity and helpfulness. We are proud of him and pleased with his progress.

Tom went through a really bad patch this summer—a lot of temper tantrums and so forth. We adjusted his medication and he’s doing much better, but he still has episodes. As he is good-sized and very strong, it is difficult to cope when he is like this; we need aides pretty much all the time when Glenn is not home.

I had a pretty bad patch myself this summer; I was really worried about Tom, and too down to do much. My garden, however, rewarded me for past efforts by looking really great, and I had many moments of joy from it.

Our social worker is trying to get Tom placed in a group home, and may at some point have some success. That will be a whole new chapter for us. I’m sure it will have its own stresses, but it will mean Tom only comes home for visits—meaning a lot less management for us to handle, and we should be more rested when he does come.

Glenn and I have really been enjoying our activities with Clann Tartan, a Scottish living history organization. We now have our own tent, thanks to a good friend who didn’t want hers any more. Even James has been going to Sword Drill and has enjoyed our camping out events. We can only canp, of course, when Tom is in respite care.

I have been making a fair amount of period clothing, including two Shinrone Gowns, which have an insane number of vertical tucks in the skirts. They’d better last me for a while, because I ain’t doing any more of them!

Glenn continues to work as a Database Administrator for Hennepin County in downtown Minneapolis. His Department is currently being reorganized, which he, being used to similar experiences at Chicago banks, is weathering better than many of his colleagues. This is not a layoff situation—the County is actually hiring—so he is not especially concerned about his employment.

Glenn and I have both joined LiveJournal on the internet. You can go to Livejournal.com to find us; his ID is gmcdavid and mine is mia_mcdavid. We post every now and then with our news and views. Come look us up!

May your Christmas be merry and your New Year full of promise.

Mia and Glenn McDavid

Go to Glenn's home page, or to Mia's. See our 2004 Christmas letter or the index of letters.

Email to Mia or to Glenn.