Peace on Earth 2006

(Unedited Xmas letter from Mike Kelly)

     Peace on Earth

                                                                                              December, 2006

Merry Christmas from Barbara & Mike.

    We had a great year in 2006. Everyone is doing well, and Lindy’s tests continue to be clean. She has another set scheduled for late December. We made it to the beach at Oak Island 3 times this year; March, July, and September. Several family members were able to share the beach with us each trip.

    Barbara is heavily involved in raising funds for Lindy’s Neuroblastoma Research Project at UNC Children’s Hospital. She conducted a raffle of a beautiful Friendship Garden Quilt that was handmade by Kathy Pascarella. With much help from friends and family in Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, Texas & Kansas, the raffle raised over $7500 for the research project. Robbie & Lynn raised another $2700 at their annual oyster roast on November 4 at their house in Raleigh.

    Barbara visited Louisville twice this summer. The first time was to visit our niece, Madison Stitzer, while she was recovering from successful knee surgery. The second time was to visit all the cousins accompanied by Lynn, Kate, & Lindy. Then on December 1, we both went to Louisville for the wedding of Kristin Gnau & Michael Earls.  As always we enjoyed spending time with the family on a visit that was all too brief.

    Courtney and her ultimate team, Ambush, came to Maryland for a tournament again this year in August. It was great to see all the girls again. Several of them stayed at our house, and the whole team came for dinner one night.

    Lynn, Robbie, Kate, & Lindy visited us in Myersville for 5 days at Thanksgiving. The girls had a ball riding & grooming McKenzie. They both ride very well. They played ball with the dogs and “rubbed” the cats. They both enjoy doing barn chores. Grammy & Granddad enjoyed all the games we played. The Guptons also visited Disney World this summer thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

    All our animals are doing well. Maggie at age 11 is slowing down a little, but she still participates in all our activities. McKenzie continues to be a great pony, and the girls love to ride him. Our house is still listed for sale, but the housing market is slow here. When it finally sells, we plan to move to North Carolina.

   

               If you visit Maryland, we would love to see you. Our house is located near Hagerstown, about an hour from Washington, DC and Baltimore. 11908 Woodland Way Rd., Myersville, MD 21773. Phone 301-293-4375. Email: barbandmike@webtv.net or michael.w.kelly@eds.com.

Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts for Lindy. We continue to value all the time we get to spend with the girls.

Peace and love,

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Mike and Barbara Kelly

2006: Dash Away All

Greetings! I hope everyone had a great 2006 and is looking forward to a sparkling 2007. (007? Shouldn’t the latest Bond movie have waited until January to release? Heh, Heh. I’ll be here all the week…) My 2007 was pretty good, and I’m writing to share the highlights with you in this year’s holiday letter.

Work wise, I’m still with Accenture, and spent the entire year working in town for my client, WebMD (Yes, I do have a Genie! Don’t ask what I did with my other 2 wishes, but November went pretty well for the Democrats and if the Eagles make it to the playoffs with Jeff Garcia as QB you’ll know who you can thank for that.) Do check out www.webmd.com for tips on how to ease holiday stress. I am pretty sure they recommend sending one generic holiday letter, rather than all the hassle of individual cards.

Here’s the big news: I may be moving on from WebMD in the near term. I am looking to head to Melbourne, Australia for 12-18 months in February. My client there is Telstra, essentially the Australian phone company. I am VERY excited about the opportunity to live and work abroad and I’m sure I’ll learn a lot in the role both at work and at play. Let me pre-extend the offer for everyone to come and visit. If you’ve always wanted to go to Australia but felt like you needed and excuse, I’m your excuse.

I traveled all over the globe for ultimate this year. It was great! I played in Los Angeles, California; Talladega, Alabama; at Paganello in Rimini, Italy in April, at Wonderful in Copenhagen, Denmark, in Ottawa, Canada, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; several trips to Boston and a tournament in Maryland where Barb & Mike had the entire team over for dinner. (Thanks, Mom!) Ambush had a great time in Copenhagen in May. Here’s a picture of the team that made that trip:

(In the bottom row, I’m second from the left.) I’ll miss Ambush when I move ‘down under’ but ultimate is huge there, so I plan to continue playing. It should be a good excuse for me to break away from the office and meet a few locals. There are two women’s teams in Melbourne so I’ll keep you posted how that works out.

In March of this year I teamed up with some friends of mine (Ben & Curtiss) to start the Gastronauts. We are a group of adventurous eaters who go out once a month to try exotic cuisine. Here’s a picture of me eating a chicken foot, which worried me at the time and now seems completely tame:
So far we’ve had guinea pig (cuy), brain( both calf and lamb), balut (look it up), bat-snails, live octopus, eye balls and every possible variant of tripe among many other atypical dishes. Please check out our adventures at http://www.ccalleo.com/gastronauts/ . There are lots of pictures and a great review of each month’s outing. NPR also did a nice story on us which you can download as a podcast: http://www.prx.org/pieces/15072 .

Thanks to everyone who continues to ask about my nieces. Both Kate (8) and Lindy (4) are doing great, growing like weeds and having a wonderful time. We think they are beautiful and both seem to be growing up without any signs of the cursed Kelly looks. I went to Disney World with Lindy and her family in June on her Make-a-Wish trip. That truly is a wonderful organization and the girls had a blast. As proof, I offer this photo of Lindy celebrating her 4th birthday in Florida:
In December, I traveled to my ancestral homeland (Louisville, Kentucky) to attend my cousin Kristin’s wedding. The wedding was beautiful and the event served as a family reunion. It was great to see all my aunts, uncles and cousins. Many thanks are owed to my family for all the southern hospitality. Here’s my original Kelly family unit just prior to the wedding- my sister Lynn, Mom, Dad and Me:
We had a great time and no one got kicked out of the wedding or arrested (this time).

Here’s hoping you are doing well and our paths will cross in 2007. Happy New Year!

~Courtney