2006 Christmas Letter

Greetings to friends & family near and far!

I had good intentions of writing a “Christmas letter” earlier than this, but here I am late on Christmas Day finally getting it done. We’ve enjoyed a nice family time today in our own home and then shared Christmas dinner with Lani’s sister’s family, Troy & Shauna Wagner and their kids. Last week we drove over to Idaho and spent a few days with my folks in Meridian (near Boise). We got a nice snowfall there the last day of our visit, so that will have to count as our “white Christmas”! Tomorrow our Montana relatives arrive.

As most of you know, this was a year of change for us in lots of ways. We’ve had job changes, moved back to Oregon after nearly six years in Texas, and of course had new schools for our kids. Looking back, we are incredibly grateful for all the prayers and support that carried us through these times of upheaval and change. Change is always hard, but I think we’re all doing pretty well in our new circumstances.

I won’t write a long letter full of the details of each of our lives, but I should mention a few things. Hannah has gotten quite involved with music & drama at Gresham H.S. and recently was selected for both All-State and All-Northwest Choirs. Micah is playing in band and also singing in choir in his freshman year. Caleb and Levi attend school at Hollydale Elementary where I teach music (we live less than two blocks away and walk together each morning!). Lani is teaching TAG half-time and subbing on her open days. I am enjoying singing as a staff singer with the Portland Symphonic Choir.

We have a new church home – after much visiting around the area – at the Abundant Life Church (you can check out their website at www.coolchurch.com). Our kids really enjoy the programs there!

We’ve spent a lot of time and effort these last few months working on remodeling and updating our home. Most of the major things are finished now and we look forward to having friends and family visit! Here’s all our new contact information:
(Information edited from this blog post, but included in actual letter)

May God bless each of you in this new year!



The Dalzells – Dan, Lani, Hannah, Micah, Caleb, & Levi

Mid-December update

Life is busy and it seems I hardly ever have time to blog (that is, check in on friends' sites or write anything on mine).
Tonight I'll just throw down a quick update:

I switched over to the new Blogger beta just a few minutes ago. I'll see if it works any smoother in my Safari browser; the old one didn't allow me to use most of the editing features (as I'm glancing up in the window here, I'm not seeing the buttons there for bold, italic, etc., just one for spell check and one for pictures. Hmm. . . So, looks like I'll have to remember to use IE or Firefox on my Macs.

My program last week went pretty well. Our school gym was standing-room only as the 2nd & 3rd graders did there musical and the 4th & 5th grade choir sang. It was a successful first program there, I believe.

We went last Saturday morning to cut a Christmas tree -- and ended up cutting two! Our new house actually has a large window upstairs in the living room and a matching one below in the family room, so we have two trees. I put up a few lights outside, but nothing like usual and I don't think I'll have time to worry about putting up any more. It was nearly nice to return to our old tradition of going to a Christmas tree farm and choosing our own tree; and we went with the McDonald family, just like old times!

I've got three rehearsals this week with Portland Symphonic Choir before we do our double-concert day on Sunday. Anyone in the area that might enjoy hearing us, let me know and I'll pick up some tickets for you. Lani and several friends are coming to the 7:30 p.m. program, but we also do it at 2:00 p.m. -- that's on Sunday, Dec. 17 at St. Mary's Cathedral (between NW 17th & 18th just a block N. of Burnside). Should be a lovely program (and I'm doing a solo!).

Lani has either the flu or food poisoning -- yuck! She was up in the night last night throwing up, etc. and stayed home today. We went to my staff Christmas party last Saturday night and apparently a whole lot of people from there have come down ill (we had 13 staff out yesterday and 10 out today at work -- all with the same stomach ailment).

Brian & Eryann Maki (Lani's brother & wife) have been staying with us since last Friday and leave in the morning. They came over from Missoula to help Troy & Shauna with moving and construction in their new home's basement. We all helped over there on Saturday & Sunday this last weekend, with much more work still to go.

Three more school days until we're on Christmas vacation! My choir has a field trip in the morning and I'm also supposed to play the piano and sing in the school lobby before school. Should be a fun day!