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2009 was the best year yet! It is so fun being the grandpa. People sometimes ask Jeanie and me if bing the grandparents makes us feel old. Rather than be old, we choose to redefine the role of “grandparent” to include young ones like us. The photo was from our trip to Berkeley last summer to visit Erin & Justin.

In addition to this letter, I also create an collage of photos from the year. Click here to view the 2009 Collage

Erin and Justin are still in Berkeley as she continues to work towards her PhD. She’s happy to have passed her Prelims, which is a requirement to continue to PhD. This summer, they treated themselves to a nice vacation in Hawaii. They did it budget style, which had its own challenges, but they had a great time. You can read about it on Erin’s Blog here.

Kat is still in Asheville and working at Petsmart. Her talent for organizing things is helping a lot as she works in the warehouse. This year she got certified to operate the forklift. The very next day, she was training another worker on the forklift. It is terrific to see her become recognized and appreciated by her workmates.

Melody is half-way through her third year of Medical school at St. Louis University. It’s tough work, but she’s doing well. She is not thrilled with the cold St. Louis weather and hopes to do residency elsewhere.

Danae is busier than she’s ever been in her life. She loves being the mom of the sweetest little baby in the world. And she is finishing her Music Therapy internship. Soon she will be done and in May will graduate to officially become a Music Therapist! Danae writes a blog about her family here.

This is Mark’s last year stationed at the Nuclear Power School in Charleston. This spring, he expects to be transferred to the Naval Submarine base in Bangor, Washington to serve on the USS Nebraska. Particularly apropos since he’s from Nebraska.

Almost all our activities centered around our granddaughter, Molly. We’ve fallen into the trap of referring to people by their relationship to her. I have become “Pops”, Jeanie is “Gran”, Danae and Mark are “Molly’s parents”… It has been such a treat to have her close by for her first year. Supplying snuggles and kisses is a pleasure. Her first words have been Book, Mamma, Bubble, Clock, Papa & Pops (that’s me). She loves watching Sesame Street. She’s not walking yet, but pretty darned close to it.

Jeanie has devoted a great majority of her time to helping Danae and Mark this year. She spends most of her weeks in Charleston taking care of Molly while Danae finishes up her internship. She continues to work at the hospital in maternity usually one night a week.

This year Jeanie and I have made trips all over the country to see the family. We’ve been to Charleston more times than we care to count and to Asheville to see Kat a few times. Our big vacation trip last summer was to visit Erin & Justin in Berkeley. The Ogrens (Danae, Mark and Molly) joined us and we had a fabulous time.

Jeanie, Danae and Molly made a trek to Disneyworld for Molly’s birthday. Danae wanted to go one more time before they left Charleston. Jeanie is always ready to go to Disney. So our Christmas gift to Danae and Molly was the trip. My gift to Jeanie was the trip, and her gift to me was not having to go on the trip.

I, Jim have been a “married bachelor” much of the year. I don’t mind having the time alone, although it does not really feel like I am alone very much. The application support project that I joined just a little over a year ago has been very intense. Long work days make the weeks fly by.

Last year with my job, things were very uncertain. As most of you know, I work for Wachovia Bank, which was swallowed up by Wells Fargo as part of all the banking mess of 2008. I was unsure whether I would make the cut as the merger got shaken out. Sadly, many of my friends have lost their jobs. I was fortunate that my team’s function remained with the new organization. Along with that is the fact that we are now busier than ever.

This year I seem to have slacked off with the blog site. Not because I didn’t have a lot on my mind to write about, but because I’ve been so darned busy. My one blog project that did materialize was a tribute to each of my daughters and my granddaughter on their birthdays. I even did one for my parents on my birthday.

This year I reconnected with Danny Leonard who was the leader of a band I was in back in high school. Danny was preparing for a cross country bicycle ride to raise awareness for cancer and I wanted to be a part of that. I volunteered to create and maintain a web site for him to blog about the journey. What a privilege to be able to give back to a teacher who did so much for me. I had a lot of fun with it and learned a lot in the process too.

I am excited about the coming year and what it will bring. My friends and I have been learning and practicing better communications with one another. It sounds a little hokey, but I truly believe that most people have never really felt listened to or encouraged. I hope to be able to continue to explore this and maybe write about it a bit in 2010.