May our Lord’s blessings be with you again this Christmas season.  We are thankful for each Christmas season because it reminds us again of God’s unfailing love and the salvation he sent us through the birth of his Son.

After another busy year it is fun to sit down and write our Christmas letter to our family and friends.  You cross our minds more than you might expect even though we may not send a card or call you on the phone.  Special people like our parents, brothers and sisters, Cathy, Aunt Eleanor…. Well, all of you.

Jean, Ellie, DeAnna and Marta traveled to Minnesota in August to visit family and attend the Carlson Clan Convention family reunion.  The weather was good and they got to enjoy swimming and water skiing, which are not as enjoyable in Alaska because the water temperature is usually too cold.  Joshua and Nathan stayed with Ric.  Ric had to work the whole time Jean and the girls were gone but they still managed to work on the house some and do some fun things together like the day they drove to Whittier for an ice cream cone.  It just happened they had to drive through the new 3 mile long railroad / highway tunnel to get there.

This summer was a busy fire season for Ric.  He went on fire assignment to Palmer, Alaska, Utah and Kentucky.  We are thankful he got home from Kentucky just before our anniversary and Thanksgiving.  The extra pay helps to buy building materials and pay bills but the reunion is the best part about fire assignments.  Ric is applying for a new Fire Management position at the same office in Soldotna.  Changing jobs will mean working longer hours during fire season but it’s also the type of work Ric likes best.  The job won’t be filled until around New Years so we have to wait and see if he gets the job.

Joshua is praying about going on another Teen Mission’s trip.  We are encouraging him to get involved in missions; perhaps he will be lead to the mission field someday.  If you care to get more information on Teen Missions their web page is: http://www.teenmissions.orgNo matter what type of work he decides to do when he grows up, the mission trips sure help develop a vision to help lost and needy people.  We covet your prayers in making these decisions.  I am sure that you will be hearing from Joshua in the next couple of months if he choose to go again.

In September we traveled to Kodiak for Ric’s nephew's wedding. It turned into a mini-vacation while we were there. We had a great time looking around Kodiak for the first time visiting fossil beach, seeing the boats in the harbor, watching whales spout water, and visiting an old WWII gun site. The wedding was nice and we welcome our new niece/cousin.
 
 

 We’re moving right along...

Our building project is progressing well. We are anxious to move upstairs and are hoping to make the move by spring. We have some expensive steps to complete before we can make the move, i.e., an exterior atrium door, kitchen cabinets and the flooring.We finished buying and installing the heat tubing and gypcrete. The in-floor heating makes the floors comfortable and provides an even and silent heating system.

Basement living has been tolerable, in fact comfortable partly because of the in-floor heat downstairs too and plenty of room to move around. We miss a lot of the sunshine because the basement windows are not very big but we are thankful to be able to be debt free as we build.

 Special Points of Interest:

• Minnesota—Jean, Ellie, DeAnna & Marta visited in Minnesota August 21—September 4th.
• Ric on Fire Assignment—Firefighting in Palmer, AK June 16-29, Utah July 24-August 3rd and Kentucky November 4—November 19th.
• We were able to buy the ½ acre lot next to us. We can expand our yard, cut trees for more sunshine, etc.
• Homeschooling— 6 years old Nathan is learning to read and add numbers. Grade levels this year are: Joshua 9^h, Ellie 7^th, DeAnna 5t^h .  They are all doing great!
• Marta Nicolette Plate is 1 year old, already.  She was born October 7, 1999
• 16 Years—We celebrated our 16^th anniversary, Nov 22!
• Another mission trip?—Joshua is praying about going on another mission trip in 2001.If he goes it will be for 2 months and requires lots of work, prayer and support.
• Building continues—we’ve got the sheetrock, and painting done, and the heat tubing and gypcrete  (heating system) installed.
• Joshua has his Alaska drivers permit.
• Piano lessons- Joshua, Ellie and DeAnna have been taking piano lessons for a year now.Their music is sounding pretty good already. (Thanks Renee’)
• Holidays— We spent Thanksgiving with Ron’s family (Ric’s brother).  We are planning to have all the Plate relatives over for Christmas.   It is especially nice to spend time with Dad & Mom Plate!
• Trip to Kodiak in September

Joshua 14 years I’ve been busy with school lately, although I do find time to do things like hauling wood with my cousin, playing with Nathan, helping at AWANAs, and spending time with friends.  My school subjects are algebra, science, government, grammar, a computer course, reading books and writing book reports, Spanish, and piano lessons. I have been enjoying most of my subjects, although some of them are a bit hard.  I have been hoping for snow, so we can go skiing and snowmachining, so far this year we don’t have any snow that has stayed.  If the Lord allows I hope to go on another Teen Mission trip in 2001.	Ellie 12 years I was blessed to go to Minnesota with Mom, DeAnna and Marta this summer.  We visited Grandpa and Grandma Carlson, along with other relatives.  We went tubing down (and sometimes up) Grandpa’s section of a river with cousins Elizabeth and Sam.  The first 2 days were spent getting used to the time zone and playing with Elizabeth.  We went to a Carlson Clan Convention, or the CCC as we kids called it.  The second day of the CCC DeAnna and I swam in the nice sunny weather with some cousins almost all day (We got sun burned!!!).  I am hoping that I can work as a Wrangler-in-training (WIT) at our Bible camp this summer.	DeAnna 11 years Hi this is DeAnna.   This summer in August I went to Minnesota with Mom, Ellie and Marta.  I enjoyed the time with my cousins, aunts, uncles, Grandpa and Grandma.   In September my family and I went to Kodiak for my cousin’s wedding. We rented a twelve seater van and went to Fossil beach.  The van was fun because we had lots of room. I had a great time and we found lots of fossils.   I turned eleven on November 1st. I had some friends and family over for my birthday. I am in fifth grade this year. Good by!	Nathan 6 years Nathan is a busy 6-year-old boy.    For months he was excited about his 6th birthday coming up, July 31.   Nathan spent a day with Daddy at work this fall.  Actually Daddy had a meeting in Anchorage so Nathan and Daddy got up early, 4:30 am, to drive to Anchorage for the day. After the meetings they did some shopping before returning home. He sat quietly through the meeting.   Nathan is doing well with his reading and beginning math lessons. He is also a Spark in AWANAs. Nathan is one of the fast runners for their game time.	Marta 12 month Marta is a cheerful, happy little girl.  Like Nathan, she tries hard to do the things the older kids do, which causes us extra work.  Marta started walking at 7½ months old so we had to baby proof our house early.   Marta loves to climb and too often we find her standing on top of things like chairs, tables and desks.  Fortunately her falls have been few and not too painful.