It is time. I will now proceed to go on and on about last year. I will make no promises about length because I've already broken all my previous promises about blog entry lengths. Don't be surprised if I start getting philosophical, poetical, or even break into song and dance while reflecting on my 2005. If you read the Christmas letter this may be a bit repetitive, but I tried to mention some different things. Friends, Romans, citizens, and random passersby lend me your ears.

Nothing much happened last year until May. Mother’s Day marked two years since my dad was installed as pastor at Calvary in Mechanicsburg. It is painful to think of best friends I had and hardly or never hear from. In Chicago I had the closest friends and loved the scorching summers and crisp winters with deep snows. In Medina I could bike anywhere in under 15 minutes, and everyone in town was a caring neighbor. Maybe retrospect isn’t 20/20; instead it seems to magnify both vice and virtue. On the 28th of May, my dad turned 53. It’s sad to see my parents getting older and weaker already. On a lighter note, my brother Nathan had his confirmation and is now a communing member of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Summer was very busy to say the least. It began with Joel reaching his teen years on the first of July. Four of my cousins, my brother, and I went to St. Louis for the 2005 Higher Things’ conference, Dare to be Lutheran. The sectionals on various teen issues, magnificent liturgical worship services several times a day, and the time with family all made for a wonderful experience. [breaks into song and dance (I warned you that might happen)] On the July 28, I turned 17. I am now to the point of begging my parents on hands and knees to let me get my driver’s license and a cell phone. As of now, I have been driving with only a permit for 18 months and had to go back and renew my permit.

Following the conference, we hooked up with my mom’s sister and her sister’s family. We traveled together on a 2000-mile plus loop out further to the west. We spent a week in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains where our dad flew in to meet us for the rest of the trip. Here we celebrated mom’s 51st Birthday. We also got to visit some of dad’s family whom we rarely get to see. We then spent a couple weeks traveling through much of the United States’ Midwest. We returned to Aunt Bonnie’s for the extended family’s camp out.

After nearly a month gone, we returned home for a week before spending another week in Ohio for a LCMS homeschoolers gathering and saw many of our friends from when we lived in Medina. After this exhausting vacation, we were glad to return to our home in PA for the few days of summer remaining.

Far too early the school year began again. I am still pressing on thru classes at our little local high school of 2,500. I do have some fun classes as well as clubs that make school fairly enjoyable, particularly Latin III, Art II, and the Teenage Republicans club. Beginning of this fall, we stopped taking piano lessons. The man we were going to was more concert pianist than he was teacher, so I personally think I can learn to play more complicated music on my own as fast as I was learning with him. I know I know my musical theory. Additionally, with my parents’ permission and money, I want to begin taking guitar and maybe even voice lessons. In the BSA I have moved up to Venture Crew. This is the next level up in the BSA in terms of activities. October 28 Nathan turned 15 completing our odd year and prompting his decision to join mom and me in our church’s small choir where I sing Bass.

In November I became more active again with MouthHouse. I revived the Peep War, and reorganized the P.K.F. (Peep Killing Forces). I also have helped out a bit in the somewhat dormant Llama Crusade and am interested in joining the Anti-Olive group I just found out about.

The Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons I have already written about in great detail, so I will not tire you by repeating it. Please comment. I appreciate hearing what people have to say about my life.

P.S. By the ninth day of Christmas everyone with a true love has nine dancing ladies, sixteen milking maids, twenty-one wet swans, twenty-four geese, twenty-five gold rings, twenty-four song birds, twenty-one hens, sixteen turtle doves, and nine partridges each in it's own fruit bearing pear tree.