Holiday Letter 2014

I'm having a hard time getting ready for Christmas this year. Too busy, too stressed, too depressed by what's going on in the world at large. I'm stuck here at work awaiting delivery of a chest freezer so I typed up my annual holiday letter and that's when it happened, as it always happens every year. We're OK. The world at large may seem totally fucked up, but my little family is OK.

That sounds like a complete pile of ass-wipery because it sounds selfish and uncaring, but it's really not.

We're OK. Sometimes that's where you need to start from to even be able to move out of your mental hole and make a difference. Find the (sometimes tiny and seemingly insignificant) things that are OK in your life, hold tight to those as life preservers and go on and dive out into the rest of the mess.

People who have nothing to lose do desperate and sometimes foolish things. People who have everything to gain change the world.

It's almost 2015. Lets change the world.

Happy Holidays From the Dixons!

I can’t think of a way to open this without sounding trite or silly. Everyone has had a busy year. No one can believe 2014 is almost over. So, whatever. Here’s our ‘bringing ya’ll up to date holiday letter’. Ho ho ho.

Our big ‘thing’ this year was our annual road trip- and it was a doozy. Just shy of 7,400 miles north to Montana, west to Washington, south to Arizona and home. We saw everything on the way- everything. Three weeks of everything and it was glorious if exhausting. Pretty sure Alec took almost 2,000 photographs.

I passed my exam to be a Certified Veterinary Practice Manager- there are only about 400 CVPM’s and it’s kind of a big deal- I’m getting head-hunted from all over the country, which is very flattering for a chick who barely finished high school and is only 7 years away from retirement. I’m loathe to leave a job that allows for me to take three week vacations, though- even for more money.

Ward’s doing great- all his exams and scans continue to show ‘nothing of note in his head’. We love that result. He’s assumed most of the house and farm management since I’ve been taking college courses and studying for my exam.

Alec is finishing up 9th grade and is a solid A’s and a few B’s kinda student. His group of friends in Denton are again competing in the Future Problem Solvers program and they just took a three day field trip to participate in a workshop at Heifer International in Arkansas. He and his dog Bonnie have gone to some obedience and pre-agility classes and he still takes art and guitar lessons. Through the magic of layaway, he’s purchased a new steel string acoustic guitar and keyboard and now has his eyes set on an amp and electric guitar. Yay!

We lost Joe’s mom Edna in August. She was almost 95 and I miss her every day.

Joe continues to be one of the most popular authors in ‘mens adventure’ books on Amazon Kindle and he has a huge following of devoted fans.

We are still surrounded by fur and feathers- I finally got myself another ‘co-pilot sidekick’ dog- it’s been five years since I lost Spooj. Her name is Sorcha. She’s a uniquely beautiful blue-eyed red and white Border Aussie and she’s perfect.

Horse, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, various dogs, cats and of course the guinea pigs all present and accounted for. This year my pigs have won multiple best in show awards and did very well at Nationals. Yep, ridiculous.

Wishing only good adventures and the best of everything for all of you in 2015!

-the Dixons

The Dreaded Annual Holiday Letter

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2012

Happy Holidays from sunny, warm Texas- I put up the Christmas decorations today in bare feet and a tank top- it was almost 80 and picture perfect! You’d think after growing up in Wisconsin I’d feel all nostalgic about decorating in the ice cold or freezing rain, but yanno, not really at all.

We actually had a pretty laid back year for once and that’s A-OK. No big vacations, no stressful trips to MD Anderson.

Ward’s doing great- his teeth are giving him trouble now from the radiation he had at the beginning of this whole cancer-thing, but the dental department at MD Anderson is formulating a plan to fix him right up without endangering that very precious and hard-won graft.

Alec is participating in Friday Homeschool Co-op classes in Denton, which is 6 hours of driving for 4 hours of class, but it’s well worth it. He’s taking acoustic guitar lessons and is on the Athens community center swim team, as well as still taking art class every Wednesday afternoon. He’s going to be THIRTEEN in February and has some sort of fur on his upper lip. I can barely see it since he’s several inches taller than I am now.

Erika and her husband Dave celebrated their one year anniversary and she’s still working on The Hill as a Legislative Director. After recovering from a running injury, she’s faster than ever.

Son Dave and his beautiful girlfriend Kristin got engaged…date to be determined.

Joe didn’t make his annual trip to Montana this summer because Edna got pneumonia in August, but he’s already planning for next summer. He’s started writing adventure stories and posting them on Kindle- he sells over 1,000 per month and is listed as a top #100 adventure author right along with the “big guys” whose books make the NYTimes Bestseller’s List.

Edna turned 93. She got a touch of pneumonia, checked herself out of the hospital AMA and 3 days later was sitting at her kitchen table eating pizza and drinking a beer. Her garden kept us in okra and tomatoes for months, and her roses are just beautiful.

Nothing new for me, just in deeper with all the old stuff- I’m simultaneously furthering my managerial training and implementing a lot of improvements at the clinic and working towards both marketing my existing books (now available from Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble online, eBay, and at least 20 other online bookstores in a dozen countries worldwide) as well as starting new writing projects. It’s all right here- www.sheri-dixon.com

We took a few mini-trips- to Missouri for the annual fall Homestead.org Gathering (and had the spring gathering here at our farm), to NASA for our aspiring aeronautics engineer, and to Galveston for me. Ahhh…Galveston.

The farm ebbs and flows; we lost our old cat Oz at almost 18 years old, 2 of our older goats and our newest but beloved Beau, a gorgeous guardian dog who died of congenital kidney failure at only 3 years old. But we have new kittyboys Fred and Leopold, 2 new nanny goats and a new guard dog- Dixiedawg the pyr, who helps Sugarbearmarshmallowdog and Wendy the beagle keep the monsters away. Shar the Arabian mare turned 20 this spring, and we’re babysitting our ‘adopted’ son Jordan’s dog Sissy while he’s overseas. The guinea pigs continue unabated.

Wishing all of you a very happy Holiday, and a New Year filled with love and happiness!

The Dixons