What a year this has been. For us it began normally enough. KiKi and PopPop traveled up to spend a few days with Erin, Chris and the boys, in particular to offer some help with the newly-arrived twins who were not giving Mommy or Daddy much opportunity for sleep. As the picture indicates, everyone survived and life goes on. From there, we jaunted over to Spain to spend a week with son David as he continued his Air Force assignment there. He met us in Madrid, played tourist with us as we traveled around to see the sights for four days then headed down to his apartment in Albacete for a few more days. From there it was a week in Greece for the two old codgers. Once we got back to the USA, things began to unravel around the world and we all began to grapple with the pandemic in which we continue to find ourselves.

            Life does go on, of course, even though incredibly modified. Erin and Chris just celebrated their fifth anniversary and five years living in their Indian Land, South Carolina (suburban Charlotte) home. Their three boys are utterly precious, Davis and Ryan turned one on November 17; big brother Noah is almost two-and-a-half and is talking up a storm. Chris continues to manage the Charlotte area operations of IDI, a large building insulation corporation. Erin continues enjoying her role at Payzer, a growing financial technology startup in Charlotte.

            Captain David Leininger is continuing his career as a US Air Force officer. He is now back in the states after that stint in Spain where he was involved with a Leadership Training program for NATO pilots. He is now in North Carolina where he is working with both the Air Force and US Army. It was nice to be able to visit with him in Europe several times (the picture is from last January in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid) but it is certainly nice to have him back on this side of the pond where he is within an easy drive.

            KiKi and PopPop (a/k/a Mom and Dad) continue to enjoy retirement life on Hilton Head Island. Covid-19 has certainly impacted our lives, but so far has not infected us (fingers crossed). Christie remains active in music playing handbells at church and singing in the Choir (all videotaped since in-person worship has had to be suspended and will not resume until it is safer to gather again). That also means David has not done as much preaching as normal because those folks for whom he would fill in are not able to travel either. The one surprise is that the wedding requests keep coming in - there have been lots of modifications (much rescheduling, some unavoidable cancellations, but a number of last-minute surprises - “Let’s do this anyway, just us and the family on the beach” - as well). Almost 100 Wedding and Renewal of Vows ceremonies again this year despite the virus.

            As we noted last year, David’s publisher (CSS in Lima, Ohio) asked that he write another book, his seventh, a sermon series on the Gospel lessons for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany of Year B in the lectionary. The book is titled The 2,000-Year-Old Preacher: 21^st century sermons on 1^st century texts. It is available now from CSS, Amazon and, along with all the previous books, on our web site - http://leiningers.com). The book is dedicated to Noah, Davis and Ryan in hopes that these texts and stories will become as precious to them as they are to PopPop.

            This surely has been an interesting year for all of us. Our prayer is that 2021 will be totally UNinteresting for us, even boring!!! God’s blessings to you. Stay safe.

                                                                                                   David & Christie