Christmas Newsletter from Jen Savage and John DeGroff!

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I love reading Christmas newsletters, and thought some of you might like to read ours... (Please feel free to post yours as well!)

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Welcome to Jen Savage and John DeGroff's 2006 Christmas Update!!

2006 has been an amazing year for us. There have been many ups and downs, some busy times, some big days, and some fun and friends thrown in for good measure.

The most important day of our year was August 19th. We committed ourselves to each other in front of God and family in the chapel of First United Methodist Church, Warsaw, Indiana. It was a very small and intimate wedding, with just a few guests, but lots of love. Thanks to everyone who was involved, whether you were there in body or spirit that day! Click to see a wedding photo at http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/reoracer/3914.jpg

Our next biggest undertaking was purchasing a house. On July 14th, Jen signed a mortgage on a lovely home that fit every need and want we had. We wanted to be sure that, besides normal living space, there would be room for John to have an office and our wish was to also have a room dedicated to our love of books. We have both, plus a large entertainment/fitness room downstairs! There is even enough space for the cats to stay away from each other (most of the time...) Jen moved in at the end of July, and John moved in Mid-August, and we are STILL unpacking! Here is a photo of our new house: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/reo ... efront.jpg

During May, we got an unexpected surprise. One night during a thunderstorm, Jen left her apartment to go to work, and tripped over a small furrball in the dark stairway. The weather continued for several days, and the furrball in the dark turned out to be a very small and loving grey cat. After a week living on the stairs and a quick vet checkup, we gained another family member, Stormy. http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/reo ... myheld.jpg We also still have Jen's gorgeous but temperamental calico, Fratzi. http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/reo ... ziheld.jpg (sorry, this is an older photo!)

After moving to Warsaw in August, John has been working on getting his house in Ohio squared away. The place is filled with antiques inherited from his folks. Some of them have made their way to Indiana, while the rest will go to John's daughter, Sara. (She and Daniel, John's son, will end up with everything anyhow, so why not start now?)

Speaking of Sara, she and her husband Grant have two boys, Ethan, age 6 and Corbin, age 4. They're at that age where they're either planning murder, doing minor surgery on each other, or finding out what does and does not fit into electric outlets.

Sara and Grant completely lost everything in the Decatur, Indiana flood a few years ago, and it's been a slow process coming back. They are considering moving to the Ohio residence and living there.

John's son Daniel is 15. Insert your own perspective here regarding the care and feeding of a teenage boy. John and Daniel have been working on getting to know each other better, and sometimes that works out, especially when they can find some music they both can tolerate listening to together.

John has been doing freelance writing projects for the local newspaper, The Warsaw Times-Union; Whatzup, a weekly music/entertainment paper, and some on-line work. There are several other projects in the works right now as well.

In other news, Jen continues to wark at Cardinal Center's various group homes. The folks there are more friend and family than client after all these years! She also still participated in 3 Champcar ( http://www.champcar.ws) racing events, doing Pit Condition flags at each: Milwaukee in June, Cleveland in July, and Road America in September, which John also attended. Our wonderful racing friends threw us a surprise wedding reception at the track there!

Jen has continued her running, and completed 4 marathons this year: Martian Marathon, Dearborn, Michigan in April, Trail Marathon in Pinckney, Michigan in April, Lake City Marathon here in Warsaw in September, and the Indianapolis Marathon in October. There have been many other races as well, most notably Jen's 2:03 in the Indy Mini Marathon (half marathon) in May, just 6 short days after the Trail Marathon! One of the favorite races of the year is the Shoe Sucker 7 miler in April. It lived up to it's name this year, and was incredibly muddy (and fun!) Check out Jen's muddy friends post race: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/reoracer/JenMud.jpg One last event awaits Jen the week after Christmas. It is the longest of the year, the HUFF 50k in Huntington, Indiana on December 30th. Jen hopes to finish the 32.4 mile course in less than 7 and a half hours!

As you can see, we keep busy to try and keep ourselves out of trouble. 2006 has been a good year for us, and we look forward to 2007, our first full year together.

Merry Christmas,
Jen Savage and John DeGroff