I was so buried with school last year that I never got Christmas cards in the mail...I hope this Christmas letter finds all the people I love in good health and spirits!  Things are going well at the University of Missouri.  I've finished my last semester of regular coursework and will take comprehensive exams in February.  After I finish the 20 hours of monitored essay writing and then give a verbal defense of my answers, I get to write a small book on some academic topic!  Oh boy!  As my father would say, "They don't give those degrees away."

I've also had my first real teaching experience this semester when three weeks before the Fall semester started, I was offered the chance to teach a class of 71 upperclassmen in the complex (for me) art of advertising research methods.  It's a job that forces me to study more than my students.  I teach it again this winter and hope it will be easier the second time around.  I was also lucky enough to get a chance to do some consulting work through the Center for Advanced Social Research in the Missouri School of Journalism.  (You would have thought it was my birthday when my business cards arrived).  Once again, the work is complex and helps me appreciate the education I have.

Luckily, there is no sad family news to report this year.  The whold family is healthy and happy.  My sister Rachel and her husband just bought a house in Springfield.  My brother Brian finished Mom's kitchen so that she finally has the kitchen island and accent lighting she always wanted.  He even knocked out a wall so she could include the 'sun room'.  It looks great and we enjoyed it during deer season.  That was another new thing...this year we celebrated Thanksgiving over deer season so that Becky and Tod could get away from the pharmacy and celebrate with us.  It worked out well and made for a lively celebration since we had the five grandchildren and all the siblings in the house.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
-Deborah McDonald