Schumaker Holiday Letter 2009

Quite a few of my friends and family will be receiving their holiday cards from me very shortly. Inside the card is the annual letter that is becoming more common in most holiday cards. I thought I would post the letter here for people to see as well. That way, if you do not receive a holiday card from me...you will know what Rob and I have been up to this past year. I hope that everyone who reads this has a safe and happy holiday season!

Holiday Season 2009

Happy Holidays! It looks like I missed my personal deadline to get the cards and newsletter out before Thanksgiving this year. Rob and I have been pretty busy, so finding time to sit down and type something out has been sparse. Rob and I hope that you all had a wonderful year. Here is what Rob and I were up to this past year.

We spent most of January at home. Rob received a Sports Data Mining Book proposal with a deadline of November 2009. He is writing the book with his academic advisor from Arizona. I kept busy with work and school. We had quite a bit of snow in the month of January and counted down the days until Spring!

In February, I finished a difficult Winter Trimester at school. I could not wait to be done with Economics and a Developmental Psychology course. I am happy to say that I did pass both classes and excited that I do not have to take any more classes from the economics department at school.

March brought the Spring Trimester for me, which consisted of Math and 20th Century World History. Rob was invited to a conference in China during the month of June.

April was an interesting month for me at work. AMC decided that all of the administrative assistant’s theatre wide would be no more. I had the choice of either stepping down back to the basic Film Crew level or have no job. I opted in keeping a job at the movie theatre due to not wanting to change companies. Rob and I hosted a neighborhood party to help get the baseball season back in motion.

In May, Rob and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We spent a quiet day at the house and just went to dinner. We planned to do a big celebration in June when we went to China.

June was the month of travel, travel, travel. The first weekend of June, I took a trip out to Oregon to help celebrate my grandparent’s 50 years of marriage. The following weekend, I turned 29 years old and Rob surprised me with a last minute birthday trip down to Eastern Tennessee. I had not yet been to TN and was very excited. We spent the weekend in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area of TN. A day spent at Dollywood was the favorite for me. Rob had fun showing me the sites and places that he had been to several times, which included a hike up to Clingman’s Dome. At the end of the trip, I concluded that I loved the Smokey Mountain area and could possibly live there. The end of June brought a ten-day trip to China. Rob was invited to present a paper at the China Summer Workshop of Information Management (CSWIM) Conference, which was held in Guangzhou, China. Guangzhou is southern China not too far from Hong Kong. We spent three days in Guangzhou for the conference and then flew up to Beijing exploring the city for the remainder of our trip. Since it was so hot, we did only a few things, but did experience the Forbidden City. We had hoped to get up to the Great Wall of China, but just ran out of time. Rob and I both agreed that we would like to go back to Beijing, and would go in early spring or fall when it is not so hot.

The first part of July, we spent re-cooperating from our China Trip. It took us about twelve days to get our sleeping pattern fully back to normal. This consisted of going to bed around 4pm, waking up around 1am and heading over to Denny’s for lunch since nothing was open. Near the end of July, Rob's sister, Carol, visited from Tucson for 9 days. I met Carol down in NYC the first couple of days of her trip. I showed her around the city by going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the first day and the second day was spent shopping at the world’s largest Macy’s down at Herald Square. During her visit, Rob took her up to Yankee Candle Village up in Massachusetts.

August brought an Ohio trip for Rob to help clean out his parent’s attic. August also brought one last trip for Paul and Sharon up to our house for the summer. Since Rob enjoyed the Yankee Candle Village so much, we took his parents up as well. The end of August school started again for both Rob and I. I am now a junior at Iona with just a year and a half left before I receive a bachelor’s in Social Work.

In September, Rob and I went up to The Big Exposition, which is located in Springfield, Massachusetts. One who does not live in the New England states may ask what the Big E is. Think of one large state fair for all of the New England states. Each New England state owns a state house and hosts local food vendors and exhibits. The fair lasts three weeks and thousands of people go every year. This year was the first year for us, and we will definitely be going back next year.

October brought a trip to San Antonio & Houston, Texas. We spent a weekend in San Antonio with my sister’s family and my parents. My nephew turned two this year and this was the first big birthday party for him with family and friends. While in San Antonio we went to the Riverwalk and also spent the morning over at the Alamo. Sadly enough, I was not able to find the basement of the Alamo. Part two of our trip was in Houston for the IIMA Conference. Rob and fellow Iona colleagues presented at this conference. As part of the conference, we spent about three hours over at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. That had to be one of the coolest things. Since there was a moon mission going on at the time, we were unable to view mission control. That would have been awesome to see, but we did have the opportunity to view the Saturn V Rocket. Halloween, Rob and I went to Ohio to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with his parents.

November is low key here at the Schumaker household. I am busy with working at the movie theatre, due to some of the larger holiday films out in theatres. Between work and school I do not have a lot going on. Rob’s book deadline is the end of this month. I know he is looking forward to being done with that for a month before it is handed back to him for any revisions that are needed. My Aunt Lori and two cousins stopped by for a visit this month. It was a great visit and I look forward to spending more time with her and the boys.

December will end the year with more work and school. Most colleges close for the month of December, but since I am on a trimester schedule, I will have class in December. Winter Trimester consists of another psychology course and then a required social work human behavior course. In December, I will also learn where my internship for the spring will be. Social Work majors spend fifty hours in two separate internships junior year in the spring.

I hope you have enjoyed catching up with the Schumaker family and that you have a very Happy New Year. Before you know it, we will be sitting down next year typing out the year events again. Estimated 2010 trips for us will consist of Oregon for my 30th birthday in June, Rob may possibly have a conference in Stockholm, Sweden also during the month of June. Mid October, we will be heading off to Amsterdam, Netherlands for the annual IIMA Conference.

Peace, Love, & Happiness,
Amy & Rob Schumaker