Christmas Letter

This Year’s Christmas Letter
sent by traditional mail to family and friends about
a week ago and to the worldwide web today

We just finished up with our annual Open House here at the parsonage. That has to mean it’s time to get out the Christmas cards. The crowd at the Open House was larger than it has been in the past and that also means something: Good things are happening with the Rymans in Graham, North Carolina. Got a few minutes? Good! We’ll fill you in.

Dan Vines’ family was here for the Open House. Dan is Miriam’s fiancé. That’s right; Mim is engaged. They haven’t set a date yet, so stay tuned. Mim and Dan both work at Duke—he in the Graduate Studies Program and she in the Department of Education. She is the Staff Assistant as well as the Assistant to the Director of Undergraduate Studies. When they are not working at Duke, they’re raising Angus, Mim’s Black Lab mixed with a wild man. In fact, he’s whining and yipping upstairs as I type, anticipating her arrival home.

Cristin and Matthew are married over two years now and remodeling their home in Durham. She continues to work as Program Coordinator for Duke’s Information Science & Information Studies. She is also doing more photography and other arts and crafts projects again. Matthew has moved on from Duke and now sells real estate for Fonville Morisey Realty out of Chapel Hill. They have become members of Newhope Church in Durham. Though they live and worship in Durham, they still made it to the Open House and come to church here in Graham on special occasions.

Susan is in her 17th year at Duke, these past few years as Administrative Business Manager of the College of Arts and Sciences. She balances that with walking (a lot), playing piano for the church’s worship, sewing some again, helping a new friend get her wedding planned and accomplished, and making an even better home than ever. Who would have thought that was possible? Part of that were our excursions this year to High Point to find new furniture. We found beautiful, quartersawn oak, Mission furniture for our dining room and bedroom. The new dining room table sports drawers on each end where we are able to keep our devotional materials. As a result our devotional life as a couple has been enriched. Early most mornings, the light is on in the dining room, where we have had great conversations and prayer together this year. We mention this because it is something we looked forward to before we were married and are only just now really enjoying. Sometimes, we guess, you just have to wait a long time for some of the good stuff to happen.

Mark is enjoying his seventh year at Graham Friends Church where there has been a 70% attendance growth this year (speaking of being patient for things to happen), the average age has dropped from 68 to 41, and finally, there are lots of children and youth in church for him to play with and teach. He continues to love his cops and ministry as Chaplain to them at the local Police Department. Mark was also welcomed to the Rotary Club this year (a long-time aspiration).

You can understand why we had to kick the other kids to the garage and the upstairs bathroom when the 70 friends came to the Open House. What other kids? Baba, our Golden Retriever, and Gracie and Pax, our two cats. The many guests have left and the pets have joined us again in the living room—enjoying the scent of the prettiest tree we’ve ever had—where we sit, hoping you too have a happy and blessed Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
—Susan and Mark Ryman