Happy Holidays from the
McCormicks!
Hoping
your 2009 will be your best year so far. 2008
has been a great and mellow year for us. Meghan
started work on a master’s degree at the School for International Training in
Brattleboro, while Gavin started his fourth year in electrical engineering at
UVM. Louise is still brokering
lumber and began learning about trading in the stock market, and I am still
massaging data at the Health Department and doing digital photography.
Gavin worked this summer doing some engineering for Liquid Measurement
Systems in Georgia, VT. He learned a
lot setting up displays for measuring fuel in military helicopters.
It is interesting how much engineering now-adays is programming
microchips. After school began again
in the fall, Gavin continued working part time there.
He is planning on going straight into a master’s program in EE.
He will be taking the exam for an engineering license next year. Gavin
and Erika are still an item, though she is extremely busy at UVM, volunteering
at Essex Rescue and working at the hospital dialysis unit. So, we don’t see
her as often as we like. She and Gavin went to Florida for a vacation in March
for his 21st birthday.
Meghan left her Little Eagle Bay apartment to move to a “cottage”
near Brattleboro. She is studying
about how to resolve conflicts among cultures.
She tells about all her reading and what makes it down to earth for her
is the fact that so many of her ancestors were personally involved, like in
Northern Ireland. Her current beau
is JP Candelier, who is a computer programmer, musician, and a fine
photographer. Google his name and see his work!
Meghan will have to do an internship for her thesis. She is planning on
working in India. Meghan has been
trying the vegan lifestyle, which made Thanksgiving a challenge for us
carnivores. Besides the usual
vegetables, we let her do her thing in the kitchen for her dishes.
Living without rhubarb custard pie at Thanksgiving would be too much to
ask of me!
Last
May I headed out for another ancestry tour, but to save Louise the fun of
searching cemete
ries, she
stayed home with our beloved doggy Otis. I
looked through numerous cemeteries and other sites in NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, IA and
MO. The grave of Rev. Francis McCormick at New Salem Methodist Church outside
Cincinnati was very inspiring. I
went on to Connersville, IN, where I found the grave of my John McCormick who
was a
Rev. War
soldier. I stopped in Champaign, IL,
to pick up sister Sue who is the real family historian. I saw my sister Carol
and brothers Jerry and Brian also. We went on to places west, stopping at
cemeteries, historic sites and court houses along the way.
While passing through Kahoka, MO, we got a copy our parents’ marriage
license… Dad lied about his age! I
took over 700 photos and learned a lot of family history.
Louise’s
business, like nearly all in the world, slowed down a bit this year, which gave
her time to learn how to do day trading on the stock market.
The lumber buying and selling is her real job, but she calls the stock
market legalized gambling “and exciting.”
She had a real treat this year, when she and her four sisters were able
to get together in Lebanon, NH, for a reunion.
All the brothers in law were there also to fill the house.
It has been a very long time since everyone was together, and we took a
lot of photos and chatted a lot.
We
are looking forward to being together with Meghan and Gavin for Christmas, and
hoping all our friends and family have a wonderful holiday season.