Merry Christmas 2006!

Merry Christmas everyone! We are so glad that you stopped on over to check out the Mazza family Christmas letter this year. We can’t believe that 2006 is almost over! It has gone by so fast…each year seems to go by faster and faster as the kids grow up.

As we do at every Christmas season, the Mazza family is rejoicing in the tremendous blessings that God has given us this year. We are especially thankful for all of you…our friends and family who bring us such joy. We hope that this holiday season finds you all healthy and happy and resting in the grace of God.

Here is an update on all of the Mazza monkeys:

Cassidy is officially a teenager! She turned 13 in November and is working her way through 8th grade. She continues to excel at playing the violin and performed in a few recitals this year as well as joining an ensemble at our church during the Advent season. Cassidy recently got braces put on her teeth, so she was in pain for a few days, but she is doing great now. She is into drawing and is showing great artistic talent.

Emily is now 8 years old and will turn 9 on January 16th. She is in third grade and loves music and animals. Emily had a fun year playing softball for the first time and her team was called the Fireballs. She was so bummed during the season when she got pretty sick and had to miss a few games, but she recovered to finish out the season and even score the winning run in one of the games.

Anthony turned 7 this year and is now in 1st grade. He loves to play with his best friend, Andrew, who lives across the street. They have a great time with scooters, bikes, crazy bones and Legos. Anthony has also become quite the expert at video games. This year he played T-ball again and Jamie coached his team, the Alley Cats.

Alison had her 5th birthday this year and also started Kindergarten at the same school as Emily and Anthony. She loves to play with her dolls and also play with her big sisters in whatever they are doing. Ally had a big year graduating from Preschool in June and then starting Kindergarten in August. She has a lot of great friends that she plays with and she is looking forward to joining Emily on the softball field this next year.

Paula continues to work at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, where we attend, as the Children’s Ministries Coordinator. At the beginning of this year, she started working full-time and has really had a wonderful year of growth. In March she traveled to Chicago with co-workers for a big children’s ministries convention and in October went on a retreat with her team in nearby Julian. She has led a complete overhaul of our church’s 2nd – 6th grade Sunday School, which has been met with much enthusiasm.

Jamie continues to work as systems consultant at a software company, training and implementing dealership management software at car and truck dealerships throughout North America. This year, work travel has taken him to Minnesota, Maryland, Edmonton (Canada), Wisconsin and Iowa. Jamie is driving a new car these days, a 2005 Nissan Maxima with plates that read KNGMNKY. He is still loving singing with the worship team at church, but recently decided to move on from working with high school students to make room for what God has in store next.

Family highlights from this year were a Spring Break trip to Arizona where we were able to see the Grand Canyon for the first time and visit with Jamie’s grandfather. We also were able to make several trips up north to Anaheim to play at Disneyland and California Adventure, culminating with a two-day trip in December. In September we celebrated one year in our new house in Encinitas.

We have put together quite a slideshow of pictures for you to check out. If you have a few minutes, go on over to our photo album and click on the slideshow link. We hope you enjoy our year in pictures.

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope that you enjoy many of God’s blessings in the New Year.