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Christmas 2005
Dear Family and Friends,
As Christmas Day has come and gone, we Lynchburg Thienemanns would like to take this opportunity to share with our family and friends some thoughts on a most powerful year - 2005.
It was with immense sadness that we witnessed the Hurricane Katrina flooding of Keith’s beloved hometown of New Orleans this past August. Thankfully, none of his family or friends lost their lives but numerous loved ones lost their homes and all of their possessions. Lucy’s family in Mississippi also suffered some loss of property in the storm. Keith’s childhood home, built by his grandfather Thienemann in 1923 in the Broadmoor section of New Orleans, sustained well over 7 feet of water for weeks on end. Lucy and Keith are making a return visit to New Orleans in March of 2006 to see for themselves the terrible destruction and to visit family and friends.
Grant began the year as a full-time student at Central Virginia Community College (CVCC), taking programming and general education courses. He was at CVCC for the winter and spring terms. Ten days after he finished the spring term at CVCC, Grant returned to Radford University for the summer sessions and earned a 4.0 average for the second session. He is now a junior at Radford, majoring in Software Engineering. Some of his more interesting and challenging assignments have been to program the card game “War” and the “Knight’s Tour” in chess (where the knight touches every square on the chess board once and only once, using legal moves). Grant picked up a job at Radford, serving as proctor in some of the computer labs. He also is in demand whenever he is back in Lynchburg for freelance computer repair work and web design. He is working in the computer department at Virginia Episcopal School (VES) over his Christmas break. At the beginning of the year, Grant became an Apple computer convert and is now hoping to establish a career in an Apple environment. During the spring, Grant totally built a new engine for his 1974 Volkswagen Beetle. Check out his website at Grantsbeetle.com – it nicely reflects both his programming and mechanic’s ability. Grant celebrated his 20th birthday in March.
Sam began the year pondering his college decision. He ultimately settled on the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville where he is a first year student. Aside from his academic pursuits, Sam sings in the 90-voice University Singers choir and the 18-voice Chamber Choir at UVA. Sam graduated from VES in May where he received the school award as the top English student. He was inducted into the Cum Laude Society at VES in the spring. Sam was on the swim team and the cycling team at VES. In May, he repeated his “win” on the annual Thunder Ridge cycling climb (13 miles uphill ascending 3300 feet), besting the best of twelve other riders from VES and Woodberry Forest by ten minutes. One hour ten minutes to go up; less than twenty minutes to go back down! His cycling activities were abruptly curtailed by a dog running under his front wheel as he led a pace line at 29mph in late June. He broke his collar bone in the ensuing wreck and ended up having surgery to set the bone with a four-inch pin. The pin was removed in November (now, there’s a souvenir!) and the same week, Sam got the good news that his wisdom teeth had to be removed in late December. Sam’s summer job was an internship with Areva, a nuclear power company here in Lynchburg. Before heading off to college, he was active in the VES Glee Club, Cantate, and in the Chancel Choir, Chancel Ringers, Youth Choir and Youth Ringers at First Presbyterian. Sam turned 19 in October.
This has been a big year for Keith’s company, ImageArtWork.com. His work is now for sale at the Artifacts Gallery in Wyndhurst (Forest, Virginia) and he has been the featured artist at the Lynchburg Camera Shop and the Mud House in Charlottesville. He had record sales at two craft fairs. As the official photographer for pianist Gustavo Romero, Keith had his work posted online at NPR.org and for another client published in the news magazine News and World Report. Keith continues to serve as tenor section leader for the Chancel Choir at First Presbyterian Church. As he has from its founding, Keith manages Cantate, the Children’s Choir of Central Virginia. Keith and Lucy celebrated their 22nd anniversary in 2005, on Keith’s 47th birthday.
Lucy was certified as a Project Management Professional in August and has moved into a project management role at SunTrust Bank. She remains active on the Churches for Urban Ministry Board of Directors. At First Presbyterian, Lucy rings with the Chancel Ringers and joined the Budget and Finance Committee in the fall. Lucy was together with her three sisters as well as other family members in Huntsville, Tennessee in July to celebrate Homecoming at First Presbyterian where her sister Martha Anne serves as pastor. Martha Anne was recognized for her tenth anniversary as pastor of the church. Lucy and Martha Anne spent an idyllic five days at Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina in October.
Other notable events of the year… Our niece/cousin, Sybil Cole, married Carl Soyars on October 23rd. Keith and Sam sang at the wedding and Grant was a groomsman. We welcome Carl to the family circle! The annual Thienemann Mardi Gras party was held on March 4th with 53 revelers in attendance, with special appearances by Kathy and Jim Hug, Thienemann relatives from New Jersey. Although Grant could not participate due to school commitments, Lucy, Keith and Sam spent five days at Emerald Isle Beach, North Carolina with two of Lucy’s sisters and their families. Lucy, Keith and Sam joined family and friends for a trip to Baltimore, Maryland to see the New York Yankees play the Baltimore Orioles (professional baseball). Grant was once again tied up with school (the story of his life this year). Family gathered at the home of Lucy’s sister Susie for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. We returned to Reidsville (North Carolina) for a post-Christmas brunch.
This time of year lends itself to reflection on the year past and hope for the year to come. As we look back over an eventful year, we hope that you enjoy all the blessings of Christmas both at this holy season and throughout the upcoming year. We especially wish peace, joy and hope to our friends and family on the Gulf Coast who are still dealing with the aftermath of the summer’s ferocious hurricane season. We pray that 2006 will bring much needed peace to the world – we are indeed blessed to have you as part of our world.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2006!
Lucy, Keith, Grant and Sam
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