Christmas 2006

Merry Christmas! Welcome to your first interactive custom-made Christmas letter. Each year I sit down and write about our year. I try to be entertaining. I try to be funny. Well, this year I thought I would employ a few helpers—namely YOU! Yes, you will be helping to write my Christmas letter, so if it’s not funny you know whom to blame!

DIRECTIONS: DO NOT TURN OVER THE PAGE!!!! Fill in the blanks on this side of the page with words that fit the description (i.e., noun, verb, etc.). After you have filled in ALL the blanks turn the page over and write each of your words in the appropriate blank in the letter. Then read and enjoy. For you home schooling moms out there, give it to your kids and call it a grammar lesson ☺.

1. ________________________(name of person/pet in your family)

2. ________________________(adjective)

3. ________________________(active verb, past tense)

4. ________________________(animal found by or in ocean, plural)

5. ________________________(adjective)

6. ________________________(adjective)

7. ________________________(number between 20 and 50)

8. ________________________(number between 20 and 50)

9. ________________________(number less than 250)

10. _________________________(adjective)

11. _________________________(adjective)

12. _________________________(weather condition-adjective)

13. _________________________(adjective)

14. _________________________(adjective)

15. _________________________(adjective)

16. __________________________(adjective)

17. __________________________(adjective)

18. __________________________(adjective)


Dear _________________1,

Merry Christmas from the Johnson’s! 2006 was full of fun at the Johnson house. We won’t bore you with all of the happenings – just the highlights.

We went on two _______________2 trips this year. The first was to Gulf Shores, AL where we _____________3 in the sand and sea. We also saw lots of ________________4 there. In July, we went to Yellowstone Park. We loved the ______________5 mountains and the _______________6 animals we saw. The only difficulty on the vacation came from our van, which stalled _________7 times as we went over the pass into the park and _________8 times as we traveled through the mountains in Wyoming. It took us ten hours to travel about __________9 miles on our first day coming home. Next year we will be doing a tour of flat grasslands!

Evan & Chris took their second annual trek up to the Boundary Waters. They would describe their trip as _________10 and _______________11. The weather was rainy and __________12 most of the time but they had fun as well.

We had some deaths in our family this year as well ☹. Our ____________13, ____________14 hamsters both died this year. They are both buried out back – we are starting a regular pet cemetery. We also had a fish die but he is not buried out back, he was flushed. Now you may think that we are having a pet deficit in our house now – NOT SO. We lost three but we gained one ___________15 hamster, four _____________16 finches and ten _______________17 fish. So if we add Snickers into that mix we have an average of two pets per person.

That said, we will hopefully need four more pets in the coming year to keep our pet to person ratio the same. Once again we are hoping to add four more feet to our home – the feet will come with four hands, eyes, ears, etc. We have just begun the _________________18 process of adopting a sibling group from Ethiopia. Won’t next year’s Christmas letter be fun!!!!

I hope that our little letter has brought a smile to your face this Christmas season. We want to leave you with more than a smile though. We want you to know that there is a wellspring of joy available anytime to anyone. That source of joy is the same Jesus Christ whose birthday we are celebrating. He didn’t stay a baby but grew to a man and then died on the cross so that we could spend eternity with him in heaven. That knowledge is the source of unending joy and happiness and it is available free-of-charge to all.

“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose sin is no longer counted against them by the Lord”
Romans 4:7-8

We are wishing you all of that joy this Christmas season!

Merry Christmas from the Johnson’s