Merry Christmas from the McConnell Family!
2008 Christmas in Carolina!
Dan, Jeannine, Ryan, Rachel and Ross send best wishes to you and yours for a wonderful 2008 holiday season and a happy and healthy 2009!
2008 was quite a year at the McConnell house! We started out on January 1st, 2008 with Dan going to Budapest, Hungary on a mission trip with our church (in Missouri:), Calvary West! He spent 11 days there providing music for a missionary retreat. It was a great time of fellowship for the group!
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Budapest was beautiful. The group was greatly blessed by the time spent there!
While Dan was off gallivanting around Europe, Jeannine was home renovating the kitchen and master bath and re-carpeting their home in
This was Rachel's senior year at Troy Buchanan High School. What a year it was! She was Senior Drum Major, involved in Key Club, choir, and focused on college applications and keeping her grades up! She was one of seven Valedictorians. She was selected to attend University of Missouri at Kansas City's Accelerated School of Medicine, a six-year BA/MD program. She is 1 semester down and loving it!
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Meanwhile, Jeannine was still traveling and working her own company. In March an opportunity came up for her to take a job at TIAA-CREF (biggest company you never heard of!) in Charlotte North Carolina (where Ryan has loved living for the last year!) SO - after days of deliberating and anguishing (over the new kitchen, among other things!) we decided to pack up and move to the Carolinas!
May 19th Jeannine started with her new job. Boeing graciously agreed to let Dan continue to work virtually - from Charlotte! Ross was ecstatic to try something new and get closer to big brother. Looked like Rachel was going to be the remaining Missouri-McConnell!
Ryan and Jeannine did a bit of house-hunting and fell head-over-heels in love with the first house they looked at! After weeks of searching (online and in-person) Dan, Jeannine and Ross took the plunge and bought a beautiful home across the street from Lake Norman, in Mooresville, North Carolina. Dan, Jeannine and Ross have decided that Mooresville is about the most perfect place on Earth! Small-town feel, every possible store and restaurant and the most beautiful lake imaginable! It is a lovely lake neighborhood of very friendly kind folks that we've really enjoyed getting to know! Living at Lake Norman is proving to exceed all expectations, and is a wonderful way to live.
Little did we know in July that the real-estate market was going to tank - so they still have a lovely home in Troy MO - if you know anyone that's looking ;).
We have gotten involved with a great church in Mooresville, The Cove (www.covechurch.org) and are hosting a Life group at our new home on Wednesday night. Dan is involved with the music program, and Jeannine in various volunteer activities. Jeannine and Ross are also playing tennis and have made good friends through that. Ross is attending Southlake Christian Academy and really enjoying his new school.
 | We LOVE the view from our house! We are on a peninsula, so we have a lake view on 3-sides. We got Ross a kayak and Rachel has enjoyed flipping him out of it a few times! It is a 'resort' lifestyle, we still keep wondering "what time is checkout?"! |
 Ryan is still happily lovin life in Charlotte. He works at MasterCraft of Charlotte and is dating a lovely girl, Carly Baker! |  |
 All-in-all the family is settling in well in our new home! Missing our family and old friends, but anxious for everyone to come and see us! |  We've been busy visiting the sites in the area including Myrtle Beach and Pawley's Island South Carolina, and Biltmore Estates in Asheville, North Carolina. |
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The kids spent most of the summer 'behind the boat' - became big fans of wake surfing and knee-boarding, but still spend most of their time tubing and skiing!
 Buddy, our Golden Retriever is loving his yard and all the folks that walk by and visit with him. We expanded our menagerie a few weeks ago adopting Baxter and Bailey from the local humane society. Buddy, Bailey and Baxter are fast friends!
Here are a few holiday photos from our new home. Wish you could all come by for a visit! |   |
 Great time for all at the Biltmore! We did the Christmas Candlelight Tour |  Christmas at our new house has been a mix of old and new! (The choking is 'old', the location is 'new') Below is our new home decked out for the holidays. It was a sunny 65 degrees today on Christmas. |
Please come and see us some time! The guest room is set up and ready for company! We wish you a wonderful holiday season, a blessed and healthy 2009. To help you come see us, I've included a map... Now you have no excuse!!!!!!! Here are the directions from St. Louis http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=St.+Louis&1s=MO&2c=Mooresville&2s=NC&2a=354+Robinson+Rd&2z=28117
Here's our address:
Dan and Jeannine McConnell 354 Robinson Road Mooresville, NC 28117. Dan's e-mail is dmccon1957@yahoo.com, Jeannine's is jmcruiser@yahoo.com. Dan is also on Facebook now - so catch up with him there as well!
