As you can see from our updated picture, we have again added to the family in last year.

And, we’ve done the usual world-wide traveling. We toured the Holy Land with a group from the Syracuse Diocese and experienced all those places you read about in the bible.We went back to Guatemala and celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with Deisy, our sponsored child, and her family.

We did some “local” trips W-to-Webster and E-to-Cambridge. Those grandkids grow so fast! We took a couple trips to Michigan to see family there, and seeMarisa Van Damme get married in August. Jim's Dad is doing well for 97. We picked up MM’s German cousin Wiltraud Schneider in Detroit and hiked Cape Cod and Boston with her.

In September we went out to Colorado for Debbie Larsen’s wedding at Red Rocks, and enjoyed the Rockies. In October, we went on a road trip to St. Louis for a Padberg family reunion, visiting people in MI, OH, MO, and KY on the way.

Leo, Katie, Avery, Annika, and Vaughn are all doing well in Webster, NY. Avery is now in 7th grade and just turned 13! A teenager! She and Annika are both at Our Lady of Mercy, an all girls Catholic school in the Rochester area. They both love it. Avery continues to play violin and won an award for her hard work. She's swimming with the Webster BlueFins and looks forward to swimming with Mercy next year.

Annika is in 6th grade and plays clarinet and basketball. She hopes to be a softball pitcher like her mom was growing up.

Vaughn is a huge sports enthusiast. He played baseball and soccer this past year, but his sport of choice is hockey. He is on two hockey teams and really excels. He loves Michael Jackson music and plays "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by the Jackson 5 all year long. He is in first grade and having a great year.

Leo continues to work in medical device sales. He's doing well and coaching his kids in softball, hockey, and baseball. He also enjoys taking on projects around the house like gardening, painting, and building obstacle courses for his son.

Katie was working part time as a pre-school aid and as a pre-K classroom observer to help school receive funding. She left the part time jobs for a full time job at Our Lady of Mercy working in the front office. She enjoys seeing her girls at school on a daily basis and they love having mom there too. She also coached Annika's Girls on the Run team this past spring and Vaughn's baseball team.

As a family they traveled to the Jersey Shore with Katie's family this past summer to enjoy a little beach vacation. In February they traveled north to Canada for a two night stay at Great Wolf Lodge. They love spending time with family and all their cousins.

JOlivia (Jan-Luc + Olivia) had a colorful, jubilant year. Jan’s entrepreneurial spirit drove him to start an entertainment company called Crux Club. He writes and produces real life outdoor puzzle adventure games around New York City. In August, JOlivia went to cousin Marisa's wedding in MI and saw other relatives. They also visited the Motown and Henry Ford Museums in Detroit. They took the legendary southwest road trip in September that included the Zozobra burning, Meow Wolf, getting wedding vows renewed by Elvis Presley at Graceland Chapel in Vegas, Area 51, Death Valley (123 degrees), Joshua Tree and visiting Olivia's Dad near Albuquerque, NM. Also in September, Jan attended cousin Debbie’s wedding while Olivia went to a friend's wedding in Maine. Jan works in the art department on TV shows and commercials all over the city. Olivia is Archivist at GAP Headquarters in TriBeCa. JOlivia lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Marieke, Curt, and Maggie had a great year full of adventures from Boston to the Bering Strait. After maternity leave, Marieke went back in February to work at the Cambridge Historical Society. She and her colleagues programmed an exciting year of events around the theme, "Where Is Cambridge From?" Curt continues his work at Harvard Business Review. He launched a successful advice podcast, Dear HBR:, and began co-hosting the long-running, popular HBR IdeaCast podcast. Maggie had the most interesting year of all, growing from a little lump into a wonderful little person. Want to know more? Email Marieke at Marieke[dot]vandamme[@]gmail.com

Kateri still lives in Liverpool, NY and works as the Lab Manager at LensCrafters. She enjoyed getting out of CNY to visit Acadia National Park with some friends in July, and also a trip to Colorado to celebrate Debbie’s wedding, and to hike and see the mountains.

On Oct 28th, Kateri and Laford finally got hitched! After being together for about 8 years, they decided it was time to tie the knot. They are enjoying married life but don't have a honeymoon planned yet, since business always gets very busy at Laford's store, Syracuse's Original Carmelcorn Shoppe around the Christmas holiday. Kateri's new stepson, Alex, is finishing up his first semester at the local college. He enjoys weightlifting, his newfound freedom with his first car, and not smiling for family photos.

MM still interprets-when-she-wants for the Deaf, and Jim does almost nothing. We're still teaching NFP classes online, and MM is still excited about genealogy. We spent the summer tending our large garden. MM’s onions were happy, and predict that winter 2019 will be normal.

Check out the rest of our webpagefor more newsletters and pictures. Keep in touch at the addresses at the bottom of the page. We hope you are healthy and happy. Best wishes for 2019!

Jim, Mary Margaret/Tunkin, Leo & Katie & Avery & Annika & Vaughn, Jan-Luc & Olivia, Marieke & Curt & Maggie, and Kateri & Laford & Alex