We hope this letter finds you doing well! Now that 2018 is almost behind us, it’s time to reflect and remember.

This year Tim started high school. He continues to take piano lessons, and additionally over the year took voice, karate, and basketball lessons. Tim is now the tallest person in our family, wears size 14 shoes, and grew out of nearly all of his clothes two times in the last year alone. Like a lot of teenagers, he enjoys video games, social media, and hanging out with his neighborhood friends. He also discovered a love for Renaissance Festivals and attended one in full costume wearing a knight’s armor this fall.

Emily is still in college, but is now majoring in Education with an emphasis in math. She will minor in computer science, and hopes to teach high school math and computer classes. She switched from Mizzou to UMSL, which allowed her to move back home and save some money on living expenses. She was able to transition from a student worker to a part-time employee at her artificial intelligence internship, and also began doing some substitute teaching. She divides her time among school, work, friends, and her puppy Tiboo.

Melynda continues as a Natural Language Processing (NLP) Developer at Jane.ai (formerly Ai Software). She was recently moved into their Artificial Intelligence Research and Development team, meaning she develops cutting-edge artificial intelligence capabilities that later get added to the chatbot (named Jane). In November, Jason left his job as a Solutions Architect with Amazon Web Services to join Google Cloud as a Customer Engineer (basically the same job, just different titles).

Edenhaus got a nice upgrade with the addition of a new deck and patio. This prompted Jason to buy and use a grill for the first time, which led to an unexpected payoff. In November, Jason’s grilled chicken, zero-point (on Weight Watchers) chili received first place at the 2018 Dustin Conrad Invitational Chili Cook-Off! The traveling trophy is currently displayed prominently at Edenhaus Space Bar. Melynda’s Best Non-Traditional trophy from last year’s competition is still on display in her office.

It was a busy, exciting year for travel and entertainment. The family took Spring Break in Seattle and spent the week whale watching, visiting museums, shopping, and eating a *lot* of seafood (except for Tim, who chose a burger at nearly every restaurant). Fall Break saw a trip to Orlando, with visits to several Disney World and Universal Studios parks, as well as the Kennedy Space Center. In March, Jason and Melynda saw Lorde in concert in St. Louis and enjoyed it so much they saw her again in April - this time traveling to Nashville to catch her final U.S. tour stop. Other concerts/events included: Bill Nye the Science Guy in Columbia; Tesla, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Styx in Chicago; and in St. Louis, Cheap Trick, Def Leppard, Journey, Maroon 5, Max (Lights Down Low), Carol Burnett, and several 90’s stars featuring Vanilla Ice. Jason and Melynda also spent a few days on the Lake of the Ozarks celebrating their 23rd wedding anniversary.

2018 was a year filled with a lot of great moments, amazing events, and fantastic memories. With luck, 2019 will be just as good, if not better even, and we look forward to the opportunities the new year will present! Thank you for being with us and for making our journey richer. We love you all, and wish you the best in the coming year!

With love and good cheer,

Jason, Melynda, Emily, Tim, and Tiboo Eden