de Niall Isle: Christmas Letter 2022

January 1, 2023 - New Year’s

Blessed Advent, My Friends,

As hard as we tried to make the 2021 letter happen, many changes occurred. The Niall family's most significant news is that we are first-time homeowners! In February of 2022, we bought our first house with the help of our real estate agent, of course, but even more so, James is gently nudging us. We did not think it was going to happen, but by the grace of God, lots and lots of prayers, and good friends and family, we have a home. We are living in Clinton, Massachusetts, once again. Our home is fantastic for us! One of the most amazing parts is that we are less than a 5-minute drive to our Parish St John Guardian of Our Lady. Our pastor Fr. Jim, is a fantastic Pastor to our family and parish. Their have been a lot of new and fun adventures from 2021 and 2022 that we would love to share with you.

Michael continues to run several times a week and at least one 5K a year. A major highlight for 2021 was driving to Florida to visit Amanda and the boys. There were adventure like going through different states, hiking, and seeing some fun places like Jamestown and Yorktown. He enjoyed the experience of driving with Adriana. He is still at the top of his running game for his age! Michael still loves his job as a nurse traveling to do infusions. He enjoys working on house projects, including rebuilding the kid's chicken coop. He also assisted the boy's cross-country track team adventures this fall! He trained the boys well.

Adrianne has also had many adventures over the past two years. She is still working on her Master's in counseling, and although she is on the slow track, she is on her way to graduating in December 2024. She enjoyed planning and traveling to Florida; she loves to travel! She has taken up walking as a major exercise a few days a week. Her favorite daily activity, though, is Daily Mass, and she attends as much as possible. Other than time with our Lord, Adrianne enjoys time with her family, which is not as abundant now that she is in school and has started work at a mental health hospital. She is still homeschooling Mary-Anne. She created an American Heritage Girl (AHG) troop at St John's parish, where she is the troop coordinator. In 2021 Adrianne and a friend started a Marriage Mentor Ministry (MMM) at Saint John's. As you will read later in this letter, James and Thomas began to attend a new school this year. The school is called Lumen Verum Academy (LVA), and it fell into our laps. God's Will and timing are excellent as a homeschooling mom; this hybrid school is a natural fit. The principal is accessible to the parents, and the teachers are very present with the students. Adrianne immediately became involved in the school and recently started running the Parent Guild, but she does hope a new parent will be taking the wheel at some point. She's overjoyed that many of her good friends joined the family at LVA, including her godsons Jules and Isaac (actually, Isaac is Michael's godson, but she claims them too!). As Adrianne gets used to all the changes in the new world of an ever-changing life, she counts all her blessings.

Adriana is an exceptional young woman. Well at least is impressive to her parents. She was overjoyed to see the wild horses on our drive to Florida; this had been her dream. She was also excited to add new states that she drove through to her list of adventures. In 2021 her year was filled with lots of learning in school, nannying, friends, and driving adventures. Then 2022 was filled with all sorts of new experiences because she became the first of the Niall clan to graduate from high school! She graduated from Trivium at the beginning of June. Her senior year was filled with basketball, hanging out with friends, and trying to navigate what would come next. She was Kitty in Pride and Prejudice, her class’ senior play. She enjoyed CYC volleyball with St John's youth group. And after many choices, she attended Mount Wachusett Community College and found a full-time job she loves at a daycare. She became a godmother! Adriana and James are our grandson Henry's godparents, he was baptized while visiting us at the end of June! We are looking forward to seeing the blessings God bestows upon her.

James started his 8th-grade year at Trivium and 2020/2022. His class was made up of many boys. He also began Civil Air Patrol this year, and on New Year's Day, he took his first observation flight. At this point, he has taken all ten observation flights and started taking his observation glider flights. He would love to become a pilot someday. He broke his toe in 2021, and the only reason I mentioned this is because he went to his first encampment in a cast. What is an encampment, you ask? It's similar to basic training and a roller coaster for him. He was fortunate to be a staff at the encampment this year with no cast. He played basketball for Trivium and loved it. He started his freshman year at a new school, LVA. His only disappointment is LVA does not have any sports. He did run on the cross-country team and looks forward to making running a part of his activities to improve his times, but he does miss playing team sports. He took the initiative at LVA and asked to start an intramural volleyball league. They will begin playing this as a winter sport. He also played CYC volleyball for St John's youth group. James has been active with St. John CYC, and between Civil Air Patrol, CYC, and LVA field trips, James has been all over the state and some of the country. He has done whitewater rafting, rock climbing, roller skating, hikes, and Air and Space Museums. This Easter he traveled to Colorado with Civil Air Patrol. He was the motivator for the new house purchase. It is a long story. If you would like to hear the story, send me an email :-) He may become a real estate pilot, lol. He also is good with computers and is part of the Civil Air Patrol CyberPatriot (cyber security team). James is a natural-born leader and loves to be with his friends. He is always making plans to hang out with friends or work. He works as much as he can doing farm work and yard work. James is 14 years old, and although he is still a boy, he looks like a man. He is an altar server both at St John's and LVA.

Thomas is our Jolly dude. He has grown so much these past two years. He loves Legos. No matter what holiday is coming up, there's no question about what Thomas wants. He always wants legos. He loves food, he enjoys crafts, and he loves to draw. If you received the Rejoice card, it was drawn by Thomas. Last year Thomas became the first of the Nialls to attend LVA skipping his 5th-grade year and going into 6th grade. His birthday is September, so he was indeed on the cusp. He did not skip because he is so academically inclined he has had to work hard. He has charmed the principals and the teachers, and he has made many friends. He was pleased when his best friend Jules joined him at LVA. On home days, Thomas often does school with Jules and his family. He enjoyed his last year as a vice president of the homeschool homesteaders 4-H club, but he was very excited to join James at Civil Air Patrol this year. He is now also enjoying the activities at St John's CYC. He had an enjoyable summer fishing and camping with Henry. He loves history and literature. We used to call history facts given by Thomas or history according to Thomas, but now we realize that Thomas knows his history well and a lot about the Saints. He is an altar server, and he enjoys learning and singing music. His favorite activity at school was building Boxes of Joy for African kids.

Mary-Anne is studious. She loves to learn and enjoys reading, even though it can be challenging. She enjoys memorizing poems and is working on the midnight ride of Paul Revere. She also likes literature and history. She learned to embroider and do cursive handwriting this summer. Mary-Anne loves her chickens more than anything. Three of the five chickens she incubated successfully. Nugget is her favorite, and we believe he is a rooster. She enjoys soccer and basketball. She loves horses, even though we have not made it to the farm in a while. She's happy to be an American Heritage Girl tenderheart. She is looking forward to caroling and enjoys singing and the choir once a month. She and Mama find themselves on adventures such as Davis Farmland's old surge Village, Mystic Sea Aquarium, and zoos. Her favorite adventure of the summer was the Mystic Seaport aquarium. Most of the summer Adventures were with our good companions, the Urbans! Mary-Anne, like Thomas, enjoys art and has been known to sit and draw. She got a hoverboard last Christmas and loved playing on it all over the house. On her birthday, she got to go rock climbing for the first time, which she loves to do.

You may have noticed that we did say much about 4-h. Our family became interested in other activities, such as Civil Air Patrol and American Heritage Girls, and found it necessary to stop participating in 4-H. Adrianne still posts some of our family Adventures on Facebook, but less than she has in the past because of her work and school commitments. If you are not already friends with her, it is a fun way to watch our family grow, https://www.facebook.com/ajniall. We wish you the Merriest of Christmases and a Blessed New Year.

God bless,

Michael, Adrianne, Adriana, James, Thomas, and Mary-Anne Niall