Hey y'all! Sarah and Jeff started off the year on the world-famous Beale St. in Memphis, TN. We visited to see live blues bands, and learn more about the civil rights era, in preparation for Jeff directing Memphis: The Musical for Parkland College. We heard BB King's blues band play, and we spied Jerry Lee Lewis through a window just before midnight. Jonathan says hi. Lost a bunch of teeth. Has fun beatboxing. Enjoys Boy Scouts. We went on a backyard camping trip a few weeks ago! Jackson also lost a bunch of teeth. He's rapidly becoming an avid reader. He taught himself to ride a bike this past summer, and is now a biking machine! Near the end of the school year, we took a surprise trip to St. Louis. We went to a hotel built inside the old Union Station, and had ourselves a bit of a train-themed weekend: We took the metro to dinner, had dinner next to a train car in the restaurant, and saw lots of train displays at the hotel and museums we visited. What a great time! Jeff directed Memphis: the Musical for Parkland College in the spring. He got to work with professional set and lights designers, and we had the whole force of the college budget behind us. That, plus some incredibly hard-working actors, made this a memorable show. Sarah loves working at Kenwood Elementary School in Champaign, where she's the attendance secretary. Her school has a 96% attendance rate, which is well above average for the state, and our district. Jeff is thriving as the music teacher at Edison Middle School in Champaign. The after school choir has grown from 25 his first year there, to over 50 now. His students are working with digital music making, modern music production, drum circles, ukuleles, and keyboards. He is now a regular presenter at professional conferences. His last presentation was this past Saturday, about making music online. Sarah's now in her 5th year of managing the CUTC Murder Mystery. The murder mystery program has been steadily growing, with a huge jump in revenue for the theater company this year, thanks to Sarah's leadership. The company started this side-business to help raise money to support the stage shows. Clients book an event, and Sarah coordinates actors to show up and improvise their characters until someone dies. We solve the murder, and everyone has a great time! We want to thank everyone for your love and friendship. We cherish your role in our lives, and we’re grateful for everything you do for us. We’re truly blessed with many opportunities to serve the people around us, and we encourage you to pass it on!
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Hey everybody! Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy New Year! Jackson, 5, started Kindergarten this year. He is growing up and having fun learning how to read and write. His favorite topic in school so far is Science - students in Kindergarten have been studying volcanoes and geology. Jack-Jack recently went to a classmate's birthday party at a gymnastics school. He had fun jumping into the foam pit! Jonathan, 8, is now in second grade. We recently moved the boys to a new school in town: Westview Elementary. He loves his music teacher, Mrs. Crull, who is a U of I Champaign Central HS alumna, and a high school classmate of Sarah's, and a college classmate of Jeff's. Jonathan started Cub Scouts this year. He started work last night on his first Pinewood Derby car. This summer, our theatre company put on a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Jeff was honored to be picked as director. This was a large production, and had a lot of moving parts to keep track of. Jonathan also played a part! J was a member of the children's ensemble. This was his first role on the stage. More to come? Who knows?! Jeff's been staying busy with music teaching at Edison Middle School in Champaign. He will be giving a session at the Illinois Music Education Convention next month. The session will introduce music teachers to web-based music creation software Jeff uses with his students called SoundTrap. Jeff's continued to work with the U of I Music Education faculty, bringing Music Ed undergraduates to Edison Middle School and letting them work with students one-on-one. Jeff's also been asked to serve as director for Parkland College's spring production of Memphis: the Musical. Sarah is serving as attendance secretary for a new school, Kenwood Elementary in Champaign. She loves her new school! The school is on a "Balanced Calendar" - meaning she gets longer breaks during the school year, and a shorter summer. She likes the extra breaks during the school year. We bought a new car for Sarah this year - a Chevy Equinox. SD's continuing to manage the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company's Seven Corpse Dinner Murder Mystery troupe. This is a fundraiser for our company - businesses contract us for performances, and volunteer actors improvise their roles. This year, the company, under Sarah's management, raised a record amount of money to support local theatre! We're so grateful for all our family and friends! This has been a wonderful year, with growing boys, bike rides, hard work, hobbies, and a little time just for messing around. We are, in many ways, rich beyond measure. Happy and prosperous New Year to you and yours. Merry Christmas, all!
It's been a busy year here at the Dares' - growing boys are always underfoot (as are the LEGO pieces). Jonathan broke his arm on the playground a couple weeks ago. He's been working hard to recover, but his cast is so heavy, he often carries his arm above his head. Sarah and I took a trip to St. Louis for our 6th anniversary. I'd never been before! We got to see the beautiful city, and had a great time! I finished my Master's Degree in music education at the U of I over the summer. Having a blast working with middle school kids in Champaign! I've been working with two U of I professors on bringing University music ed majors to work with middle schoolers. We're presenting about this collaboration at the IL music education convention in January. Sarah's working in the office at Garden Hills Elementary, where Jonathan's now a first grader. The work is tough, but she loves it! She's still coordinating the Seven Corpse Dinner murder mystery troupe for our local community theatre company. This summer, we got to go on a two-day cruise from Peoria to Starved Rock, and were in character the whole time! Jackson is busy busy busy. He gets into everything! He's looking forward to starting Kindergarten in the fall. Welcome back!
We've moved! Jeff got a job in Champaign teaching music at Edison Middle School. The change was last minute! We got a job offer two days before vacation, and Jeff started working two days after. It took us almost a month to find a house to live, but we got a place! While we were shopping for a home, John and Nancy, Sarah's parents, graciously put us up (and put up with us). Jack is 3 1/2 and J just turned 6! Jonathan started Kindergarten this fall. He's learning to read and write, and is picking up some fantastic words. He's also learning Mandarin Chinese! His feet are almost as big as Mom's. He can whistle as well as Dad. Here's his first school portrait! Jack is making complete sentences, and gets into everything! He used the word "bwilliant" to describe a necklace yesterday. Jeff is excited to be music directing a show again! Edison is performing The Lion King jr. in March. Students are looking forward to auditions! Sarah's been working part-time for the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company. She served as Interim Director while the board interviewed new candidates. She's been having fun managing the company's Murder Mystery Troupe for the last three years (Jeff acts in them sometimes, too)! We're planning to spend New Year's Eve in a swanky Bloomington hotel so we can do a murder mystery NYE party. The boys will be having fun with Grandma Laura and Grandpa Jack! We just got a new nephew! Andrew Joseph was born in September. We're expecting a niece in a couple weeks (no name yet, so we're calling her Tolula Rose for now)! We spent today decorating our Xmas Tree and getting ready for December - a crazy month in a performing arts family. Jack and Jonathan are awesome! Jack is 2-1/2 and J just turned 5! Starting Kindergarten in the Fall - can you believe it? J's learning to ride a bike, and Jack is learning new vocabulary all the time. Jackson had tubes implanted in his ears to alleviate ear infections, which has helped his language development.
Sarah took some courses last spring, and is now working full time at the city hospital as a PCT (Nurse Asst) in a surgical unit that handles gastric surgeries and trauma cases. OSF is a magnet hospital, ranked top 15 in the state of Illinois. Sarah's continuing to manage the Murder Mystery troupe for the Champaign-Urbana Theater Company. She's already booked through next December! She planned and coordinated a fundraiser dinner for CUTC in October, and it was a big success! We're looking forward to performing a Murder Mystery for a New Year's Eve party. Jeff is in his third year of teaching choral music at Illini Bluffs, in a little town outside of Peoria. We had our annual Madrigal Dinner at school, with the addition of some fighters from the local Renaissance fair reenactment group. Jeff celebrated his 31st birthday, and Sarah thinks she found a gray hair in his beard, but that's utter nonsense. Jeff sang a concert with his choir at his church, First United Methodist in Peoria. Jeff finally got back on stage this year with a production company called ArcLight. They performed the show "Ordinary Days," a four-person musical about living in New York. He also started his Masters Degree at U of I, and spent about six weeks in Champaign this summer. We're looking forward to singing with Granny Durema and the rest of the Kohl-Dare family at Christmas! Another year down, another year older and (hopefully) wiser.
Jackson turned a year old in January. He has started to really talk and get things across. He can't quite carry a conversation like his brother, but we're on our way! His newest words are yeah, no, towel, Katie, Whatareyoudoing?, Where'dgo?, drink, gone, icky, eiwww, and Batman. Jonathan is celebrating his fourth birthday today! We can't believe it's been four years! He is a joy, most if the time! His new favorite thing is dinosaurs. He can even say "paleontologist!" which is quite a mouthful for such a little boy. Jeff is doing well. We just finished our madrigal dinner week at Illini Bluffs, where he's still working with 4th through 12th grade. Sarah helped make the programs for the madrigal dinner, each of which had a wax seal. Jeff's also had three concerts so far, with two more to go this week. You can actually watch the entire High School Christmas concert from December 11th at (Link). Grandpa Jack and Grandma Laura were down to attend the dinner, and got to spend some time with the boys. Sarah's taken on a pretty large undertaking - she's now the coordinator of murder-mystery dinners for CUTC, our old theatre company back in Champaign. We are so grateful for all the blessings we've been given again this year, and grateful for our friends and family. Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year to everyone! Well here we are again! Another year with big changes. Jackson Andrew was born on January 31st. He shares a birthday with his Grandpa Jack, which means that both of our boys get their name from the grandpa with whom they share a birthday. Speaking of which . . . Jonathan celebrated his third birthday a couple days ago (along with Grandpa John). Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate with us! Another big change for us came in July. Jeff got a job teaching music in Glasford, IL, in the Illini Bluffs School district. He teaches 4th grade music, 4th grade choir, 5th grade choir, 6th grade general music, 6th grade choir, 7th and 8th grade choir, beginning high school choir, and an advanced high school choir. Whew! The Illini Bluffs Madrigal Dinner was earlier in December, and all the performing groups had concerts last week. We moved to Peoria at the beginning of August. We now live in a very nice duplex with three bedrooms and a full basement filled with toys. Sarah has a room to herself where she sews and takes care of the business of running a family. This is a picture of our real Christmas tree this year. The school always orders some for the madrigal dinner decorations, and we picked one up too. We have both old and new ornaments. We lost Grandma Shirley Dare this year. We're especially missing her this year, since family Christmas was always at Grandma and Grandpa's. We miss pineapple goo and hand-knit stockings. Jackson is 10 months old, and started walking a couple of weeks ago! We are so grateful for all the blessings we've been given this year, and grateful for our friends and family. Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year to everyone Welcome to the first annual Dare's Digital Xmas Letter! Here's everything that's been going on in our lives. Since the wedding last November, we've had a new addition to the family! Well, almost. This little guy (yes, guy) is due in January. He will be as smart as his mom and as good-looking as his dad (or maybe the other way around, depending on which of us you ask). We'll have birth announcements to follow! We're still living in our rental house in Champaign, IL, home of the Fighting Illini (who just gave Ron Zook $3 Million so they could fire him)! Jeff's been working as a teacher's aide for the Champaign Public Schools at Carrie-Busey Elementary while he looks for a full-time teaching job. He loves his kids! Jeff also got a job in the spring working for Friar Tuck, a local beverage-warehouse sort of place. This summer, he had the awesome opportunity to play Harold Hill in CUTC's production of "The Music Man." It was a blast! Jeff's also been selected to direct the musical "Avenue Q" for CUTC. If you're around the Champaign area the weekend of May 17-20, you might want to grab some tickets! This show is completely inappropriate for kids, by the way. Sarah's been taking care of Jonathan from home, and just got a job working as a temporary seasonal cashier for Target this holiday season. Works out well timing-wise, don't you think? We've been busy rearranging the house to get ready for for son Number Two (whom we affectionately call "Poptart", because he'll pop out when he's done!). Before the move, my side of the desk was spotless, but after the move, somehow all the bills got piled up on my side of the desk. (Wife's note: But you pushed everything to my side to get your side clean! -S) Jonathan's a very very busy person, so if you'd like to make an appointment, you'd better do it months in advance. He's coloring, running around, talking like crazy, helping Dad with dishes, and driving his folks up the wall (in a good way)! I've seen his room pristine, only to come back two minutes later and find it in ruins! .For Thanksgiving, Grandma Laura (Dare) asked us to bring her some goat cheese from a local farm, called Prairie Fruits Farm, in Champaign County. J got to play with the goats, and we managed to get it on video! Last thing - A Christmas present for you! - Last year, Jeff made a reproduction of the original "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" editorial from an old New York newspaper. A little girl asked the staff at the newspaper whether Santa was real, and an anonymous editor wrote this beautiful answer. We thought this might be a neat Christmas decoration for your fridge or to pin up on your cork board. Here's the .pdf download. Print, cut out, and display! |