Graduation Celebration & Merry Christmas! (from Niki)

These last couple weeks of December have capped off a busy and wonderful 2007 for Matt and me. Friday was the official grad school graduation after two whirlwind years of classes. Some months went by too slow, and some months went by too fast, but overall, I'm just thrilled to be finished and have my evenings back. UNO’s MBA program is no Wesleyan (prairie wolves shoutout!), but I made some friends and learned quite a bit. We had a graduation celebration that night at our house, and it's moments like that when I'm so thankful for all the fantastic family and friends in my life.

Christmas was wonderful as usual. We split time between Matt's family in Aurora and mine in Yutan. The whole Wiles clan made the trek to grandma and grandpa’s house, so it was just like the old days to have everyone together for the holidays. They've certainly had an exciting 2007 too, so it was fun to share in their happiness.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for a very happy new year.

Wiles Christmas 2007 Letter

Once again, we are blogging our annual Christmas Letter to the regular readers. Ed & Janice

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Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

WE had a very merry, or perhaps I should say marry, 2007.

Elissa was married to Matt Bright on September 22, at the Loch Lloyd country club in Kansas City. The day was perfect and we are happy to officially welcome Matt into our family. They are now living in their first house, in Shawnee, KS. Elissa continues to work at Johnson County Community College, now as a supervisor in Student Services. Matt is a Certifying Scientist at Quest Diagnostics.

To continue with the ‘marry’ theme…..Kelly became engaged to Paul Hollstein on December 8. We are all elated! They are just beginning to work on the wedding details, but the location will be Nebraska. Paul moved from Des Moines to Lincoln last spring when he was promoted to Product Manager with Allied Insurance Company. Kelly soon followed, when she started a new job as the managing pharmacist at the new Target in south Lincoln.



No, Zac is not married or engaged, but he still has his very pretty girlfriend, Stephanie, and his same job at the law office in Joliet.

Ed and I ARE still married, 34 years now, and life continues much the same for us. We are very blessed with good health, fine family, and wonderful friends. We were able to spend the Thanksgiving weekend in Oklahoma with Ed’s family and will be spending the Christmas holidays with Janice’s family and all our children in Yutan, Nebraska.

Hello from Mary Jo

Dear Family,

Greetings to all and special congratulations to Kelly and Paul. We are happy to welcome another Paul to the family. (Mine has worn pretty well for nearly 37 years....and we wish you similar good fortune.)

I must confess I haven't checked the Blog for awhile because there has been a noticeable lack of activity lately and I didn't want to be disappointed...Sigh...so this is the first I saw your happy announcement.

I suspect you are all in the Christmas Frenzy about now. I've accomplished some things, but not much shopping. We have had a solid coat of ice for a week. Finally, on Friday, before the predicted snow arrived, I told Paul I was taking off and wouldn't come back until I got all the visits I could finished. Actually, I made a lot of good progress, but I was really stiff and tired that night after mincing up and down driveways, up stairs, and across porches, most of which were still coated with the ice.

We are going to Omaha next Sunday for Christmas with my family. Andrew and Jenn (latest lady friend) are coming over from Des Moines to meet us there. She has three boys, so don't know how many if any of them will be along. Oh, my.

I am trying to convince Mom to come home with us after the dinner at John and Sue's for a few days. We'll see if the logistics can be worked out.

Merry Christmas to all.

Engagement-Kelly and Paul

Paul and I are engaged! And following Elissa's format, I will answer the three prime questions:
1. How did he propose? We were decorating our tree on Saturday evening and he decided we needed some presents under the tree to complete it--we wrapped a few and admired our good work. Then he said he had an early gift for me that I might need before Christmas...he then made a big production about bringing a very large box downstairs as a decoy then said the gift actually wasn't in the box but in his hands then he asked if I'd marry him and of course I said 'yes'!!
2. When's the wedding date? This one's not so clear yet, we're thinking maybe fall in Lincoln.
3. What's the ring look like? It's a solitaire cushion cut on a white gold band (see picture below).
That's our exciting news around here and hopefully I'll see lots of you at Christmas in Yutan!