Dear friends and family,
Merry Christmas!
Mike remains committed to working from home from Illumina. He hasn’t traveled for work since 2020 but there is talk of his flying out there sometime next year. He is on the school board for the kids’ school. His big project for this year is adding light switches throughout the house which he can turn off with his phone.
Marylee Syra published her fourth book Syra’s Scribbles IV: 2010 to 2011 in which Xenia is born. It’s available on Amazon. Follow her blog at syrasscribbles.com. She teaches six math classes at the small private school the kids attend. Her hobbies this year include, Brazilian embroidery, kick boxing at 9round, pysanky, glass blowing, and flute. She joined the church choir. She traveled to the Pacific Northwest to visit her grandmother and visited Albuquerque.
Esther, Sophia, and Basil each broke up with their fiancé/boyfriend/girlfriend last year.
Esther (21) is a senior at Thomas Aquinas College. She is applying to a variety of graduate schools to continue her studies in philosophy. We plan on going to California to see her graduate in 2023. We like her new boyfriend.–updated to say her new fiance!!!!
Sophia (19) found that Mercer University wasn’t a good fit. She lives with a friend and works.
Basil (17) has his license to drive and spent the summer working both at Albertsons and for a surveying company between church camp and family vacation. He stopped work to focus on his junior year of high school though he found time to play Lord Capulet in the school play, Romeo and Juliet.
Jonah (13) is a middle schooler. He’s almost as tall as his mother. He has a phone of his own and loves listening to science fiction podcasts. He serves in the altar at church. He went to church camps in Oklahoma and in Pennsylvania with his brother Basil. He played flag football in the spring and takes piano lessons.
Xenia (11) is in sixth grade. She also played on the school’s flag football team and takes piano lessons. She played a fierce Tybalt in the school play. She loves reading and writing and is passionate about her faith.
Justin (9) joined his big brothers at church camp this summer. He is in fourth grade. He takes piano and ukulele lessons. He loves audiobooks.
All eight of us went on vacation to South Padre Island on the Gulf of Mexico in July. Mike and Marylee Syra went to St. Augustine, Florida to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
Sincerely, The Ruehle Family
My dear friends and family, Relatives and acquaintances, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and strangers! This year is my Seventeenth Christmas!
Alas seventeen years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable folks. I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. (Adapted from LOTR)
This year has been an exceptionally fine and fun year. I have done much more this year than in the past, due in great part to my development in the learnings of driving. Being able to move myself around with a two-ton cart is quite enjoyable. I have been able, this year, to work at not one, but two separate jobs! With the money I surmounted I was able to buy a brand-new computer, running my programs of entertainment with wonderous speeds!
Further events this year have been the two summer camps I have been to, my newfound endeavors at going to a gym, our school Shakespeare production of Romeo and Juliet, in which I play the marvelous Lord Capulet. Of most importance, hopefully, this next year I shall embark on an entirely new and adventurous learning curve in which I will master the instrument of song and wind! Yes! Ladies and gentlemen, I shall be learning the SAXOPHONE!
My mother has requested an addendum in which I will talk about my siblings, therefore I shall undertake the efforts to describe them. Esther and Sophia are no longer with us… Jonah finally has himself a phone! This may or may not be correlated to the fact that we lost him while trick or treating… Susha is wild and hanging out my window right now. She is growing taller (no she is not) and is highly active in all things physical, such as the handstand. Justin is a genuinely nice young gentleman, who is currently getting louder by the week.
I, uh… have things to do… I’ve put this off for far too long…
I regret to announce this is the end, I am going now, I wish you all a very fond farewell. Goodbye.
(vanishes)
Written and produced by Basil Ruehle (proofread by Xenia)
Hello, this is Ruehle, Jonah. I am a thirteen-year-old guy. I like my new phone, my laptop, my siblings (most of them most of the time), and I have had a great year. Last spring, I was in a flag football team, and I had a good time throwing around a football. I had a great time with my family at the beach and I’m proud to say that I was the only one besides maybe one that tanned not burned. Speaking of throwing around a football, at summer camp a friend and I threw his football around all the time. I saw the downside when I jammed my middle finger thrice. At Camp Raphael in Oklahoma, I had a fun time. There were more activities, and it was more relaxed. The Antiochian Village in Pennsylvania was a lot more tense but was great. I especially liked the overnight, where my cabin stayed in the woods for a night. We had to collect our own firewood, so with the instructions of our counselor we collected the wood and put it perpendicular on two long logs and carried it to the campsite. We then made homemade hot pockets and slept over.
Enough about me. It’s time to talk about relatives. First my older sisters who asked not to be judged and written about too much. Esther is a kind person who tutors people. Sophia is a great helper, and she is very good at understanding people.
My one older brother Basil is a great sibling. Although he may be a bit addicted to screens, he is a very compassionate person who I hold in high regard, and we are very close. We have been getting along great aside from some arguments about how to sweeten coffee. Honey!!!
My younger sister who I think is good at heart gets in arguments with me about every single thing, like me even being in the room, drinking in the dining room, and being the source of her misery. I can neither confirm nor deny such things.
Finally, the youngest child Justin. He is a source of young, joyful energy in my life. He and I get along most of the time. The age gap makes some things impossible, but I love him so.
My parents are a great pair, even though they almost didn’t get me a phone! My mom was a stay-at-home mom until around the time when my grandmother died. She is now MY math teacher and that’s ok unless it gets to, “Did you get your math done yet? You know that procrastinating does not get equations done!!” My dad is great. He works from home, so I get to see him a lot (sometimes too much). He works as an engineer. My parents and I usually every weekend play Arkham Horror, a great three-to-four-hour card game which I recommend.
That pretty sums up my year so far, so I hope you have a great Christmas and the start of 2023 unless you’re reading from the future and apes have taken over the earth. Have a merry Christmas and if you want to make me cookies I’m fine with that bye.
Jonah Ruehle
“‘Light a candle for Christmas Eve,’ men whispered, and their very words seemed to turn into tiny stars as dozens and dozens, then hundreds of candles came forth from the knapsacks to be lighted and stuck in the snow. The hillside was one glow of light and the crucifix was bright with an unearthly brightness.” [Kate Seredy, The Singing Tree, p201]
I can’t help writing and writing, I, Xenia Ruehle am a writer, an author like Kate Seredy. I love words. They are amazing. Words are everywhere. I use them for weapons, for stories, and even mute and deaf folk need words. This account is made with them, and I am an artist to put together words to make books and poems.
My family close by me are debating soda and grapes whilst I type. “Tidings of comfort and sprite.” say my brothers- when they and sometimes I’m fighting. Books are filling my walls and covering my eyes. Once I investigate the mysterious pages, I fall away into the adventures and accounts of the stories. Other than books, I love playing outside, enjoying my life. For I am a kid and proud of it. I have so many friends, and I love them as siblings- well better [we don’t fight as much]. hehe
My sisters are gone- departed like. They have flown away to adulthood and are unwilling to come back. While they are busy exploring responsibility and college and such, I am busy trying to do almost the opposite. I am quite good at it too. No, I am not avoiding growing up- it can’t be stopped but am relishing in my youth. Esther is not getting married to my mama’s dismay, while Sophia has gone off with some friends. They do still visit, and we will always love and accept them though Esther is Catholic and Sophia agnostic.
Basil has done a lot of work and got himself a computer and saxophone, while Jonah has succeeded in getting a phone. But alas, the phone does not make him less annoying sometimes. There I am, sitting and contemplating deeply when- “GULP”! “Jonah! Please, don’t sit right next to me while I am thinking?” “Yes, what is wrong? Gulp!” “Sigh” then the fights begin. Justin, the pet of the family remains with a little iPod whilst I have lost mine. Mama and Papa seem fine, but I think that they might be spies. While they seem to be getting dinner or shopping, they are saving lives and going undercover. Maria and Luis, who help clean our mess of a domain are really family and are loved like family.
Whilst gazing into the gray sky little bits of ice and rain fell. Some bounced on the roof and stayed li’l bits of ice on the leaves while others became water! I am hoping for snow this winter, and enough money to get friends and family the presents I am hoping to get them.
Merry Christmas!
By Xenia Ruehle
Dear Friends and Family,
Hello, I am Justin G, Ruehle I am nine years old I am an active boy and I love to climb, bike, swim, explore, and I also love math. I have five siblings Xenia, Jonah, Basil, Sophia, and Esther each one of us is different, but we all love each other. Xenia is eleven years old she is a lot like me she loves to climb skate bike and explore. Jonah is thirteen years old sometimes he is mean, but he tries to be a good brother and he loves to play a game called Arkham Horror and play Minecraft with me. Basil is seventeen years old he loves video games he also loves playing bord games, but he loves his family more than any video games or bord games. My sister Sophia loves to hang out with her friends. She likes to play with slime and putty. She is a great sister who loves her family just like I do. Esther is the oldest in the family. She helps me when I am feeling sad. She helps cheer me up. She really loves her family just like everyone in my family really loves each other.
My mom and dad are really kind. They take really good care of me. My mom is a math teacher and a writer. My dad is an engineer. He has a group that invents very useful things. My dad used to go on business trips to San Diego. He would stay there for the entire week and come home for pancake breakfast on Saturday. Now he doesn’t travel. He just works from his desktop.
I go to St. Peter’s Classical School. My mom works there as a math teacher. All my siblings and I go there. St. Peter’s Classical School teaches us a lot more than just academics. They teach us good manners. Sadly, some of my classmates are rude and are not willing to change though we have a lot of well-behaved students in the school and in my class.
We went to South Padre Island this summer. I got badly sunburned. So did Xenia and my mom. Jonah got tanned. We went snorkeling, surfing, dolphin watching, wave racing, jumping over waves and falling into them. I kept going yuck whenever saltwater got in my mouth. Xenia made it all the way to the beach when surfing. My mom did good as well. She stood up but she couldn’t get to the beach before she fell over. I was really close to getting to the beach but I fell before I got there. Esther and Sophia were there, and they took us down to the beach. Me, Basil, Jonah, and Xenia made sand traps by digging super deep until water came in the holes from the ocean and made the sand very liquidly. I dug a hole so deep I could get down and only my head was visible. Basil could get into a hole I dug even deeper. The South Padre Island is a great place. I recommend you go there.
Merry Christmas,
Sincerely, Justin
Syra's Scribbles 