Dear Family and Friends,

This past year has been an adventure for the Clyde and Claudia Tigner family.

Many of you know that Carolyn lives with us and is estranged from her husband Samuel Shaffer. Samuel lives in the Salt Lake City area with a buddy and Carolyn and Sam’s two little daughters. Samantha is now 3 years old and Lilly is now 5. Sam is having a friend provide pre-school for both of the girls. The friend lives in Spanish Fork, so Sam stays in that area for the week while the girls attend school. We are very excited about that!

Carolyn is doing well here at our home, and is always finding employment. She has not earned enough to support herself and her two children, so they remain with their dad most of the time. We love our daughter and are happy to see her becoming more socially “alive” and active again.

Stephen still lives nearby. He still gets most of his mail at our address, and we see him frequently. Especially during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, Stephen has packages delivered here almost every day, starting with Black Friday. Stephen lives alone in a three-bedroom townhouse and is happy that way at the moment. He takes Taiko drumming lessons and plays with a Taiko drumming group in town. When we can we go to their performances.

Gabe has grown a lot this past year – in many ways. We are having to get him back into soccer to help provide him with lots of acivity. He has been in an enormous physical growth spurt, but we are expecting him to shoot up even more in the next two years and into his adolescence. Gabe is still a Dubach, and since we have had him, we have not taken him back to Sacramento for a visit with the Dubachs and other family members who live there. The phone is our contact with our Sacramento family.

My younger brother, John, lives in West Virginia with his spouse. They are in Berkeley Springs, a tiny resort community, formerly known as Bath. These names denote the existence of hot springs that are popular with tourists and locals. John and his wife love West Virginia but sometimes would rather be closer to family out west here. John’s son, Mike, is married and lives in the Sacramento area, where the rest of my own extended family members live. He likes being near his favorite cousin, Ruth, one of Mary’s daughters.

Thanksgiving 2015 was celebrated with a wonderful and traditional family feast. We had plenty of turkey, some very rich and delicious gluten-free dressing, a relish tray with petite dill pickles, carrots, celery and olives. We had both sweet and mashed potatoes, with turkey gravy, and we also had some delicious rolls. We all overate and lost our energy - Gabriel excepted. We also had both apple and pumpkin pies with whipped topping and ice cream – 1 of each pie was enough for us.

We have been richly blessed this year and are very grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Clyde’s work with mentally disabled children came to an end as he resigned from his former job, and into his lap fell an invitation to apply to be a case management contractor for the State Department of Health and Welfare. Clyde is working only half-time, but he is keeping plenty busy. This provides some coverage for times when Claudia is not home to manage Gabe. Because of Clyde’s new job, Claudia has cut her hours so that she can be with Gabe more. We also have extra services for Gabe now, and are very appreciative of that.

We want to wish all of you a very happy Christmas and New Year. May the Lord be with you and strengthen and comfort you always. Please remember you are all always in our prayers.

The Tigners and a Dubach (not yet adopted)