MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hi!

Thought I'd trial doing a Christmas letter online this year, seeing as though I am getting the hang of basic web-design!

Well 2002 has been action packed for the newly married Bateman's!  We celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary on 1 December, and we both agree that it has been an excellent year-  not nearly as hard as some the first year is, so that has been great!  The first half of the year we were getting into the swing of marriage and the first half was relatively uneventful.

I started a life coaching course in March and decided part way through that decided that life coaching was much more 'me' and so I resigned from Emerson Black and finished up there at the end of June.  I then opened my own business, Living Edge Life Coaching (check out my webiste - that will give you the low down).  I have a shop-front office set up at New Farm which is about a 1 min drive from home and I now enjoy quite a flexible lifestyle.  I am gradually coming to grips with all that's involved in running your own business and I have enjoyed that much more than I thought I would!  Business has built quite quickly and I am finishing off the year with  15 one on one clients and have run 2 workshops called Esteem Yourself (you can have a look through my website).  I feel like next year is going to be a big one for Living Edge as I focus a lot more on the workshops, some group coaching and working with schools as well as maintaining my one on one clients.  The work is so rewarding and incredibly positive (although one would wonder what wouldn't be after the last few years in family law!)

Leigh's business has had a full on year but a very successful one.  He has been in business for 10 years and would love to take a sabatical, but at this stage that will have to be jam packed into a 6 week holiday instead of 12 months!  (LEIGH TO ADD MORE DETAILS)

I am now very settled into Brisbane and love it here.  We have both started to make lovely friends through church.  We love the church (RiverCity Chrisitian Church) - it is such a friendly, welcoming and alive place!  Part way through the year we started leading a small group in our home of like-minded peers and we have seen that group grow, mulitply into another group and grow again which is very exciting!  God is doing amazing things at RiverCity at the moment.

I have had a couple of trips of Sydney which has been great to see the family and all those new gorgeous babies that all my friends have had this year.  Even managed a weekend to Melbourne with  Mum, Aunty Jen and Amber which was a lot of fun.

On 4 December we leave on a 40 day around the world adventure starting in Las Vegas/Grand Canyon then to Vancouver and 3 weeks in British Columbia and sounds in Canada - including introducing Leigh to snow for the first time in Sunshine where we will ski for a week over Christmas.  We will also catch up with Richard who is now living around there having finished his uni degree and beginning his live overseas adventure.  After the snow we go to New York where we spend 5 days over New Year - yes will be seeing the ball at Time Square and maybe ice-skate in Central Park.  We are looking forward to the cold and escaping 6 weeks of the revolting Brisbane summer!  We then have 5 days in London and a night/day in Singapore on the way home.  We are obviously very excited about the trip and it will be great wind down for the end of a busy year (& very busy 10 years for Leigh)

We wish you all a very Happy Christmas.

Lots of Love Annabel & Leigh

Just so we don't forget why we celebrate Christmas.... here's the story:

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ^[1] the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
    ¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest,
       and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
¹⁶So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.