What a year 2018 was for the Britt family. We had many exciting changes, transitions, new starts and chapters that have closed only for new ones to open again. This was a good year for our family in so many ways. 

      In February, we welcomed the newest member to our clan when Matt married Candice McRacken of Statesville, NC in a beautiful wedding ceremony down in Charlotte, NC. They had friends and family come from all over the world to the event and it was one truly incredible celebration held exactly one week before Matt’s 40th birthday.

The newlyweds currently reside in Ballston Lake, New York and plan to honeymoon in Italy in late-February. Matt works for Snyder Printer, the oldest print shop in the Capital District. Matt and Candice went to Detroit this past summer leaving him with only Arizona left on the list to complete his goal of seeing all the stadiums in Major League Baseball. 

    Candice works for NYSERDA (The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) where she works as the office administrator for the Communications Department. She really enjoys the work she does there and her co-workers. Candice is also taking her love of cooking breakfast to new heights as the Sunday morning Cafe Chef and Events Liason at W.H. Buckley Farm. Candice has a real passion for making cobbler and we encourage you to check out some of her scrumptious cobblers online on her Instagram page @inthecompanyofcobbler for a peek at some of the delicious deserts she’s been baking lately. 

     Miranda has had quite a wonderful year. Her health is finally stable and she’s feeling pretty great. She started working again for the first time in 8 years this fall. She works part-time at the Writing Center at SUNY Canton as a professional tutor, working with students on everything from research papers to grad school applications and just loves it. She has continued to write her positivity blog at justthegoodstuff.blog and has had a wonderful response to that online since starting it over 2 years ago. She also watches the sweetest 8-month-old little girl named Alice a couple mornings during the week and they have quickly become the best of friends. Miranda has been quite the traveler this year visiting all different parts of the country. She also has gone on some epic adventures with her best friend, Kym. Together, they’ve explored places like Canada, California, and Kym was also Miranda’s “+1” to Matt and Candice’s wedding in February in North Carolina.

    2018 started quite differently for David than it ended. He began the year having been comfortably retired since January of 2017. He had adjusted to life as a “house husband” nicely, cooking wonderful dinners and also making semi-regular trips to see his 92-year-old mother living in Pennsylvania when sometime in July he was approached by the Business Department at SUNY Potsdam. They asked him if he would consider returning to the college yet again, only this time in a different capacity. He just finished teaching 3 sections of Intro to Accounting to approximately 75 students this fall and will do the same in the springtime. He is appreciated by both the faculty and students and although we’ve adjusted to life without as much of Dad’s great cooking, we know he’s making a difference, so the tradeoff is worth it.  

    Kickie finally retired from her job as the coordinator of Music Business and the executive director of The Crane Institute for Music Business and Entrepreneurship at The Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam this summer after 14 wonderful years there and 49 years of teaching. This time, retirement really seems to have “stuck”, although she is constantly exploring new ways in which she can stay connected to the Music Business industry and use her influence and connections to help others. She has a wonderful network or former students and colleagues she is in constant contact with and routinely gets check-in calls from lots of her other “kids”. In her spare time, Kickie is acting as the general contractor for the home renovation projects she and David started this fall. She and Miranda also try to get their 10,000 steps in each day, something they started last summer and are quite dedicated to. 

    We wrote this letter, all huddled together at Matt and Candice’s apartment on Christmas Eve, feeling so grateful that our family once again was fortunate enough to spend the holidays together all under the same roof. We are happy, healthy, and looking forward to 2019 with excitement to see what it might have in store for us all.