Dear Brother C.

     Another year has glided swiftly past and at its conclusion I am reminded of the need to write you a few lines.
      This year will go on record as being a good one for me and my family. We were spared major illness and accident and were quite successful in the store.
     It was also our pleasure to enjoy many spiritual blessings and if we suggested that anything was lacking in that respect it would be our own fault. I am quite happy and rejoice with the 103rd Psalm.  
      My wife and I visited our brother J. Peter in July. He walks bent and hunched over, and of course his sons continue to help him with many tasks. His Katharina is still spry and healthy, his son Albert has 400 acres of land, while Hermann has 275 acres.
      Albert still has debts, but Hermann is in the clear, and is well established, having between 15 and 20 cows and making cheese in the summer. We had a very pleasant time with them.
      It seems our relations in Saanen still have not decided whether they will visit us or not. If I were to travel again to Saanen, I would also visit Ablenschen again, as I think that no where else does the milk taste as sweet as there. Pastor Gasser must also have found it agreeable there, as he has married the Brosching girl. I remember telling Mrs. Brosching that the only thing he lacked was a good wife and you thought it possible for him to win their daughter.
      It is so sad that the pastor in Siebenthal lost his wife. I imagine that you are also taken back in thought to our visit to our homeland.
      It rained here on Wednesday and Thursday, yesterday and today it has been quite cold but we still do not have enough snow for sledding.
      We wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Greetings from all of us