Christmas Letter

I do send out a letter to some people with my Christmas cards.  Not everyone because I feel like a bunch of people already KNOW all that stuff anyway.  I went pretty simple this year - just a little picture.  Dad and Shannon worked together to get our family photo done this year.  We needed to update to include our little Fay-Bay in our photo.  Thought they turned out pretty nice.  

Our letter:

Natalie (5) and Kenna (7) have been homeschooling this year and we are having so much fun! So far we’ve studied Skeletons, Pilgrims, Ancient Egypt, Fairytales, and Worms. Pretty sure their favorite activity by far was inspecting the live night-crawlers we rescued from the bait store.

Logan (11) played soccer this fall. He spent a good chunk of time in the goalie box and did pretty well for his first time! He’s in Scouts and loves it. Loves his class at the charter school.  Started both piano and clarinet this year and enjoys them.

Brynne (14) had a delightful 12 days in Rome and Florence, Italy this summer. She is playing club soccer unofficially with the boys traveling team and enjoying that (not sure if it’s the boys or the soccer she enjoys more, though). Brynne was so excited for seminary to start as she began her freshman year of high school. Attending a 6am class doesn’t seem to phase her a bit. She is on year four of violin study, and we love to hear her play!

This spring, Hannah (16) was able to go on a service trip to Nicaragua with her high school teacher and can’t wait to go back! She got her first real job this year at the local chocolate store (yum). She managed to save enough this summer to buy her dream electronic keyboard in September. Hannah also decided this fall to get her Driver’s Permit. We hope we’re ready for this next milestone. She continues to excel at both school and her piano studies.

Kelly enjoyed a trip to Oregon for a special weekend with her four sisters and mom. They had a blast and realized it was the first time they’d been together as adults without husbands and/or children tagging along. She did a lot of traveling in April and August and saw many loved friends and family. Mostly she keeps busy working with our ward young women and keeping our family going. She loves being a mom!

Josh loved his trip to Italy with Brynne. He keeps pretty busy with work, church responsibilities, and the local volunteering he does with the library and the kids’ school. This year he was super involved in our big circus fundraiser. No, he wasn’t the clown!

We spent most of this year adjusting to and enjoying a new baby. Faith has been a delight to have in our family. She turned one the day before Thanksgiving and was happily practicing her steps for several weeks leading up to that day. She is a happy, fun baby and I love having so many willing hands to help play with and take care of her.

Adding a new baby caused us to stop and enjoy life more - while still creating a level of busyness that we’ve never experienced before. We love the simple delights of gathering for a meal, playing games, listening to music, snuggles, dance parties in the family room, and hiking in the redwoods. As long as we have room for those in our life, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our hearts, we are doing well. Life is never perfect, but we feel richly blessed.

That's basically the best of the best.  For me, my life was full of new baby and I pretty much just holed up and just drank in this last new baby experience.  You'll notice in my letter there is none of the mundane, painful, sad, tiring, or frustrating stuff.   The sleepless nights, potty-training misery or appliance repairs jobs got left out on purpose.

I love to read the Christmas letter that I get.   Yes, I can let it weigh me down if I choose to start comparing my life with their letter, but I'm pretty happy with my life and wouldn't want to trade.  I know they have problems that they left out of their letter just as I left mine out.  I love seeing pictures of everyone's kids.  That's really the best part.  I love knowing what their interests are and what milestones they have reached.   It's so nice to hear what's going on in their lives.

Merry Christmas everyone!