Christmas 2010

Well, now that the festival of destruction (gift opening) is over, I take keyboard in hand and relate some of the happenings of the year and wax reflective for a brief moment on how blessed we are.

Lisa is still with the Federal Court in San Diego. She recently "got to" take a rare business trip all the way to Los Angeles for training of some sort. She was kind of excited about staying in a hotel and all on someone else's nickel and got a taste of what becomes such drudgery if done enough...ooh, she got a promotion too so now she is getting what she deserved all along. She also had a great trip to Europe this year with some friends. A couple of weeks in the old country left her hungry for more, I think.

Shelley and Steve, Mariah and Jack hosted the family Thanksgiving "get together"; alot of people in their place. We all had a great time together. Mariah and Jack continue to grow and amaze us (I guess I should inject here that all the grandchildren continue to grow and amaze us). They love movies and the park. Steve continues his schooling in addition to work and both he and Shelley are involved in the scouting program in their ward.

Kiel, Melissa, Bruce and Montana are still in SoCal also as Kiel continues with the CHP. Bruce is almost crawling and is an inquisitive little guy. He is so happy and loves all the attention he gets. Melissa loves taking or having pictures taken of him and documents every activity (some we won't mention here). They are happy and rumor has it Bruce will be a big brother next year...

Brittany, Gabe and Sydney live close to us and so we do have one grandchild close enough to dote on. We get to watch her, a.k.a. babysit, once in a while so we get to see her grow more close up than the other grandchildren. She is a really fun little girl who now is very mobile so we need to be on our older toes to keep up with her. Gabe is contracted to the school district as a speech therapist where he helps many children and Britt loves being a mom, I think, and exploring life with her family.

Brigitte, Tyler and Logan are our far flung seeds... we wish we could see them more. Brigitte and Logan came to the Thanksgiving feast in SoCal so we got to see them for a few days. Unfortunately, Tyler couldn't come due to work but we were thrilled to spend time with Logan and get to know each other a little better. He is going to be a big brother next month (go Brigitte!). He is a thoughtful little boy and works things out before trying them himself - a good quality for many of us adults to develop.

Celia is in her last undergraduate year at BYU. August will bring our 4th, and most accomplished, BYU grad in the family. She is planning on continuing her graduate studies in Public Administration. She looks forward to sleep, sleep and sleep in that order. After work, studies, concerts, homework (and trust me, this can go late into the night) , and a smattering of social life activities it is no wonder sleep is a highly prized commodity.

As for us, we love life, our children, their children, and are grateful for all the blessings we have been given. Although loss and trials have come our way this year, we are optimistic about the future for us and our family. It is a good time to reflect on those things that are of true importance from an eternal perspective and those we have in abundance.

Merry Christmas to all!

Thanksgiving 2010

I know you've been waiting breathlessly for the video... I thought I took more but I did get a few clips; all kids so no adults need be concerned about random embarrassing stuff. We had a great time with everyone. We wish Tyler could have been there too. I always have so much fun watching and playing with the kids. Thanks to Shelley and Steve for opening Hotel Jordan to everyone and putting up with us all. It was a great, great time.

Fall 2010

Summer is supposed to be over, how come it is still so hot here? That darn global warming I guess. We sure enjoyed having some of the kids home for conference weekend. Lisa even surprised us and came. We had a good time together and wish that all the family could have been here. Here are a couple pictures from the weekend.

















Kiel and Bruce took the opportunity to get some rest...




















On a more serious note, I should tell you kids how proud I am of you all and the lives you lead. I wouldn't trade my children for any others anywhere and I would put you up for comparison against anyone. I think you are all good people and I am truly proud of you. Thanks.

Yardwork...

My family knows a dark secret about me... I hate doing yard work. I am ok once I am started but getting there is a real chore. I love things that grow and look beautiful but I hate maintaining them. When I was 14, my dad suggested that I contract with the apartment building dwellers on our Army post in Germany to maintain their yards. For 10 - 12 dollars a month I mowed, weeded, and trimmed around several 6 and 8 family apartment buildings. It was a year round job so I shoveled and salted in the winter too - sometimes 2 and 3 times a day. Although I enjoyed having the pocket money it provided, it made for some long days, particularly in the wintertime. By the time we moved back to the states in 1971, I owned two power lawn mowers and an assortment of gardening tools that would fill Juan and Paco's pick-em-up truck. Don't know what ever happened to those... I think my distaste for the green-thumb stuff dates back to my first horticultural experience. I was 9, I think. We lived in Chambersburg, PA. My dad took me out one day to an overgrown lawn, pointed to the push mower, and said "This is your job." I strained and pushed for hours on that mower and made little progress. I was convinced that the push mower was developed during the Inquisition by Jesuit torturers to extract confessions. Anyway, I worked at that for over a week, I think, and never finished. The worst part about it is that now I have no children around to share this wonderful experience with... when we come to visit, don't ask.

More recent events...

I'll sort of fill you in on some things that have happened recently and try to be better at updating...

Brittany and Gabe welcomed Sydney, our fourth grandchild, to their home in March. She is a doll and we are glad to have someone close by to play with. Kiel and Melissa welcomed Bruce, our fifth grandchild and the first Christensen grandchild and great-grandchild, to their home. He sleeps in buckets, boxes, and sometimes on a scale (see their blog for more info on those).

We had two foreign exchange students from Germany stay with us in April. It was almost providential the way that it came about. Steffi and Julia live in small towns near Stuttgart and we were the last-minute fill as their host family. It couldn't have worked out better for us. They are great girls and were alot of fun to have with us. The volcano erupting in Iceland finally let them go home only 10 days late.