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!
