Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I’m not sure for how many years we’ve been doing this little tradition of going to Aunt Jodi’s each year, but I say, let’s keep it going!  My aunt makes this DELICIOUS goulash soup every time.  In fact, it was because of that soup that we began insisting we come down each year to sample it.  This Christmas was, as to be expected, a bitter-sweet experience without my mom there. We managed to find her music pipes and played all of the Christmas songs that she would always lead us in.  Jodi has taken on the role of the Pipe Maestro, but we’ll all think of my mom whenever we play, and smile for leaving us this tradition.  We of course played out the night of Christ’s birth, with the very talented and well behaved Caleb, playing the role of the baby Jesus. 

The Annual Christmas Party VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This year we failed to send out our annual Christmas letter as life got extremely busy, crazy, and all other words having to do with unpredictable.  I did write some of it which I will just add to this blog if you want to read it.  I wish you all the best and thank you for your friendship!

December 2012

Dear Family, Friends, and those who happen to find this in the dead-letter office,

First things first, Merry Christmas to all! Do you ever feel like life is too unpredictable and suspenseful to objectively analyze? Ever have trouble verbally sharing those thoughts without seeming like a total nutcase? Here goes the “total nutcase” in an attempt at holiday merriment, in her usual “blah-blah-blah” style.

Facebook asks the question: “What’s on your mind?” Here are a few possible posts from this year:

“What’s on your mind?” - Besides chocolate, sugar cookies, and milk, I’d say I’ve joined a “Save the trees” movement. Our foes are two extremely pesky, yet adorably charming, 2 ½ year old girls. The Christmas tree is decorated from the top to a little less than halfway down. The lights are throughout but the sparkly and fragile things can only be seen by the girls with the assistance of binoculars..

“What’s on your mind?” - Well, Chris lost his job on June 28 when his company decided to surprise everyone by closing down their Provo office that day. No warning for anyone. Again, after much prayer, fasting, and lots of work on Chris’ part, he found a job in October that he enjoys a lot more. He is working at RC Willey’s corporate office doing IT/computer, blah, blah, blah stuff with a little bit of law blah-blah. Sorry for the ambiguity of language here but I can’t keep certain terminology in my mind if it has no meaning to me. If more computer terms had Latin or Greek roots, I might have a chance at memorizing them. But really: USB, LCD, VDI, MCSE, iOS, SuSE, SCCM, DMCA? No normal person can remember them. “Blah” is probably Latin, so that’s why I can remember it.

“What’s on your mind?” - Music. Chris had the privilege of singing in the choir during the Priesthood session of General Conference on October. He really enjoyed the experience, both practices and performance. It provided a much needed spiritual boost during his job search.

“What’s NOT on your mind?” - Not much. The boys are all in school, playing various sports, spending way too much time on the Wii, claiming boredom when forced to do something IRL (In Real Life – working on the computer terms), growing like crazy, and other things that I try not to remember for the sake of personal sanity. We love them so much and I hope they know that, even when we have to act like ornery dad or momsters to get them to do the right things. We’re becoming Calvin’s parents from the comic. We notice that phrases like, “You’ll thank me for this when you’re older,” or, “there are starving people in China,” or even “It builds character” spill out of our mouths when triggered. A “yuck”, “not fair”, or “ugh!” automatically release wisdom to counter utter disregard for proper behavior in the young.

“What’s on your mind right now?” - Napping toddlers, thus this letter. Gratitude and awe for all we have been blessed with. Love for family, friends, and the possible stranger reading this letter. Christ, his birth, and the great gift of the atonement. Christmas! Merry Christmas to you all and lots of love from our whole family!

This letter, as you see, was written before the death of my mom but all we said is still true!  I wish you all wonderful a New Year loaded with worthwhile goals, and a few worthless ones .