Our Christmas letter

(our family at the BSA museum)

Merry Christmas! Boy am I grateful for email, or I would never have a chance of getting a Christmas letter out before the new year! I know most of you will probably not check your email until after Christmas anyway so this will still be late, but at least I can say I tried, haha!

We hope you are all doing well and having a wonderful Christmas season with your families. As I write this, it is actually snowing outside, which is a very rare sight here, I am told! We are getting settled in Texas, starting to feel more at home, although the saying 'home is where your heart is' does still ring true with our hearts spread out wherever our families and friends are. We have found some wonderful new friends in Texas too who are helping us feel more at home. So many people have been kind to us here and helped make our Christmas wonderful. We feel very blessed.

Our house in Utah finally rented in October, so things have been a little less stressful financially since then. We may not be able to buy a house here for quite a while since we still own the other one, but our situation is so much better than it was while we were paying 2 house payments, many things have improved, we have received many blessings. We are grateful.

Mike is enjoying his job at UNT health science center. He likes having a team to work with and he is enjoying learning new aspects of auditing. He has also started playing around with cooking in his spare time, which is a hobby I am very happy to have him take on! Cooking is still not my favorite, but he is very good at it and he likes it. Maybe when we retire he can cook all of our meals! He is staying busy as Ward Mission leader, and we have had some sweet experiences being part of missionary discussions and baptisms of new members. It has been good for our family to be involved in that together.

Shaun will be 12 in March, and he is getting almost as tall as I am. He is becoming a great babysitter, and lucky for me, he likes doing it. It has been fun to be able to have a few dates with Mike and be able to leave him with them for a little while. He is getting interested in speech and debate, and doing odd jobs trying to find all kinds of ways to earn money. He has started learning to program computer games and has made up a few simple games of his own. It is exciting to see him grow and find his interests and talents. He is becoming a pretty neat young man.

Jacob is catching up with Shaun in the height department. He continues to be an explosive fireball of energy and zest for life, and he makes sure everyone gets their daily requirement of hugs and affection. He is getting very good at cooking and he likes to make meals for the family. He is becoming a fast reader and he and Shaun have both been enjoying reading the Eragon series. He is getting close to earning his Bear badge in scouts and he is excited. He has made a lot of new friends here.

Jeremy is becoming quite the artist, and he would draw all day long if he could! He has piles of drawings all over the house. He recently typed a 9 page story he made up about Star Wars, complete with drawings of ships, creatures, and battles. He also loves to build replicas of the ships with his legos. He is very attentive to details in both visuals and stories. He loves learning about history and how things work, and recently he has been studying a lot about World War 2 battles. Jeremy is our gentle warrior, super sweet, but also melodramatic and fascinated with all war like things! It will be interesting to see what his life's work will be. He also likes planning things like clubs, carnivals, and plays he wants to put on. Unfortunately our house isn't big enough to put on the big productions he envisions, but maybe we will be able to do some of his ideas at the park when it warms up. He definitely doesn't put any limits on his imagination!

Ethan is just our little sunshine, full of dimples and jokes and energy. He loves learning to read and having lessons, and he is a great helper with jobs around the house. He is very independent and loves proving that he can do anything that bigger people can, often with dangerous results! No one can tell him he can't do something, and nothing phases him much. He is very excited about Christmas, he has been counting down the days for a month and every morning the first thing we hear is him bounding in to our room, yelling " ___ days until Christmas!!!!"

Alaina is going to be 3 just after Christmas, but she thinks she is 21. She has a mean streak and she can beat any of the boys in a fight if she wants to, but she also gives lots of sweetness and affection if you are on her good side. She is probably the most stubborn of all of our kids, and I didn't think they could get much more *ahem* 'determined'. But she is a lot of fun, very smart and inquisitive, and she brings a lot of life to our family. She is very excited about all the pretty things at Christmas time and continually points out the presents with the princess paper on them.

We are grateful for all our learning experiences and the many good people who are in our lives. We enjoy hearing from you and we pray for you in whatever you face in life, just like we know you have prayed for us often. We love you all and miss those we won't see this year, but we are with you in spirit and hoping you have a very Merry Christmas!

love,

Alysia, Mike, and the kids