Good Morning!
I hope this Christmas season is happy and peaceful one for you! I am terrible at writing Christmas cards, so I am sending this instead. :)
This year has been quite uneventful! How many can say that? I guess I should clarify uneventful~ uneventful in a bad way. Many good things and blessings have come our way this year. So I guess it's true "For after much tribulation come the blessings!".
Dear Husband is doing well, working hard and has just been made the ward clerk. He says he knows all the gossip, has input, but no real responsibility! Except to get numbers and reports together. Guess that works for him!
Church wise, I am only teaching Sunday School. Well Dear Husband and I were team teaching a class of 19 thirteen year old lovely reverent teens. Guess which word I am exaggerating. Our class is loud but I consider it an accomplishment that none have skipped a class or had to be coerced to come to class. If I teach the same age group next year, I get Dear Daughter's class. Should be fun. They are looking at splitting that group as well as my class because they are just so huge! I truly hope so. We averaged around 16 kids each week, so I would appreciate a smaller class. Other than that, I am busy hauling kids to and from school, and other activities. I still co host an ESL book club at the library, but our numbers are diminished, so we are in a recruitment phase. Our Bishop challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in 40 days. I hated him that day, but I did it. How great! I hadn't done that in years, so it was fabulous for me.
Dear Son turned 16. Had a huge sweet 16 party that he didn't want or ask for, and had a great time. Surprise! He spent the summer working for my brother, and though he loved the money, he does not love physical labour. Still doing well in school, he is currently deciding between the IB program, or just taking some AP courses. As he is 16, we are letting him decide. I am having a hard time trusting his decision. Big surprise there as well. He has to wait until spring to get his license though. Colorado law. Yay! Then I won't be able to say that the year was uneventful.
Dear Daughter is 13. Kill me please! Typical teenage girl with ups and downs. She is busy in a bunch of activities. She is NJHS Vice president. She is in choir, she takes private voice lessons. She crafts. Meaning all things sewing, clay sculpting, and drawing. She has just started teaching a little girl in our ward to sew. Her mom is so generous, she is even paying her to do this. So, Tess feels like she is rolling in the dough so to speak. She still keeps up with her school work though. I love that girl! She keeps me hopping!
Other than that, our family is happy and busy and growing. Life has it's ups and downs, sometimes very down, but I am grateful for this past year. Don't you love Christmas letter? Generally, we don't list all the negatives like fighting kids, missing or just incomplete assignments, drama~both for Dear Son and Daughter, and other "Family" issues. Speeding Tickets, Money issues, ( Read I need to learn to manage it better and distinguish between needs and wants and not keeping up with our very affluent neighbors the Jones'). Learning the importance of a generous fast offering has been interesting to say the least. Decluttering ~read clearing the hoard of junk from the basement. New garage doors because the old ones were literally falling apart, and I didn't use them for fear of them dropping on either myself, my family or my vehicles. The installer guy showed me how broken they were by using one finger to rip them down...Scary! Dog barfing/ losing bowel control in Dear Husband's office. That one went over well~just ask him yourself....I am surprised we still have a dog. Broken dishes, vases, car repairs, bills to pay. And how is it appliances all seem to die at the same time? Don't you just love this life? I do. Some days are way more difficult than others, but I am glad that I have lived the life I lived. I don't have too many regrets. Yes, there are some, but I don't have any Major regrets.
Listening to Christmas Carols this month, there is one popular/current one right now that talks about how "His Gospel is Peace". Somehow that struck me this year. I Chose and am Working on my "gift to the Savior" this year. It won't be an easy one. It truly requires a change on my part, so we will see how this works out.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
