Our Christmas Letter

The following is what was sent out with our Christmas cards this year that has been updated for accuracy. In a day or two I will take the time to post pictures of our Christmas activities.

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This is the photo I sent out this year. As you can guess, Hannah wasn't totally happy with the choice...but why make faces when someone is taking a picture of you and then be surprised that others get to see the photo? I love the photo (other than the fact that I'm not wearing make-up...so I'm not really picking on Hannah since I don't look my best either...)







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Dear Family and Friends,

Let’s jump right in with the highlights of 2010 for our family.

ANDREW turned 20 in April and has been really enjoying his service as a missionary for our church. He is currently serving in Ames, IA in an Iowa State University Young Single Adult student ward. Since everyone is currently gone due to the Christmas break, he says it's really "dead" there right now...not much to keep the missionaries busy. He has just over 6 months left of his 2 year mission. Boy, has time flown. He should be home about July 1st. Later in the summer we will drive out to see his mission area and some Church historical sites like Nauvoo.

ERIC just turned 19 last month and we are currently working on submitting the paperwork for him to serve a mission.  We are told, however,  that due to his Asperger’s Syndrome, he will be honorably released from serving a proselyting  mission.  We are hoping that he will be able to later go on a church service mission instead.  If that occurs, we will share more about it in next year’s letter. Eric earned his Eagle in Boy Scouts last February…but he is waiting for his brother to do the same so they can share the Eagle Court of Honor ceremony. This spring Eric directed the comedy Cash on Delivery with his cousin Alicia.  Eric graduated from high school in June and just finished up his first semester as a college student at Western Nevada College, our local community college.  He was in the WNC musical production of Cinderella in November where he played the butcher and a villager (click on the Cinderella link to see the pictures of Eric from the play).  He’s a great singer, dancer and actor.  Besides theatre, he also had math, English, and a psychology class this past semester. We are working on his schedule for the spring.

RYAN is 16 and a junior in high school. He’s always loved math and science and says he is now leaning towards being a physics teacher. He was on the swim team last spring and hopes to do so again this next season. He’s been our first child to participate in school sports and it was quite fun to go to the meets and watch him. Ryan got “drafted” to be the Student School Board Representative for all the students in the school district. At the beginning of each School Board meeting (about twice a month), he reports on the happenings of our five local elementary schools, the junior high, and the high school. It’s not his favorite thing to do [as a matter of fact, he dreads it], but it’s great to see him get up in front of people and talk (remember, he’s my one child who takes after me and would rather be in the wings rather than on the stage). To earn his Eagle scout rank, Ryan has finished all his required merit badges and project, but he has one last requirement to do (write up his personal statement of his life ambitions and past achievements). Once that requirement is done, he has to finish up his paper work and pass his Eagle Board of Review.  We are hoping that soon he and Eric will have that double Eagle Scout ceremony.

HANNAH just turned 15 and is a freshman. She became our second child to play school sports when she tried out and made the tennis team.  Now that tennis is over, she signed up to join the track team with the same friend who got her involved in tennis.  She is currently in her dad’s advanced theatre class, along with her cousin Michael. They were both just in Anne of Avonlea a few weeks ago. Hannah was also in Anne of Green Gables the previous weekend. It is so fun to have them on stage together.  She is an excellent student and keeps a very busy social life.

ALEX is 10 and in the 4th grade. We switched him to a new school this year and at first he was sad about leaving his old friends behind, but he has since made new friends and is doing great. His MAP math scores place him at the benchmark they want the 10th graders to be at, so he’s doing quite well. His favorite thing to do still is to play with his cousins--since they live across the street this thankfully happens quite often. Alex is a Webelo in the Cub Scout program and enjoys all their activities.

I (BETH) could probably use almost any of the things I’ve written about myself for the last 3 Christmases and it would still hold true.  I still substitute teach (mainly at the high school and junior high), I stamp, I read, I wish I could keep my house clean and de-cluttered, I went to BYU Ed Week with my sister, I work on my family history from time to time, and I work with the children at church.

GLEN’s general activities haven’t really changed either: church, boy scouts, school plays (this is Glen‘s 22nd year at CCHS), family history, and volunteer county museum bookkeeper. Some of the specifics have changed, however. Some of the plays this year: Room Service, No Body to Murder, Exit the Body, Here Comes the Brides, Cash on Delivery, Twelve Angry Women, Cinderella, Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea.  The theatre is really kept busy.  In May the Swing Dance Club recruited Glen to dance in Fallon’s version of Dancing with the Stars.  He danced the tango to The Assassin’s Tango heard in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith (you can find the piece on my playlist below).  Receiving three scores of 9, he came in second place by only a half a point. In scouting, Glen was one of the men in charge of the BSA Centennial Jamboree for the Nevada Area Council held in Fallon in August. It was quite the major deal. Glen again (for the fourth year) participated in the museum’s annual ghost walk in October, this year as a local character named Cye Cox.

We are healthy and happy and are grateful for the many blessings we have in our lives.  We’ve had a great year and look forward to the new one…especially since we get to have Andrew home again…for about a month before he leaves us to go back to college.    We hope this post finds you and yours safe and sound. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a wonderful new year!