Dear Loved Ones:                                                                                                                                                   

Merry Christmas!  Our family sends our love and we hope that all is well with each of you. 

Austin is still playing lacrosse and skiing every chance he gets; he is still exactly as tall as his dad (although Cameron refuses to go back to back with him anymore, just in case); and he is still eating us out of house and home.  He plays hard, and he works hard too.  He started a job at Zupas this year and continues his window washing business as well.  He is such a great kid, but sometimes suffers from a condition we like to call “teenage brain.”  When this happens, we assure him that he is the very smartest airhead we know.  He is so incredibly bright.  He really is.  However, as I drove him to the DMV last week for the third time this year because he lost his driver’s license (again!), I asked myself how this could possibly be.  The kid gets straight A’s.  He uses electives to take foreign language and AP history classes for fun.   He reads the entire newspaper every single day and understands much of what is happening in the world better than I do.  And yet, there we were, explaining to the lady at the DMV that, no, we didn’t have his social security card, because he left it in his pocket, sent it through the wash, and it is now a pile of lint.  Like I said… teenage brain.  But, oh my goodness, how we love him.  He is leaving us next summer and we can hardly bear the thought.  We went to see “Meet the Mormons” a couple of months ago, and the end of the movie shows a family saying goodbye to a missionary.  All of us (even the little girls) were a bit of a mess, realizing that we would soon be that family saying goodbye to our son and brother for two whole years.  As the movie ended, we wiped our tears and I said to the kids, “Well, we know we love him.  We really should be nicer to him.”  We are working on that. 

Ashleigh will be 15 at the end of this month, which means that we will have another driver on our hands.  I’m not sure my heart can take it, so I’ll probably send her out with Dad for driving lessons.  She used to be interested in everything, but seems to be narrowing her focus lately.  I think she would rank her favorite things as such: 1. Clothes; 2. Friends; 3. Clothes; 4. Shoes; 5. Clothes; 6. (maybe) Family and 7. (definitely) Clothes.  You should see her bedroom. Granted, I make her share a room with Ellie, and that means fairly tight quarters for both of them, but still!  When the kids were younger, I would bring “Mr. Gunneybag” (a giant black garbage sack) to the toy room if they wouldn’t clean up and he would “eat” all the toys they left out.  After a probationary period, they were given the opportunity to earn their toys back by doing extra chores.  Well, Mr. Gunneybag’s tastes have changed of late, and he now spends most of his time in Ashleigh’s room eating a steady diet of clothes instead of toys.  Teenage stuff aside, she is still pretty awesome.  She is fun to be around, kind to everyone (even bossy little siblings), and generally very helpful.  She can tend and cook and bake like a pro (minus her chocolate banana cake last year –that didn’t work out so well).  She LOVES to read, especially historical romances (translation: cheesy chick-flick books).   She is playing lacrosse and particularly enjoys her cute cleats and yellow stick.  She sings in the choir at school and has more friends than I can keep track of.  We really do love her to pieces.

Hayden is in sixth grade.  I can’t seem to wrap my mind around the fact that he will be in Junior High next year.  Time is flying by… way too fast for me.  He is working hard in school, but his favorite part of every day is football at recess with friends.  Most days, I get a play-by-play when he walks in the door.  His BYU obsession continues.  Last year, I went to a basketball game with Cameron and ended up sitting next to Bronson Kafusi (BYU defensive lineman).  I simply could not resist asking him to be in a picture with me so I could brag to Hayden when I got home.  It wasn’t weird at all.  I’m sure Bronson gets lots of requests to take pictures with middle-aged moms (at least, that is what I told myself).  Two weeks later, Hayden went to the basketball game with Cameron.  At half-time, I received a text with a picture of Hayden sitting next to Taysom Hill (BYU Quarterback).  He had one-upped me and he knew it!  He could not have been more pleased with himself.  Hayden plays lacrosse (it seems to run in our family), but loves all sports.  After the world cup, he asked to have his hair cut like Cristiano Ronaldo.  He googled a picture and took it to Great Clips.  They did a pretty good job and he got lots of compliments.  One stranger told him his hair was “ninja awesome,” and his Sunday school teacher made his day when he commented that he looked like Ronaldo.  My personal favorite was when a store clerk said that his haircut was “sick” and Hayden just beamed to hear such wonderful news.  What a funny boy.

Ellie is eight and doing great!  She is super smart and has a vocabulary that amazes me.  In preparation for her baptism in September, the bishop requested an interview with her one Sunday morning in August.  We were running just a minute behind, so when we pulled up to the church I said, “Ellie, you need to hustle, or you are going to be late.”  She asked, “What does hustle mean?,” and I answered, “It means hurry up.”  She looked at me, rolled her eyes and said, “It’s hasten, Mom.  You mean hasten.”  Duh.  She announced at dinner recently that when she grows up she is going to have two kids and name them Walter and Ruby.  When I asked why just two kids, she explained that she only wants to pay for a two-bedroom house and she wants a slug-bug for the family car.  Now that is planning ahead.  She is fun and feisty and still keeping us on our toes.  This summer we spent a day at Six Flags while on vacation in Southern California with extended family.  Each kid had twenty dollars to spend on a souvenir.  Ellie had purchased a stuffed animal earlier in the day and named it Rocco.  That night she decided to spend the rest of her money on a smaller version of the same stuffed animal.  She left Cameron in the store to purchase the “baby” and came running out to where the rest of our large group was waiting, yelling, “I have great news!  Rocco is pregnant!”  Sure enough, Cameron delivered the baby shortly thereafter. I don’t know where she comes up with these things, but life is never dull when Ellie is around.

Most of the time, Hadley is as sweet as they come.  Sometimes, she is a total drama queen.  We love her either way, but especially when she is sweet.   Last Spring, we stopped by the elementary school and I asked her if she was excited to start school there in a few months.  She replied, “Of course I’m excited.  I’ve been waiting my whole life to be done with preschool.”  She started kindergarten in the fall and mostly loves it.  When she comes in the door after three hours of school and tells me that she had a really long day, I just smile and think to myself, “Oh darlin’, just you wait.”  A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out her dresser with her, getting rid of things that don’t fit or that she never wears.  I would hold up items in question and ask, “Are you ever going to wear this?”  I held up a long-sleeved black shirt and asked her the question.   She immediately responded, “Only if I am ever going to be a spy.”  With no spy jobs in her foreseeable future, we got rid of the shirt.  She cracks us up with the funny things she says.  Recently, she was helping me fold laundry when she came upon a pair of her own shorts and said to me, “These shorts are so warm, Mom.  Thanks for cooking them up!”  Last summer, she came in the house crying and yelling, “Ellie said I can have a turn in 70 seconds and I can’t even count that high!!”  You would have thought the world was ending.  Hadley’s favorites include her blanket, “Bluey,” her stuffed animals, her thumb, her friends and her mom (I’m still on the list!). 

If you asked our kids what is the biggest best thing that happened to our family this year, every single one of them would say the same thing.  We got a dog!  Yep, you read that right.  After 18 years of holding my ground, I finally caved.  I don’t know what made me do it.  Temporary insanity is a pretty good guess.  The truth is, I decided that I was spending too much time worrying about things that, in the end, don’t matter, and I made a decision that I wanted my kids to have memories more than I wanted a perfect house and yard (and they wore me down with their incessant begging and pleading until I cracked under the pressure… a person can only take so much).  A dog has been every bit as much of a pain as I thought it would be.  She shreds stuffed animals.  She eats shoes and books (and banana bread from the counter when we aren’t looking).  She pulls up sprinkler tubing.  She makes messes in the yard.  She makes messes in the house.  But if you could be there when my kids all come home from school, you would know why I am glad I caved.  One by one, they come in the door, and one by one, they greet her with love and enthusiasm and joy beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed from them.  They love her.  They serve her.  They put up with her when she messes up and even when she eats their stuff.  Time and time again.  They just keep loving her.  Emi is teaching them what unconditional love feels like, and for that reason, I am glad we have her (although, if you ask me on the wrong day, I might not admit it).

I love this season.  I especially love the reason for this season.  A long time ago, a Baby was born and changed everything. 

For everyone.

To the world, and each and every soul that would ever live upon it, that Baby brought hope, love, life, joy and peace.  He brought the promise of forever and, even better, the possibility of forever with our loved ones.  He conquered death so that we could too.  He brought second chances and fresh starts; as many as we need.  He brought healing and wholeness, forgiveness and freedom.  Each gift he brought is a miracle that holds the power to change a life.  Every life. 

My life has been changed.  And for that, I am forever grateful.  

Merry Christmas from our house to yours,

Cameron, Amy, Austin, Ashleigh, Hayden, Ellie and Hadley