Dear Children,
We walked out of church this evening to more snow believe it or not! It started while we were in our meetings and there was quite a blanket of snow covering everything including all the old piles of dirty snow that survived the intense rain we have had this week. We did have an expected snow shower the other night to break the monotony of rain. Even with all the snow and difficult driving Dad endured with icy windshields and broken chain problems, we still agree that snow is beautiful. It promotes a quiet and still feeling as we look outside from a warm home!
We are getting used to going to church again now with the weather calming down some! Two weeks in a row of no church can start a bad habit! Tonight we even stayed for Break the Fast dinner. The singles ward has so many vegetarians and vegans that even the stir fry is separated and there is a bowl of tofu or a bowl full of chicken to add to it. Church was great today; it is always nice to have a fresh start in a book of scriptures in Gospel Doctrines class (a time to reset the goal of doing my reading assignments for church)!
I like clean, fresh starts. As I wrote to Nate in a book that Santa slipped into his stocking about finding happiness in the daily routine of work and such, I noted that he had just passed the days of “fresh starts” every few months with the ending and beginning of each new semester. I realized, as I wrote, that there is a potential for great relief by coming to the end of a large college textbook. I remember that when I was in college and feeling overwhelmed by cracking open a textbook for the first class, thinking I would never get to the end of the book. Within a few short months you are studying the last chapters and either very glad or somewhat sad that the class is about to end for good! What a blessing a new beginning can be. Now Nate is at the beginning of his career where he will see the same people each day and do relatively the same work everyday with no semester to end to change all that. It is good that he is starting at such a great company to have a satisfying and rewarding work experience. Knowing that I am doing my your best work is my answer to having a rewarding work experience even when others do not notice your works. I think that is why I struggle with this “new” calling; I feel like Dad and I just aren’t doing our best.
Relief Society was also very good today. The teacher took a talk from an old BYU Today magazine! The lesson used the analogy of learning to speak a foreign language and knowing the language from a book but not being able to be proficient in it unless we practiced it a great deal and allowed it to become part of our nature . . .to becoming a “native speaker” in the Gospel. It was a very good lesson and emphasized the goal of becoming so proficient in the Gospel that nothing that comes from our mouth or thought in our minds that isn’t completely Christ-like.
The start of today was extremely different than any day in the last few weeks or maybe even months for that matter. We went to bed at a fairly reasonable time after spending Saturday putting away most of the Christmas things (not the dishes yet), finishing the last of Aaron’s sourdough pancake batter, and watching, in bed that night, a Feature Films Families called Down and Derby. The company called me over the holidays when I was in the middle of some kitchen project and asked if I would buy a couple of videos. I haven’t bought any for years and I do like to support their concept of clean family entertainment but we have no one left at home to entertain. When they said I could send it back if not completely satisfied I said yes just to get them off the phone and not spend any more time listening to their various movie descriptions. So, I wanted to watch this in a hurry so I could send it back immediately. But, we just might keep this one! I think you would all think it is pretty funny even though Dad was not like any of the Dads in the movie when it came down to the Pinewood Derby. It was a good thing that Dads were suppose to help their Cub Scouts since I may have become more like the Dads in the movie myself. I do remember that one year, it looked like so much fun to make one that I made myself a hot pink derby car with a lady holding a bag of groceries in the driver seat. I wonder whatever happened to that.
Anyway, (I guess that I am rambling Aaron) we slept in this morning. I mean, reall
y slept in! I didn’t get out of bed until almost noon. We were both totally exhausted and just kept falling back to sleep (very easily I might add)! Good thing we are on the singles schedule of 2:30 church. Beaverton First ward now starts at 11:00.
This week rain has returned to 
neers who braved the snow and ice and broken chains on the fourteen hour Seattle road trip, the siblings who generously donated clothing and diapers to the Brady family, the siblings who retrieved the lost luggage and of course, the siblings who braved the new storms to the south and digging the van out of deep snow ruts to get Kyre and children, the boys who rerouted themselves with perfect timing to avert yet another storm thus avoiding the delay of family fun and possible disappointment of missing the family photo. A big thank you goes to all of you who helped make this gathering happen. And really, whoever would have wanted to miss the above family bonding events?
The fact that Katie surprised me by coming home the Thursday before Christ
mas instead of on Saturday was a real blessing. Besides being extra help those days prior to everyone’s arrivals, her Saturday flight was one that was probably cancelled. When Heidi called after a snowstorm hit 
o again salvage that family time together. Luckily, instead of waiting for the then available flights on Christmas Eve, Katie had the idea to reroute them to
Again, much time on the phone informed us that there were no four wheel vehicles anywhere in the
Luckily, Shawn and Aubrey arrived early Saturday morning before the worst of the storm’s conditions but at a perfect time to play in the snow. Gregory and Shawn got lots of tractor time and sledding and sliding on the ice covered snow. Amazingly, Morty and Aaron were a
ble to do some last minute flight changes allowing them to arrive earlier and on one of the few flights that made the
Thank goodness Heidi, Bill, Shawn and Aubrey could make it down to see Scott for a nice visit on Monday morning even though the Sunday travel was so difficult. Adding the lost luggage to the mix had us scrambling in the early morning hours to gather appropriate clothing for Heidi and Bill to get into see Scott. Combining his visit with picking up Scott’s family made Scott very happy. It is always a pleasure to give Scott a hug goodbye while he knows that you will next hug one of his children or Kyre. He appreciates any kindness shown towards his children or Kyre. Thank you for regular notes sent to him and his family throughout the year. Even the travel to pick up Kyre and the children in
Of course Dad had plowed a huge snow
mountain in the middle of the court but few of our own grandchildren played on it much as we had hoped since some came after just being sick so we kept them close and mostly inside. The snow cancelled our annual Zoolights visit. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to walk down those fist hills and the big bridge of the zoo if it was covered in ice as was reported.
We did get in a ton of game playing and had so many fun family times. Kyre and the children had an early Christmas here which was fun. It made for a huge pile of presents under the tree leaving not much room for people! The gingerbread houses made after family home evening were orchestrated by Aubrey and quite excellent I might say. There was so much candy on them that they provided too much 
temptation for small hands the rest of the holiday! I meant to “share the joy” by sending one of the gingerbread houses back with Kyre!
The night of gingerbread house making didn’t interest Shawn and Nate enough; they had to add their own fun by jogging in the deep snow with shorts. I got several pictures of them jumping on the tramp and making snow angels. When they came inside, Nate had ice crystals hanging on this chest hair!
Our tradition of ice ska
ting remained in tact despite the storms and luckily, not many people were anxious to crowd the ice arena that day since there was so much ice outside! Most everyone has fun ice skating.
Before heading to 
ed with the snowy conditions to even get to the building and having three children under the age of two. This family pose is one that is in the final running but my favorite pose is of the grandchildren at the very end when everyone was ready to go to lunch and Klaire was the only toddler happy since she had a familiar lap on which to sit (and her stuffed animal right next to her)! But the moment in time is what is so precious to have all the grandchildren together; even with Alina smiling as Jenna screams louder in her ear than she thought possible!
We learned later that afternoo
n that Dad being with us on Christmas Eve was in jeopardy due to the road conditions coming back from taking Kyre and the children home to
We had a great Christmas Eve program with stories and music. The best part was when Rebekah was asked to tell the Christmas story and she directed us to “act” out the story with an impromptu play of sorts, she being the angel and her mother being the narrator if I recall that correctly. Oh course, Aubrey was chosen to be Mary (great with child) being led by Joseph (Shawn) and the donkey (Nate). We ended with Dad dedicating our home (something we have wanted to 
do for years) since we were all finally home together. It was a wonderful evening; no one wanted to leave the living room so Santa of course couldn’t make his visit until the wee hours of the morning. Luckily, he did not give up and we woke to a grand display of gifts on Christmas morning.
The length of time for all the present opening was like the days when we all were living under the same roof and it took all day. It was like getting a call from a missionary to be able to take a break and talk to Scott on Christmas! He actually is serving the Lord where he is; he is a great example for goodness and I know he makes a difference. He told Adrianne on her last visit of the vacation, that he enjoyed the food during the holidays and they were even treated to steak on New Year’s. He also loved his visits with each one of you.
Of the gifts, there were several handmade gifts, hard to 
find items and specially ordered surprise items that were exciting to see opened and of course it was fun to watch the grandchildren open some of their playful gifts. Dad and I received some grand gifts from all of you; our technology brain cells will get some work outs while learning how to use the iPod Touch and the navigation system! We stopped for our traditional Christmas breakfast after everyone saw what Santa brought and opened their stockings. It seemed we were opening gifts until it was time to fix dinner which had to be prompt since half the family was going to the Portland Trailblazer game that evening. They had a hard time getting the van out of the neighborhood so Dad drove the tractor down to plow the corner that was the worse area before they drove home! The whole neighborhood was grateful for Dad’s plowing services. That effort allowed our neighbor to maneuver out to the main streets during the storm; he received candy gifts galore.
The night after Christmas was a delightful and elegant dinner out at the Heathman Hotel to celebrate Nate’s graduation. He is going to walk in April so that is why no one received any announcements.
The rest of the holiday was spent playing together, playing new games and old, building snow tunnels, after Christmas returns and shopping, roasting marshmallows in Dad’s new fire pit and eating, eating and more eating. You must eat snacks while playing games so I think we went through about six or seven cheese balls, a family favorite. After all the cream cheese that I stocked up on before the holidays, I had to actually send Bill out for more!
These are just a sampling of the pictures from Christmas. I am still in the process of labeling and editing all the pictures from the holidays. As soon as I can get my Costco.com photo site working again (I have to call customer service again), I will send you my file on their website so you can see the rest of the pictures. Did anyone get a picture of Shawn and Aubrey with the Christmas tree quilt? I would love one of those if so.
We are thankful that everyone arrived at their homes safely. The Brady family was the first to leave. Since they couldn’t drive their car here due to the storms, they drove our Taurus home. We had decided not to sell it this fall since we knew that we could use an extra car over the holidays. Now that it is in
In Utah the Brady’s decided to have toasts for several events so when it was Rebekah’s turn her toast was, “I love my family and know the Church is true.” and Jenna’s was, “Toast!” Adrianne spent her last days here visiting with all her barn friends. Nate decided to drive with Arik Johnstone. That was nice for Arik since he only drove out here due to his flight getting cancelled and not being able to rebook until after Christmas, so he didn’t have a rider planned. It was nice for us since that helped us get the last of the boxes, luggage and strollers to their rightful owners in the different states with only having to pay one extra baggage fee! It is a good thing that Dad and I never had the time to clean out the attic in November as we had hoped. We planned to do that so that we could send boxes home with everyone but there wouldn’t have been room anyway. I was nervous about Nate’s drive since the roads were getting bad again but he said it was a very dry snow on the roads.
Dad is having a hard time thinking about work after this huge break. He is so lucky to have finished the large
Thank you again to all of you for the extra efforts and for the sacrifices made to come together as a family. One of the girls in our ward who went home to
Have a great start to this new year! I love you. Love, Mom
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