Christmas Letter

It's time again to send out Christmas cards, but I'm a little behind this year and I think that it's just not going to happen. Andrei won't be spending the holidays with us for the first time in about 6 years, and with travel plans looming just beyond the horizon there's no time to even snap a photo before he's off for the break.
It feels weird knowing that this is the first year in about 5 years that we won't be sending cards out, though, so I thought I'd throw together this little blog post in homage to one of my favorite Holiday traditions.
Here's a quick run-down of our 2012.
In January, I turned (gasp) 30. It was a quiet affair with much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. I mean, Luis took me out to Red Lobster and then I wept silently through a movie. Just kidding. It wasn't really that bad.

Throughout February and March, we worked secretively on our biggest project so far this year: buying a new house. We'd been thinking for quite a while that we needed to get into some place a little less expensive, and in early April we finally found "the one." We waited with baited breath for all the "t's" to be crossed and "i's" to be dotted, before going public with our closing date set in early May.

We also enjoyed spending Easter with my brother Jason out on his ranch in Ogden. Andrei especially loved riding Jay's horse and the mega egg hunt that Jenny and I put together. 

In May we moved in to our new place. It was a crazy time of year, what with the closing and the move, renting out our old place, finishing the school year, and trying to get things ready for Girls' Camp.

I barely had time to catch my breath during a school chaperoning gig to Washington D.C. in June. 

When I got back the second week of June, however, it was time to get down to business. I had to finish my preparations for Girls' Camp (two weeks later) and start working on the landscaping for our new house.

Girls' Camp was a disaster. We went up to our camp sight on Tuesday afternoon, and at 5 a.m. Wednesday, we were told to evacuate because the wild fires had gotten too close. After 2 hours of franticly running up and down hills to our travel trailer, we booked it out of there right before the state troopers closed the road. One thing led to another, and I ended up having to scrape together a makeshift camp down at Utah Lake for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Once that task was over, 2 very important things happened: 1) we left our home ward of 5 years to start attending Vineyard 6th ward (our first English-speaking church services in 7 years). 2) we started real work on our back yard landscape. It was a mammoth task, as we have a rather large back yard and half of it is now a  raised vegetable garden. Thank heavens I had such a wonderful helper!

July was a big month for Andrei. He turned ten, became the proud owner of his very own pet (Bun-Bun the Bunny), and began his first competitive swim team. Turns out buddy boy is a fish in water, and he took home a medal or two his very first swim meets, even though he was competing against boys older than he and with much more experience. We are currently looking for a year-round swim program for him to enjoy, as he misses it greatly.

We spent the 4th of July with the family enjoying the Freedom Festival Parade and watching fireworks outside of the Stadium of Fire.

As the summer drew to a close, most of it was spent outside working in the garden harvesting the fruits of our labors, and brushing up on math and reading in preparation of the new school year.

I even found time to throw in some last-minute decorating and furniture refinishing.

For our 9th anniversary in August, we treated ourselves with a trip to California. We were able to visit family, spend some time soaking up the sun in Malibu, enjoying regional delicacies (*real* doughnuts!) and celebrating the birth of my newest niece, Alice. 

In September, Luis turned 35, which we celebrated with a huge pozole and tres leches at our house.

As all the gardening tasks wound down in October, things began to slow down around our house. The days have gotten shorter and colder, and school work has taken center stage. In October, we had a little fun decorating our new house for Halloween and scaring all the trick-or-treaters.


Thanksgiving was pretty low-key. Andrei spent the holiday with his mother for the first time in several years, so we decided to take the day off. We spent it with family and friends, forgoing a traditional Thanksgiving feast for a dinner at Golden Corral. I honestly think it was the best Thanksgiving (and probably the cheapest) we've had in years. No stress. No clean up. No drama. Just good food and good company.

This brings us to a very busy and very content December. Recently Luis and I have both been given church callings (I'm first counselor in the Young Women's and Lu is a member of the "Spiritual Living" committee in Elder's Quorum and occasional substitute in the Primary). Luis also got some really great news a few weeks ago. After 8 years of working at Wells Fargo (and 3 years of job hunting), he's been hired by Nebo Credit Union to be their director of online banking. It won't be much difference in salary, but the benefits are phenomenal it's an opportunity to beef up his resume, learn some new skills, and develop his leadership abilities after years of treading water at his old job. He is very excited about the new opportunities and experiences to come. We celebrated with his family by throwing another party at our house. I got one of my Christmas presents early: a bigger pot for making my pozole, which has become a family favorite.

 It's been a very nice conclusion to a very busy and rewarding year. There have been a lot of changes, but the things that haven't changed are the ones we hold dearest: our family and our friends, our love for each other, and our love of the gospel. We hope this finds you well and that you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!