Chrismtas letter

The Year at a Glance - 2008
As you can see from our card, we had a busy year. The two major events included the marriage of Lindsey to Brandon Harper and the birth of Annie Sue Peterson. Other happenings:

Bethany graduated from residency, moved to Katy, passed the board exam for Ob/Gyn, and gave birth to Annie all in the same month – just a week before Lindsey’s wedding. Yep, she’s wonder woman. (and Mabel loves her little sister!)

Ryan’s big announcement this year is that he and Brianna are expecting their first child in April of next year. They’re decorating the room in a surfing theme, so here’s hoping it’s a boy, or dude, they’ll be painting a pink surfboard. He’s also enjoying his job at Chevron.

Brittany takes the prize for most stable job – teaching physics in our nation’s capital. She loves her students and she claims they make her look good. I think it’s the other way around. Since her job is safe, she’s enjoying the economic slow-down with all the great bargains.

Ashley is staying busy in Dallas, same great job, same firm. She’s currently taking prerequisites for grad school, which she plans sometime in the future. For now, she’s enjoying spending her money traveling the world.

Carrie is at two kids and holding. She holds down the fort while Shawn “tends (pretends) to be doctor” as 2-year-old Caroline puts it. Carrie spends most of her spare time baking and exercising, hoping one will cancel out the other. Must be working – she looks fabulous!

Lindsey is our newlywed college student, along with her hubby. Great time to be in school! She gets free food at her campus job, and he is a do-it-yourselfer - he even bakes bread every week. Lindsey will graduate next year, but Brandon is double-majoring, so he will take a little longer.

We cherish our family and friends, and wish each of you a beautiful Christmas season.

Please preview the above letter, which will be sent with the Christmas card. (Please see my shutterfly projects). Any objections, changes, comments, suggestions must be posted prior to Carrie mailing out the cards, which will be in about one week. I'm very open to feedback.

Grateful

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I'm grateful for:

• a wonderful two weeks with family


• five beautiful, funny, caring daughters who are best friends


• the best son anyone could ever hope for


• three great son-in-laws


• one awesome daughter-in-law


• four of the funniest grandkids ever!


• and one more to come . . .


• a great husband who gives me opportunity for growth - and lots of it!


• that we can afford plane tickets


• that I got through immigration without problem (well that's not entireley true)


• that Mike is stuck there instead of me


• a job I love


• knowing the truth


• grandchildren who will make gingerbread houses with me even when it's more for me


• coming home to a completely rennovated car - for now


• having a driver when I want one and not when I don't


• that my kids feel comfortable teasing me


• my health


• more blessings than I deserve

Memories of Poodle

Happy Birthday, Poodle!! (Sorry this is a day late, but I didn't have my computer with me in Houston)
There are many great memories of Poodle, but these are some of my favorites:

Her High School adventures:
Getting her out of school when I had a break from school so we could go to lunch.
Being the only one in her physics class that wasn't cheating on the exams. (Ironic that she's now a physics teacher)
Refusing to complain when she fell while rollerskating with friends. I forced her to see a doctor, who confirmed she had a broken arm.
Insisting on competing in Color Guard with above-mentioned arm (she soon found out it was a little difficult to catch the rifle with a cast.) She stayed at the practices and watched them practice while her arm was in the cast.

Her Sports adventures:
Picking daisies in right field - she really wanted to play baseball, but when she signed up she found herself out in right field most of the time. She entertained everyone by dancing around brushing the flowers with her mitt. (not to worry, the ball never even came close to her)
Running around with "google eyes" on the soccer field. She made upside down goggles with her hands and ran around on the soccer field oblivious of the soccer ball or her teammates.
Swim team - this was her favorite. She and Andy Holleman painted their faces for the races and wore off more energy running around than swimming. As payback, she gets to coach swimming for Bullis School.
Actually, in high school she competed
in color guard and track and did quite well. And her second attempt at baseball with the fam was a smashing success.




The Stubborn Era:
Poodle takes the cake as most stubborn child, although actually, she doesn't come across that way. She seems so sweet and easy-going. Try getting her to go into a store, or get her picture taken when she has decided she doesn't want to. This photographer almost had her for a minute, because he was so funny, but she held her ground, stolidly refusing to smile.

Poodle, the adventurer:
We have great family memories of fun trips with Poodle to Utah, Yellowstone, Brazil, and Mexico. She has also been to France, Costa Rica, and on a Sisters' cruise. She not only has a sense of adventure, but a great sense of humor as well.









And, as we all know, she has been and always will be the queen of fashion!

I love you, Poodle!

Bad news is good news!

Today Claudia called to ask for my passport and FM2 - it expires in two days. I told her I needed them to get on the plane this friday when I'm scheduled to go to Houston. She then informed me that I couldn't leave the country with an expired FM2. Could you hear me scream in Houston? Dad-the-bad had the best solution - leave tomorrow for Houston BEFORE the FM2 expires. I should have no problem getting back into the country with the expired document. And if I do, I think I can deal with it. Meltdown averted!

Aztec Stadium

Today the Mexico City Temple was dedicated by President Monson and Elder Eyring. It was a beautiful ceremony. We watched from the Stake Center.

Last night as a prelude to the event, we attended a cultural extravaganza at Aztec Stadium, which holds 120,000 people. It was nearly filled to capacity.

Each stake participated in a portion of the program, which detailed the history of the Church in Mexico. Most of the youth performed dances associated with different epocas.

(This is a picture of some of the "Aztec" dancers lining up before the show. It was too dark to get photos after they began to dance)

My personal favorite - the missionaries walking in singing "Called to Serve," 2,000 in all!

And, of course, the crowd went wild when they saw President Monson. They all brought white handkerchiefs to wave at him.

A great experience!

Eclairs

For those of you who were losing sleep over whether or not there would be eclairs for Christmas when you visit Mexico - the answer is YES!! A trial run this week proved that, although the high altitude here wrecks havoc on almost every baking experience, eclairs work beautifully! Our cherished Christmas tradition will live on.

New Assignment

Apparently Claudia and I did a great job on the last stake dance. We've been assigned another - this time with a dinner. The date is December 5, so we only have five days after I return from Thanksgiving. At least it's the Christmas season and the decorations will be easy.

Temple open house

Dad-the-bad and I attended the Mexico City open house today. It will be dedicated next sunday and will open soon thereafter. We're excited, as I had never been inside before today. It has been under construction for the past 1 1/2 years. It is beautiful! The decor is perfect - a very Aztec theme - throughout. A wonderful place to spend a Saturday morning.

What you missed . . .

This was the front-page news here in Mexico City November 5, which trumped the US election news. The US election news apparently trumped this story, because I don't know any Americans (except Ashley) who have heard of it. A lear jet carrying the Secretario de Gobernacíon, Juan Camillo Mouriño crashed at Reforma and Periferico (not far from our neighborhood,) killing him and 5 others, along with several others who were hit by the plane, including 40 injuries and 20 damaged cars. Because Mouriño had been an enemy of the drug cartel, President Calderón ordered a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash.

I think I have to agree with dad-the-bad

it just might be cheaper to hire a driver.


(actually, this doesn't look bad. Angel fixed the bumper that was hanging off into the street. )

Meltdown # 37 . . .

but then who's counting? Last night I was trying to get online to check the status of my medical license in the US, and I couldn't log on. The prompt stated my number was invalid and didn't exist. What????

I called this morning at 8:01 to find out why. Thankfully, I was told I actually have a valid license until June 2009, but wasn't given access to the computer because I didn't need to renew it yet.

DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!

I was so happy today that I didn't even swear at the big pipe that came out of nowhere and ripped half of the front bumper off my car.