MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOUR FAMILY ~ FROM THE 9 FAMILY

 

Each year our family looks forward to receiving the Christmas letters, cards, and photos from each of you, and we happily share our own. It is the time of year we all reconnect and we love that feeling. Thank you for sharing yours with us!

Our family has been blessed yet again another year. Like you, we’ve had our share of home runs, curve balls, and outs, but as take time to look back we see how each has been a blessing to us. We are grateful for this crazy adventure called life! It has been our greatest teacher.

Bob’s news is that he started a new job. After working for his previous company for many years, he was blessed with a “new and improved” job as Regional Manager-Southwest, Endpoint Operations for a AmerisourceBergen. He loves this new opportunity and the people he is working for. He was content and blessed with his Concentra job, but as he prayed and sought the Lord’s guidance, this was the direction he felt he needed to go. We found out just a couple of weeks later that it was indeed a blessings he switched jobs precisely when he did. So thankful! Another big change for Bob was his being released as the Ward Clerk and being called as the Young Men’s President. He loves these young men, and they love him. He has helped most of them grow from young boys to 18 yr old young men, helped them through Scouting as their Scout Master, and now will get to help  them as YM President. These boys (and Bob) are so happy about this!  It is neat to see the relationship and rapport he has built with them over the years, and I cannot imagine a better man to help usher them into their next phase of life as grown men. Bob also continues to be webmaster for Dallas Millennial Choirs & Orchestras, the choir that Emily sings in, and spends his “spare time” helping and serving others as well as his family, plus catching a bit of Dr Who when he can!

I, Teri, was released as Activity Days Leader after I received a call to be one of the first two Stake Social Media Specialists, creating the new Stake website, Facebook Page, Facebook Group, Twitter, and Google+ Page. It is time consuming and a lot of work, but it is fun, and having served the past 2 1/2 years as Admin. for the Missionary Moms support groups on Facebook for both the Texas Dallas Mission and the California Bakersfield Mission (plus their respective Returned Missionary groups) has given me the necessary know-how to be able to fulfill this calling well. It is amazing how the Lord prepares us ahead of time sometimes for things to come. I also continue to homeschool Emily, serve as Visiting Teaching Supervisor, and have also begun teaching another 3-year round of the “MOA” (Making of America) Class to homeschool teens ages 14+. This is a class on the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Founding Fathers, and the Principles that serve as their foundation. It is an amazing experience and one of my passions in life - to teach the rising generation these important truths, so they may help maintain our nation free for the next generation. I first taught it when Jonathan was a teen, and now it is Emily’s turn. This time we have only 17 students, but we have added some side activities such as Focus on The Founders oral presentations before an audience, and Constitution Bowl which is a competition of teams to show the student’s knowledge on the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Founding Fathers. Family and friends are invited to attend these and they turn out to be a lot of fun.

 

Jonathan is returned home after serving an honorable 24 month mission in the California Bakersfield Mission! A very emotional experience! To say he had ups and downs, and experiences that tested, tried, strengthened, and enlarged him would be an understatement. He grew to love the Mission President, the missionary companions and friends, and the people he served and taught there. It has been one of the greatest blessings of his life, while coming home and leaving it behind has been one of the hardest things in his life. He misses it and thinks about his mission daily. He is still learning to adjust to “civilian life” post-mission, though he’s been doing well at it, and he hopes to return to the mission to visit sometime in early 2016.  A highlight for him was being able to go to Michigan where he surprised Elder Peterson by being at the airport when Elder Peterson walked off the plane having completed his own mission! Shortly after that, Jonathan's mission Trainer, Elder Norton, came and spent a couple of days with us while he competed in The Texas Titan Challenge.  Jonathan began working full time as an IT helper for Apple Orthodontix, which covers all their offices in the Dallas area, and also restarted his university studies with the Pathway program through BYU-Idaho. This is an On-Line general studies program that includes attending the local Institute of Religion class. He has loved it so far and will continue with the three-semester program. Once he completes that, he plans on transferring up to BYU-Idaho full time. At least that is what we hear so far. School and work keep him quite busy, but he manages to squeeze in some social time with family, friends, and even some dating!  We love having him home for a few months before he really flies the coup. He was sorely missed the two years he was serving his mission and we are really, really happy to have him home for Christmas this year!

Welcome home, Elder Nine!
(Click the photo collage to see the homecoming video - 10 min.)

 

Surprise & Welcome Home, Elder Peterson!  Thanks for being one awesome Missionary companion!

 

 Mi casa es su casa, Elder Norton! Thanks for being one awesome Missionary Trainer!

 

Starting out the holidays right - Star Wars VII with friends!

 

Emily is 6’ tall now and just turned 14 - which means she can now attend Church dances!  The world has gotten exponentially better! Her birthday just so happened to fall on the day of the big Halloween Dance, so her birthday party was one big “Pre-dance Party”. She continues to homeschool (sort of 8th and 9th grade both), to sing in the Dallas Millennial Choirs & Orchestras, participate in the MOA class as well as provide Community Service (Toys 4 Tots is one of her annual favorites!), take piano lessons, and take classical art lessons, where she was excited to begin to learn oil painting. She got to attend her first "Texas Homeschool Teen Camp" for a few days down near Houston this year which was a highlight for her. She also loves to spend time with family and friends, and in her free time (any little minute she can squeeze in) you’ll find her drawing and sketching. This girl cannot live without art! Emily attended the Young Women’s Summer Camp again this year where she mastered one of her greatest fears:  Her fear of heights! She actually went zip-lining and actually liked it! Proud of her for trying that. Emily is still a big helper to her family, a caring, selfless, and ultra considerate young woman. She brings purity, innocence, laughter, and even deep reflections into our family. She was just as excited as I was to welcome Elder Nine home from his mission!

Dallas Millennial Choirs & Orchestras
(Click HERE or on the image to listen to the choir)

Christmas Concert 2015

Community Service at Toys 4 Tots with friends

One of Emily's first oil paintings

 

At Teen Camp with other Texas homeschoolers

Young Women's Camp (Church group)

She loves it when her Daddy gets to go to Young Women's Camp to help with the sound system (and so does he!)

Jessica has had a rough past few years. This past year saw her in jail, and afterward seeing her diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (“BPD”). You may look it up online by clicking HERE, to see what it’s all about. It has been a very long road for Jessica and our family.  The bottom line is, that just like alcoholism, BPD is something that is life-long, but it is very manageable if the person gets the very specific therapy needed. BPD people can have good lives and relationships. However,  the person must want it badly enough to do the hard work it takes to get there. Time alone will tell if and when Jessica gets there.
    
Orli, our little 2 yr old granddaughter, is a joy for us to have over every Sunday, thanks to Nate (her father) being so gracious about having us in her life. She gets to spend the day here with us, attend church with us, and play with us. She is a blessing and a light in our lives. We just adore her! She is growing up so quick and is talking more and more, so we can now have small conversations with her. She is a lot of fun and we are excited to be able to have her over for Christmas again this year, with her spending the 24th and 25th with us! 

Orli loves to find ornaments on the tree - 

And she's very good at it too!

Some highlights for our family this year: Feeding and helping Missionaries in our ward and area. Since Elder Nine served his mission, we have become acutely aware of how much fun this is and how very much it helps and supports the moms, and missionaries too. We especially love helping them celebrate their birthdays! 

 

 

 

Next, my sister, Eileen, came down to visit us in October and we all got to spend some time with my brother, Billy, too. It had been way too long since the three of us siblings had been together - such a wonderful blessing!

 

Another one was sharing a delicious and special Thanksgiving Dinner with our good friends, the Kozlowski's - we even got to meet Alex, their foreign exchange student from Germany! We love these friends and love spending time with them.

 

And last but definitely not least, a highlight happened in November when my dear friend, Jen Felix, came to the Plano area to spend Thanksgiving with her brother and his family, and we got to spend some time together. it seems our friendship has been a long-distance one for most of the 28 years we’ve known each other, so this was another big blessing!  

 

That about covers it for our family. We managed to survive the 2015 storm season which saw many parts of the DFW metroplex, including Plano, inundated with water within a short few hours of non-stop, pouring-down rain. A week or two of that, and one could almost see fish swimming in the streets! But it was a blessing overall, as we were in bad need of water, and this filled up our lakes again. Another tender mercy from heaven!

 

As we remember our Savior this Christmas and always, we are reminded, as Elder David A. Bednar states, “In every season of our lives, in all of the circumstances we may encounter, and in each challenge we may face, Jesus Christ is the light that dispels fear, provides assurance and direction, and engenders enduring peace and joy. Many of our memorable and enduring Christmas traditions include different kinds of lights - lights on trees, lights in and on our homes, candles on our tables. May the beautiful lights of every holiday season remind us of Him who is the source of all light. 'Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years, Are met in thee tonight.' ("O Little Town of Bethlehem," Hymns, No. 208)”  I love Christmas lights! Perhaps because they remind us of the Light of the world!

 Merry Christmas And Happy New Year!