Thank you to all of you that
came to Ellie’s baptism, and to those who were here in spirit. We were
pleasantly surprised to see Teresa there and were grateful for her efforts to
wake up early that morning and drive down from Rexburg. It was a wonderful day,
a wonderful spirit, and even wonderful weather. Hard to believe we were outside
without coats and then two days later it snowed a foot! It’s amazing for Becky
and I to realize that all our children have reached the age of accountability
and received the ordinances of baptism and confirmation. We were grateful to
have so many in the circle for her confirmation and so many wonderful examples
she can look up to now and throughout her life.
It’s crazy to realize how
quickly Christmas is coming and how quickly it will pass. We’re looking forward
to all of us going to the Eclipse concert on Thursday night. Another highlight
of our holiday season will be going to see Savior of the World on Christmas
Eve. We’ve been thinking of ways to make the holiday more about giving and hope
to implement some of the ideas we came up with yesterday.
Auriana is doing quite a few
performances in various places with her high school choir group, including
Temple Square. She’s looking forward to the Preference dance coming up.
Yesterday the three older kids got out their instruments and worked through
some Christmas songs and had a fun time putting their own twist on a couple of
them. As a parent it’s quite rewarding to see them go through that process as
musicians, but also to go through that process as friends and to see the
collaboration and cooperation and how much more smoothly that goes now that
they’re a bit older and more mature. Auriana has applied to BYU Provo, BYU
Idaho, and USU and so we’re just waiting for those responses to see where the
next phase of life will take her. She’s very happy to be done with the application
process.
Isaac and Natalie are both
involved with basketball. Isaac made the sophomore team and has 6:00 am
practices most mornings. Natalie is on an accelerated team and is enjoying that
along with occasional soccer practices and an upcoming BYU soccer camp to keep
her skills up during the offseason. I get to be Enoch’s basketball coach this
season and we start practices Tuesday. We’ll fit in a few practices before the
Christmas break and then start games the first week of January. Enoch is also
doing indoor soccer practices once a week to keep his skills up. I can’t decide
if I’m jealous or grateful that they didn’t have accelerated sports when I was
a kid. J
Miriam and Ellie are enjoying
each other, friends, and seem to be going to some sort of party every weekend.
Both they and Enoch are taking piano lessons from a neighbor girl across the
street and seem to be enjoying and excelling at it.
Becky and I are keeping
ourselves busy with carpooling, tending Poppy and Jimmy Finn (Becky), work, and
preparing for Christmas. We enjoy family time and look forward to time with
extended family over the holidays. We are grateful for a Savior whose birth we
can celebrate and whose life we try to emulate. He lives!
Merry Christmas!
Bjorn, Becky and Family
