Chicago Reunion, Gifted Children, and the Savior's Life

Dear Family,

Thank you to Aunt Ruth who understands what a Luddite I am! The last few months have been busy, as usual, but since it's mostly things that I choose to do, I can't really complain. Jeff has been 1st councilor in the Bishopric since October (or was it September?), and so with all that, and being the hardest working Marriage and Family Therapist around, he doesn't have much free time. However, we do manage to squeak in some couple hang-out time, and we were just able to take a long Thanksgiving break, going out to Chicago for a Bingham Family Reunion, combined with my Grandpa's 95th birthday celebration. We had a fantastic time, doing downtown Chicago stuff (although the "Macy's" windows were SUCH a disappointment) as well as a couple museums. The highlight of the week for me was revisiting our old stomping grounds in Sleepy Hollow, Dundee, and Elgin, and seeing my kids in the places where I was a kid! It really makes me long for the good old days. :o)

Jarom has been working on some fun projects for his gifted math group, and Taran's reading has totally taken off. Kelcey enjoys kindergarten, although she's not so sure some mornings before the bus comes. I'm just grateful that she has a big sister who takes such good care of her. Seriously, what we do without siblings to care for each other? Ben is still extremely stubborn, and wants to do E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G "all by myself," which only works out some of the time. But he's also so sweet, and cute as a button, that I can't be frustrated for too long. It's a good thing, too.

Again, we anticipate a full calendar of good things as the holidays come around, but I guess what we really need to do is remember that the Savior's life gave us a reason to celebrate His birth, so we're trying to concentrate on that as a family. (And wasn't the Christmas Devotional so good?) All in all, everyone is relatively healthy and mostly happy, so we all are just overwhelmingly blessed. Further updates as events warrant. :o)

Love,
Katie, Jeff, Jarom, Taran, Kelcey, and Ben