Dear Family,
December events always seem larger than life. We have extra parties, shopping, get-togethers, special events and time off. All “never to be forgotten.” And then comes January. .. and routine. I’m sitting here thinking “What did we do in December?” I know Curt shoveled a LOT of snow.
One great opportunity was going out to lunch with Tanya, Flora, Patti, Carole, Megumi, Jean and I just before Christmas. That was quite a feat to get on everyone’s schedule but very much worth it. The Saturday before Christmas Dane and Camille came over and visited for a few hours. It was such a pleasure to have Dane explain his business adventures and their plans for the future. We were not going to be in town for the wedding so we really appreciated their willingness to visit with us.
April finally came home from BYU for the holidays Dec. 23. There was absolutely NOTHING under the tree for her. It was really stressing me out but she had asked for a winter coat and clothes that I certainly could not pick out for her. It was the first time in my adult life that I found myself shopping with other crazy procrastinators. It was not for the faint hearted.
We hosted Curt’s Mom’s Christmas Eve family dinner event. We had a big crowd and everyone had a good time.
This Christmas holiday found Andrew & Willow in Oregon with her parents, Amy and her family were in Arizona, Abby and Travis at the Harvey’s and Matt and Marie looking forward to having their first Christmas to themselves with their two little girls. So Curt and I, April, and Alex flew out Christmas afternoon to Washington D.C. We spent seven days seeing every National museum and Monument we could find. It was a fantastic trip. We had a great hotel and used the metro system to get back and forth to the National Mall. Some of the highlights that get 5 stars are the National Museum of Art (went back two times!), Holocaust Museum (surprisingly not depressing), Arlington, the National Zoo, the Library of Congress (made my jaw drop) and the National Archives. Some other highlights were having April kicked out of the Capital tour for smuggling in beef jerky, walking in the pouring rain on Sunday to get to church and sitting in our drenched clothing during three hours of church, trying a fabulous Thai restaurant on the way to the zoo, resting our feet at night while watching movies together, singing on the metro, and trying not to freeze to death. The White House does not allow tours any more but we did see the National Christmas Tree. Hmmmm. I’ve seen better. The guys on the roof of the White House with humungous guns, however, were pretty awesome. We rang in the New Year by falling asleep early (so what else is new?). April was the only one awake during the first few minutes of 2014. In an effort not to bother us, she retreated to the bathroom. The dry bathtub was not extremely comfortable but she made do, talking and texting her friends in Utah. Her opening text was…. “You’ll never guess where I am on this New Year’s Eve!” The whole trip was great and we made some terrific memories. Traveling with older ‘kids’ is the BEST!
Last year was a pretty big growth year for me. I’d be okay with a little less growth this year. Generally, I am not a very brave person. I remember Grandma Clark talking to my mom and saying about me, ”My,….she’s a scaredy cat, isn’t she?!”
Highlights for this past year for our family have got to be the three granddaughters born this year and a new son-in-law, Travis.
We know already that Abby & Travis will add another new grandchild in July 2014. Life is pretty exciting.
We love you all. – Aunt Susan & Uncle Curt
No comments:
Post a Comment