December 2020

 December brought our family some really great times, some middle of the road times and some really hard times. Here's our report for the month:

Autumn was able to finish out her first semester of her Senior year of high school with good grades AND with her dance team being able to perform a dance concert to show off all of their hard work throughout the semester. Each dancer could only have a few people come because of limited capacity and of course, we had to wear masks and physically distance, but it was so worth it to be able to see these beautiful dancers show off their talents both as dancers and choreographers.  It was a great show and I was especially impressed with a dance that Autumn and 2 of her friends choreographed. It was beautiful!

Devin finished his final semester at BYU and has finished his bachelors degree in microbiology.  He decided to sell his contract for his apartment in Provo and move home for a few months while he works and applies to grad schools - he will be starting that adventure next fall. We are proud of him and all of his hard work and happy to have him home for a few months.

Mitch also finished his last semester at USU and has finished his masters degree in Computer engineering.  He'll be starting full time working remotely in January.  He is so happy to be done with school and he and Megan are doing well.  We have loved having them come stay with us for the last two weeks of the month!

Seth finished his first semester at BYU just in time to have surgery to repair his badly deviated septum.  He has been waiting to have this surgery for years since they won't perform the surgery before a person is at least 18 years old and fully grown.  His surgery was quite complicated and required an open procedure rather than the normal up through the nostrils method, but he survived the first week post recovery and got the huge splints out of his nose and is now doing really well as he fully heals.  He told me that sometimes he gets overwhelmed with how much air goes up his nose when he breathes now. :)

I have been set apart as a missionary for the BYU pathways program and will be working with a group of about 30 students from Central Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon and Congo). I have been training this month and this last week have started meeting one on one with my students virtually and am excited to be working with them for the next year.  It will be a year of learning and growth for all of us (especially me), I'm sure.

The only really terrible part of the month came on December 17 when Sasha suffered some kind of a stroke or other brain event and went from being completely healthy to not being able to stand or walk on her own.  It was one of the saddest days ever when we had to say goodbye to her after 13 years of loyal companionship. We miss her and her sweet, calming, happy presence in our home. Especially now when the snow is falling because Sasha loved the snow and always acted like a puppy whenever it snowed. We love you Sasha! Thanks for being the best dog ever!!

We had an amazing Christmas with everyone at home for the first time in 4 years.  The kids all decided to camp out together in the basement on Christmas Eve in their giant "pangea bed".  They still like to rise early and it is fun to see their excitement for Christmas! We had a great morning together. Well, everyone had fun except Frankie who acted like the cotton jammies I got him to match the rest of us made it impossible for him to walk. Everyone thought that was super funny and got in the fun. I love our family and am grateful we could all be together this year. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!