Christmas letter 2010

Christmas 2010

Dear family and friends,

We have Valley of the Gods in Utah; in Greece they have

a mount of the Gods on the Acropolis

It’s a good thing we write these yearly updates, or we wouldn’t know what we’ve been doing or why we’re so tired! We are both enjoying good health and are very thankful we can still climb, and hike and remember how to get back home!

   
This past summer Steve was called as an ordinance worker at the Monticello Temple. He works Tues. mornings. This fits our schedule nicely because we still teach the LDS Family Service Addiction Recovery class on Tues. nights. This allows us time to travel to see family.

We continue to work with the Young Singles in our ward and have had some fun times with them. We try to have a couple of activities each month: usually a game night and Sunday dinner. In November we hosted a donut making activity for Veterans Day. Had about 24 YSA making and delivering donuts to 50+ families. The veterans really appreciated this gesture.

Steve raised another big garden this year and we had lots of produce to give away, can and store. Janet does a monthly column for our local paper on provident living. http://providentponderings.blogspot.com/

She was recently elected the president of the local sewing guild for next year. She made several quilts this year; one of them was a difficult lone star Eagle Scout quilt for our oldest grandson. She also filled up all of our empty fruit jars. Her new specialty is Jalapeño jam, and green tomato raspberry jam.


Kathyrn and Travis, Pam and Emily, Autumn and Hinckley



There were three new grandchildren born in 2010:
Emily Hope born March 3, Hinckley William born March 26, and Travis Robert born August 28.

We now have 23 grandchildren with one more on the way.  We love all these wonderful children and are so pleased with the good parenting that goes on in their homes.

 Here’s a brief update of what each family is doing:

Rob and Kathryn - Rob still works for the Sheriff’s Office; Kathryn works part time for a law office in Monticello. Ethan will turn nine this month and they are in the process of adopting a baby boy that was born on Aug. 28. Travis is very adorable and looks so much like Ethan.

Nathan and Tamara live in Toole and have a lovely home which they continue to make improvements on. Nathan works at Dugway as a civilian. They are kept busy keeping up with Laurie and Brendan and all of their activities: academics, dancing, cub scouts, & soccer. They are very active in their new ward and provide much service there.

Chris and Pam- added Emily Hope to their family March 3, so they now have seven children. CJ, Michael, Kylee, Dan, Hailey, Adam and Emily. He works for BYU, as well as his own business. He is Scout Master and is super busy. Pam is the family activity/ homework manager, and cook. We always enjoy going there to play games with the kids.

Quentin and Bev- are now in a larger new home in Gilbert. Quentin still works for Avnet. They have three adorable girls: Quincy, Sage, Ava and one handsome boy, Brig. They will be adding an addition to their family next May. They have callings in the Young Womens and Elders Quorum.

Anthony and Ashley have two kids Sam and Logan. Anthony is half way through law in Phoenix and is doing exceptionally well. He was invited to serve on the Law Review Board this semester. They live in Mesa. Ashley is Primary President and Anthony teaches gospel doctrine SS class.

Autumn and Theron are still in West Valley City and have 3 cute kids: Hunter, Peyton and Hinckley. Theron applied for a different job this fall, and when his boss found out about it, they offered him a promotion to entice him to stay—which he did. It’s nice to be appreciated. He is also bishop of their ward. Autumn holds the home front down. They both continue to compete in bike and running races.

Andrew and Amy also have 3 children: Madison, Jaxon and Gannon. Andrew works for Workforce Services as a fraud investigator and Amy teaches CNA classes in Davis County. They are very busy keeping up with 3 busy little kids.

Year in Review

Had a huge snowy winter last year and hibernated for 4 months! Snow levels were half way up our kitchen windows and didn’t melt until April—just like Idaho!!

Janet worked on Hole-in-the-Rock history sites and profile stories for the two Blanding stakes, preparatory to youth treks last summer. We both participated in the west side trek in June. It was a great experience. If you haven’t read The Undaunted by Gerald Lund, be sure to do so. It is about our part of the world. Learn more at: http://wmmeanderings.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

Janet’s next big spring project was producing a DVD show and web site for her 50th Ririe High class reunion in May, which we attended in Idaho Falls. See at: http://sites.google.com/site/rhs50years/

Everyone had fun reliving the events and music of the 50’s. We also visited her Idaho siblings. Doug and Della, and Nancy and Bruce and also got to attend the Rexburg temple for the first time. It was a wonderful trip though short.

The annual Welsh Festival was in Malad about a month later and we met up with Nancy and the Westenskows. One of our cousins from Wales Aled Betts was a presenter there. We visited with relatives from the 3 families of Jonah Evans, our ggg grandfather from Wales, and also with the Talbot family in Malad, who are Thomas relatives.

We hosted the extended Wilcox family reunion at the Blue Mountain Guest Ranch in June. All of our kids and grandchildren were there plus some of Steve’s siblings and their families. Autumn organized the activities and meals and kept the kiddos busy. It was beautiful and green and everyone seemed to have a good time. Face painting, scavenger hunt, Madagascar night, and family jeopardy were all part of the fun. Our friend Diane even came over from Colorado for it. Pictures of the reunion can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jwilcox42/BlueMountainReunion#

The first part of Oct. was our Mission reunion and we saw many dear friends again. We stayed for General Conference, then left the next day for a 14 day Mediterranean Cruise. We flew to Milan, Italy and toured Milan, Verona and Venice. We stayed over night in Venice and then boarded the ship. We visited Egypt, Israel, Greece, Croatia and Italy staying each night on the ship. There were about 300 in our LDS tour group; at each port we were bussed to the different places. It was an amazing experience. Shows of our trip can be viewed at

http://www.photodex.com/share/jwilcox

We were on the road again for Thanksgiving visiting our two families in Phoenix. We had a very good dinner and enjoyed playing games, golfing, visiting a high school friend, and surviving a 10 hr. Black Friday marathon! Thanks, Ashley for the memories.

Arizona Cousins: Ava, Logan, Sage, Quincy, Brig, and Sammy



We came back to Blanding and spent two days madly wrapping presents then traveled to SLC for an early Christmas party up north with five of our kids and their families. Autumn organized it and we all had a wonderful evening. One of the highlights of the evening was making gingerbread houses. Autumn spend many hours baking gingerbread kits and the kids got to put them together and decorate them with icing and candy. We also had lots of good food to eat.

We did a Victory arch for all the grandkids to celebrate their good works.  Their parents told of their accomplishments and the rest of us cheered and gave high fives.
We then presented CJ’s with his Eagle scout quilt and encouraged the rest of the boys to work towards earning that award.

We’re now on the final countdown to Christmas, and it has been way busy. Just in the past 3 days we had a neighborhood party at our home, helped with a funeral, attended our ward party with 3 neighbor kids, went to a baptism of a neighbor and hosted a dinner for her, attended a 50th Anniversary party, fixed dinner for 8 young singles Sunday.  Whew, I'm tired tonight. Nice to have a day of rest!

This week I’m just going to kick back, be lazy and read a book, and watch a few Christmas specials – that is if I get this letter done and sent. (Please write and tell us what you’re doing.)

It is our 43rd wedding anniversary this month. The years have really flown and we’ve been so blessed with good kids, who are still making changes and moving forward. We feel our Saviors love, and are learning to listen more attentively to the Holy Ghost. It has made a difference in our lives, and I hope it does in yours too.

Have a Very Merry Christmas and an Inspirational New Year.

                  Love, Steve and Janet Wilcox