Christmas Cheer When Family's Near

We were home from Phoenix about 3 days when we left on an equally wonderful trip north to see our kids in the Wasatch Front. Here are some of the pictures from that trip. 

Michael with his "stuffed" house!

High demand on Gingerbread real estate

Like Father, like son.

Autumn pre-made all the shapes for gingerbread houses, plus gave everyone cutters and a recipe which can be used for future house projects.  Everyone brought lots of decorations, and the kids jumped right in and created some wondrous creations.

Some more smiley grandkids with their final projects. Brendan and Laurie finished theirs in record time.

Peyton loved all phases of this project!

Haily with her "neat" little house

While the Gingerbread houses were hardening, we ate at the famous Wilcox Pasta Bar.

Next on the docket was some great family entertainment:  Laurie and Brendan provided

a cheery duet welcoming in the Season.

Rob shows that he can even play and sing sideways--one of our favorites from The Forgotten Carols by Michael McClean.  Rob introduced us to this album shortly after he came home from his mission, and it's been a part of Christmas ever since.

Chris and Pam's Christmas Choir

Mattea tells one of the best jokes of the night. (Who's your favorite...?)

Next came the Victory Arch, where parents heralded the success of each child, and we all celebrated their successes.

Ethan Jess Wilcox

Hailey and Peyton

It's so good being me!!
We hope everyone felt this way.

Danny and Hunter ready to be recognized

Every one needs a victory arch once-in-a-while!  

Grandma presented CJ with a quilt for finishing up his Eagle Scout Award (almost), and challenged the other grandsons to set that as a goal in scouting .

He knows if you've been good or bad....so....

Some how or other, Santa found out where we were and came to check on everyone's list. 

 Travis, however, was not impressed and Ethan's request was temporarily "shot down."

Presents for all "good little boys and girls" and all of our Grandkids are "good".

Musical present exchange

But the Best Presents of 2010 were Travis, Emily, and Hinckley

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

Church Callings and Service

We were called in April 2009 to begin an LDS Addiction Recovery Program in Blanding, and we have faithfully done that every week since beginning in June of 2009.  The only time we missed was last winter when a snow storm stopped travel into the church.

    We designed the flyers, wrote press releases, and letters to bishops to introduce the class, as well as posting flyers all over town, and providing smaller flyers for Bishops to use.  We follow the 12 step program the Church designed which puts Jesus Christ center front in the recovery program.  Steve has faithfully prepared a short inspiring message each week, and also runs the meeting.  We have a wonderful facilitator, Ben Haws, who is a tremendous help to us in the meetings.

   We had about 5 or 6 come the first meeting, and once in a while only had 1 or two attend, but no matter the size, it has always been worth it.  Most recently, winter 2010-2011, we've had larger groups come.  Twice we've had a social: a cookout last summer where they invited a friend to come, and once right after Christmas, but usually we just follow the program.
One change we did make after going through the program the first time, was to have a short discussion of the step, so that everyone understood the terminology, and concept.   That change has seemed to help a lot of people.  That was a suggestion Rob made, which came from one of his drug court charges.
   We've learned to have a lot of empathy for those struggling through their addictions, and have also discovered some things we need to work on ourselves.  We pray each week, that we can say the right things that will help someone at the meeting.


Fellowshipping Fun and Service


We've tried hard since we've been home from our mission to be good neighbors, to fellowship non-members or inactive people, and visit new move-ins to ward, and also kids in the dorm.  This could actually be a full time job!  I'm sure we do at least 2-3 visits each week, which if often taking soup, or a meal to someone.  Sister Beeson is one of our regular visits, but we also check on the Lobatos often.

Mary's baptism done by Bishop Carroll

It has been quite thrilling to see Lee's niece, Mary, accept the gospel and invite us to be part of that process.  We planned a neighborhood cookout with them last summer, and she was a super help in contacting people, bringing food, and helping cleanup.  She is a pearl in disguise.  We were so thrilled to see the gospel come into her life and to be part of her baptism.  It continues to be a blessing to see the changes wrought by the light of Christ.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Since there's not much to do in Blanding sometimes, we often invite neighbors and friends over to play games, or for soup suppers.  We really miss the Baptist minister, Don Camp, and his wife, Rene who were such good neighbors.  We became good friends with them over the past year.  Some of the other special memory events we orchestrated this past year included the following:

Virginia's visit to Blanding summer 2010 and the old gang!
Steve helped me fix a crepe brunch and we had a wonderful visit.
Tates came over the night before along with Stephanie, so two good visits resulted.

A good-bye cookout for Elaine and Chris Johnson, prior to their move to Cedar City.

Former friend Melissa Tatro and her two grandsons.  Steve and Pam Bronson
helped us pull together friends from the past for a cookout while she was here.

Whenever any of the family comes down, naturally we pull together a cookout, or dinner along with Rob's family and have a party.  There's always some occasion to celebrate if you look for it, and that is one of the things I love to do, and Steve is always a super help in orchestrating all the things that need to be done.  He's also turned into a great b-b-que chef!

You'll know we've really gotten old, once we stop having parties!

Arizona Thanksgiving Trip

We're home from Arizona!  We made back about 4 PM Monday.  We stopped for a couple of hours in Flagstaff, at Kohls and then at Savers..I could have used another hour, but Steve was so ready to get home!  Ran into a little snow, but most just cold.  Now that we're back at 6000 ft. where it is 25 degrees, so Mesa doesn't seem so cold!!

  We had a wonderful time while we were in Phoenix.  


We got pies and cookies made Wed. after we arrived...though our landing place was moved from Anthony's, to Ashley's relatives, as they had to help teen-sit the youngest Reidhead boy.  We stayed in their "guest cottage" which was pretty fancy.  After we got all the food pulled together, we went over to Quent and Bev's for Thanksgiving dinner.  We had tons of yummy food, and no one forgot and left the yams in the microwave!

Had 3 kinds of pie.  Afterwards we celebrated Quincy's birthday, complete with pinata and treats.  Then we showed the DVD of our Mediterranean trip...some watched, others slept.  

Yum, that was a great meal, which also triggered the big reveal!

It's all Marci's fault that she happened to mention "maternity pants" during dinner!

Anyway, in the process we learned that Quent and Bev are expecting a baby in May.

Found out in Dec. that Brig will have a little brother.  We're so happy for them!

Dancing off those holiday calories...while the adults watch.  What's wrong with this picture?

Breaking the Pinata was the next big activity, as we celebrated Quincy's birthday which was on the 22nd.

 That evening, Ashley and I started on our marathon pre-black Friday outing waiting in line for nearly 3 hours at Toys "Or" Us. Then going to Kohls and waiting some more.  The adventure started at 8 PM Thursday, and ended at 6 AM Friday.  The details are too horrendous to describe, but we kept calling Amy, and giving her an update, so she can fill you in. I think she was the only other Wilcox crazy enough to be out and about.  It was really cold waiting in line...but I didn't get sick, so I guess it wasn't REALLY cold.     

Janet and her friend Sharon remembering
"The Way we Were" 50 years ago.   Elephant Rock in back.

We slept for a few short hours once we got back..., then when the guys left to go golfing, Ashley and I and Sam and Logan left for a desert adventure, about 40 miles away in Queen Valley.  One of my Ririe High classmates lives there in a house they built themselves.  It was fun to visit with the Knutsons, and hike past Elephant Rock, and see the petroglyphs on their property.  

  I really appreciate Ashley driving me out, as I don't think I'd have gone on my own.  Afterwards we reconvened at Quent's, where we learned about the golfing altercation...(again, too many details to include but be sure to ask the guys.)

 We went to the Library park and enjoyed some sunshine and lots of ducks!  Brig is quite the imitator of animal sounds.

    We stayed with Quent and Bev Fri. and Sat. night, and got few rounds of games in with the girls.  Brig and Ava have really changed a lot since we saw them in June.  They are very entertaining!  The guys went to the Reidheads for the BYU game fiasco, and we came later for a third or 4th round of leftovers...which were still delicious.  

We went to Church with Anthony and Ash, as she was talking that day...also stayed that night.  Saw the temple ground lights, and played games that night.   Then Ashley and I stayed up to watch "My Life in Ruins"...as a post script to our Mediterranean trip, but Ashley quickly faded into slumber.  In the other room Anthony was studying for his first finals test today.  I hope he did OK, as he really had an interrupted schedule with all the comings and goings of the week.  (As of Jan 1. he had 1 "A" and one "B+" with 3 more grades yet to come in.)

 We also found out when we got home today, that one of the families we worked a lot with on our mission, lost their father (husband) last Wed in an accident.  He was driving home from Denver( where he worked) to be with his family in Ganado .  He was one of the best Navajo Dads we knew, and loved his wife and family so much, but had to leave the reservation to find decent work.  

    This is when an understanding of the Plan of Salvation is such a blessing to families, for it gives then hope, and faith and knowledge of how they can be together in the Eternities.  But there is still the sadness to work through in this life.   I don't know if you've ever been around Navajos or not.  But when someone dies, they have 4 days of gatherings, where family and friends come and share memories, share love, food, and give counsel, and also plan out who can help with expenses.  It is very therapeutic.  Then four days after the funeral, they meet one more time, to say their last good-byes, and typically according to tradition, they don't mention that person's name again.   However, those in the Church, have a better understanding of what happens after death and aren't so superstitious. They know they can be reunited, so they aren't afraid to speak of their loved ones who have passed on.

We're so thankful for all of you, our children and spouses, and grandchildren, and grandchildren to come.  We feel truly blessed to know you are raising your children with family prayer, blessings on their food, church attendance, and home evening and scriptures as a part of their lives.  Following that counsel of the prophets will help counteract lots of slings and arrows that come their way. We also appreciate the service you all give.  We especially appreciate Autumn who helped retrieve Kayla and get her back to SLC.  Thank you so much. That was really an extra-mile effort.  I know you'll be blessed.   Love, Mom

Stake Conference visit

Had an interesting visit today by Sister Marsha Richards, whose husband is our visiting authority for Stake Conference.  She came with Sister Shan Redd.  She asked quite a bit about the kinds of writing I'd been doing, so I told her about our Family's Proclamation book, The Ganado History, and Hole-in-the-Rock projects. I gave them both a jar of jalepeno jam when they left and a BMS quilting magazine.

While showing her pictures of our family, learned that they also had 6 boys first, then two girls.  She was very encouraging, and drew upon the scriptures a lot as we talked. 
   Tonight at stake conference I thought I might be called on to speak because of the visit, but it didn't happen, whew!  If called on, I would have shared Jerimiah 16:16 and our role working with YSA and AR people in seeing that fulfilled.

 We had 4 different YSA contacts today.  One young man called wanting to start AR classes to get rid of his bad habits.  We talked to him twice, and took some herbal tea over, as he's starting this weekend. 
   Then we delivered flowers to one of our favorite reformed participants, whose grandfather just died.  We also heard from Matt and Mary Compton, who just got married, thanking us for being there for there for them both on the reservation with Mary, and this past summer for Matt.  Their meeting and marriage has been a great joy to us, and we didn't even orchestrate it!  Corey came over as well, and we talked about missions. 
 Sunday Nov. 21, we had 8 young people over for dinner.  Tyler made the fry bread and we had the beans and toppings ready. So we were fed both spiritually and physically today...