Merry Christmas to one and ALL!!

Dear Friends and Family,

It was not a crazy year. How crazy is that? There were moments of panic, but just moments.

Chris is still the site manager for Lockheed’s Distribution Center for Global Supply Chain Services out in Freeport Center. (I know, what?) With Chris home, Beth and the girls living with us and Doug finishing his mission this Dec. (Yes, right now!) we decided to sell the house and buy a bigger home. So, with contractors running all over the places, bids and bills, receipts and chaos we fixed up the house and put it on the market. As you can tell by the return address we are still here. (I do have a great new granite countertop.) We pulled the house off the market right before school started. I didn’t think I could juggle all the different schedules and keep the house “show” ready. Now we are getting Matt’s room ready for a second body. Matt is excited to be Doug’s next companion. Tori is looking forward to Doug’s return the day before her birthday. She considers him the best present ever. Beth is excited to have Doug attending Weber State University with her. And I’m sure that Emily and Sarah will think that Doug is the best Uncle Doug in the world when they meet him again. We didn’t go anywhere for vacation this year (well... we did go swimming at Pineview Reservoir and enjoyed Kaysville’s Fourth of July Parade & Water Fight) but we did pour a patio. Although everyone thought I was crazy when I had Matt pull up those scraggly, old rosebushes it is, now, acknowledged as the best feature in the neighborhood. We plan to have fire-pit fires and roast marshmallows for s’mores. We plan to visit with neighbors, hang out and draw with chalk all year long. During Trick-or-Treating we were the favorite stop (okay, second favorite after the haunted yard across the street, seriously, he had a moving skeleton crawling across his yard) for warming up cold hands. Beth is back in school at Weber State University. She received a 4.0 last semester and was inducted into the Golden Key International Honour Society. She’s excited to apply for her major, Secondary Education: English Teaching. Beth’s divorce is final, however the stress is not. Being a single mom really is as hard as it looks on TV. She is the Sunday School Secretary in our ward. (She hopes being the bell-ringer doesn’t lead to bad posture.) Beth also attends the singles ward every other weekend. Beth just sang in the select chorus for the Tri-Stake Messiah and is also singing with Lex de Azevedo. She will be performing his Gloria. Emily (3) is doing great in her early intervention pre-school. She has made tremendous progress. Sarah (2) really, really wants to go too. Sarah is growing so fast she might pass Emily soon. And most of the time they love each other. In May Matt graduated from 4 years in the LDS seminary program. He is now working at the STAR Program on his High School Diploma. He also goes out in the community and learns job and life skills. Matt has mastered the city bus system and recently discovered that the TRAX system causes panic attacks. Matt won several awards at various local film festivals. He is still filming (and saving to buy a new video camera) and is applying for an Apprentice Program at Spyhop, a SLC Film School. Matt is enjoying the singles ward and institute. He even sang with the family at the funeral of his Great-Aunt, Kathleen Bonny. It is amazing what Katy McMillan, his girlfriend, can get him to do. Tori is driving people crazy, nuts and to the asylum. And staying busy behind the wheel: running errands, picking up and dropping off and sometimes saving the day.Tori is super busy this year, she loaded her schedule with AP and Honors classes and even a class from Weber State University. Tori is still playing the bass in the school orchestra and for our Tri-Stake performance of the Messiah. She is working hard on the Layton HS Musical of Wedding Singer. She enjoyed working this summer at Lagoon, our local amusement park, when she wasn’t stuck upside down in the stuffed animal bin and calling for help on her cell phone. Tori was just named MVP of the Multi-Family Turkey Bowl. Congratulations! After going where he was asked to go and saying what he was asked to say and being what he was asked to be Elder Douglas Johnsen is returning home with honor. After spending most of his mission rescuing trouble missionaries and saving mission districts on the verge of being closed, Elder Johnsen was relieved to be released from being a Zone Leader and elated to end his mission preaching the Good Word of God and crying Repentance unto every people. But, in his last transfer he was asked, again, to don the cape and tights and save yet another mission. In his latest email things had really turned around. One more success to add to his resume before he returns to the heart of his family. Elder Johnsen will be returning Dec. 17th. He will be speaking Dec. 20th. at 1:00 PM at 380 S. Fairfield Road, Layton, Utah. We will have an open house at 4:30 PM