Merry Christmas

This Christmas has been a unique one this year.  We are ready to say good bye to December 2009 and move on to the next year.  My only goal for next year is to stay out of the hospital!  Did not enjoy having hernia surgery on Dec 3 and then having complications and having a second surgery on Dec 20.  Hopefully now I'm not the mend for good.

We have been especially grateful to friends and family that have been extra kind and caring for us this season.

For anyone who may not have gotten our Christmas card this year or we didn't have your address, here it is.  Photos were taken by my wonderful sister-in-law Kyleen.  She did an amazing job!

     Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!  As we look back on this year, we are grateful for so many blessings, especially having each of you in our lives.  Please know that we think of you often even if we are not able to communicate as frequently as we would like.  As we celebrate the birth of our Savior we are so grateful for the blessings of the Gospel in our life and the peace that we feel at Christmas time as well as throughout the year.

Jessica is 12 this year.  It is amazing to watch her grow into a beautiful young woman.  She is now participating in the Young Women’s program at Church and is enjoying making new friends.  Her greatest success this year was negotiating a later bed time to the disappointment of her siblings.  She is still fully involved with ballroom and has joined the Drama Club at school.  Jessica has started babysitting as of late and does a wonderful job.  Mom & Dad are grateful for her helpful and willing attitude.  She will be going to Jr. High next year.


Ashley is definitely the most sweet and tender child of the family.  She will turn 10 in March and is enjoying Fourth grade and will be representing her class in the school Spelling Bee this month.  She has joined Jessica in the Ballroom program and is enjoying learning new things.  She is still taking piano lessons and has improved a great deal this year.  She also loves time spent in the Church Activity Days program.


John is just as full of life as always.  We keep thinking he will tone down a little with age, but alas his volume button still appears to be broken.  John is 6 and is in school full-time this year.  He is a math wiz and loves reading anything he can get his hands on.  He also loves playing soccer with other kids at school.  He would spend all of his free time on the computer if he had his way.  He is really an amazing child and brings a great deal of joy to our family.


Christine has spent this year trying to adjust to no children at home during the day.  Oddly the free time she thought she would find, manages to fill up as quickly as it appears.  Her big accomplishment this year includes double surgeries (foot & hernia) (Update -- triple surgeries -- had complications after hernia and they had to go in again on Dec 20).  She has promised to limit her hospital visits in the future.  She continues to be involved with Pampered Chef and the Relief Society at Church.  She remains the Master Scheduler and keeps the family running like a well-oiled machine.


Mark’s year has been fairly uneventful.  He just celebrated 11 years working at Thanksgiving Point.  He is serving in the Elders Quorum in the Church and finds it both challenging and rewarding.  He loves spending time with his family and is constantly amazed at how quickly the children are growing up.


Our year as a family has been marked by some great times together.  We enjoyed a trip to Oceanside, CA for a Jesperson family reunion and a stop at Disney Land.  It was great spending time with Family.  We also spent time in Las Vegas, NV durring spring break visiting both Mark’s sister and Christine’s brother.  We enjoyed the blessing of being able to participate in the open house and dedication services for two new L.D.S. Temples in Utah.  We realized that this will be the last year our children will be in the same school, and suspect things will only get busier from here on.


We are so grateful for this time of year.  We pray you are all well and that you will have a meaningful and blessed Christmas and year to come.

Love,
Mark. Christine, Jessica, Ashley and John Peterson

Sensor Button

Wouldn't it be nice if we could put a sensor button on our children.  Know what they are going to say before they say it and then stop them.  John's latest funny . . .

I had hernia surgery on Dec 3.  I went from not even knowing something was really wrong to almost overnight not being able to eat.  My hernia had become incarcerated which meant from the time I really knew what was going on until the surgery I was on a soft foods/liquid foods diet.  That included Thanksgiving Dinner.  I enjoyed some mashed potatoes, squash, and stuffing.  But even that got me in trouble.  It is easy to stick to a soft foods diet when you know if you don't you'll spend hours on the bed in pain wishing it would just pass.

My doctor was concerned that it was going to be much bigger than they thought when they got in there, so no in and out surgery for me.  He had me plan on spending one night, but I got the privilege of spending two nights in the hospital.  I think he wanted me to stay another night, but the dollar bills were adding up in my head.

Just like any good church group, our wonderful Relief Society brought meals into our family for several days after I got home.  And the meals that were brought in were amazingly good.  At least the little that I tasted or smelled them.  I'm still not eating all regular foods yet.

Well, a week after surgery a sister in our neighborhood needed to pick something up from me.  I got it ready and gave it to Jessica to give to her since I still wasn't feeling fabulous.  The afternoon she came I was in the bedroom and both John and Jessica answered the door.  From what I could tell she was asking the kids how I was doing and if there was anything she could do.

THAT is when I wish I had a sensor button on John.  The next thing I hear out of his mouth is "You can bring us dinner."  At this point I grab my robe and decide to emerge from the bedroom.  By the time I reach the front room he is informing her that he does NOT like chicken enchiladas (the rest of us love them by the way) so if she could bring something else that would be great.  Now this is the type of woman that would probably have gone home and cooked something up and returned that evening with dinner.  Luckily I caught her before she left.  Mark's parents were actually at the house that afternoon to help me and had taken care of lunch and were planning dinner for us that day as well.

All I can say is out of the mouth of babes . . .  It only made sense to a 6 year old that every other woman who had come into the house that week had brought a meal, why not this one as well.