I know many of you get our Christmas letter through the mail, but for those of you who don’t, I wanted to share with you our letter on my blog this week. Thank you all so much for reading my little stories. I always pray for God to bless each of you with His loving kindness.

We close this year grateful for the Lord’s blessing upon our lives. Our big news is that we’re expecting a baby on the first day of spring, though to most of you, this news isn’t big. Or even surprising. Still, we are happy to announce another son’s arrival come March. That makes five boys in a row much to Cami, Lacy, and perhaps Opa’s consternation.

Opa was out here chainsawing old almond trees the other day surrounded by his grandsons when a wayward limb knocked the chainsaw onto his leg. Bloody and growling with four, wide-eyed boys in his wake, Opa limped to the house seeking first aid. I tried to talk him into going to Urgent Care, but of course, Dad refused. I got to tweezer frayed long johns and jeans out of his hamburger gash before he went back to work for the day with a tightly bandaged thigh. This made quite the impression on the boys and had me bemoaning the fact that man-training will be going on around here for years to come. Added to that, Scott makes the boys nunchucks and swords from the wild bamboo grove in our ravine and allows wrestling in the living room on any given Sunday, and all week long as well.

Though the wild boy bunch has years of growing up to do, Cami and Lacy are young adults and often off on their own adventures now. Cami is in her second year of college finishing up her general education before stepping into a speech therapy major. She remains at home, working part time, along with going to school fulltime, and will probably leave at the end of summer headed for Sacramento State University.

Lacy has one more year of high school, and then hopes to hit the mission field for a semester before settling into college. She and Cami have both done Mexico mission trips, and together they did a mission outreach to Haiti a few months after the devastating earthquake. Thank you to all who financially and prayerfully supported the girls on this life-changing adventure. They had the time of their lives working in an orphanage and cleaning up rubble while spreading the gospel.

Luke continues to play on a competitive soccer team and loves hunting with Opa and Uncle Patrick. Luke shot another large buck this year, which we again made into deer sausage that the boys microwave and eat like crazy. Luke is also gearing up for his first mission trip this coming summer, a journey to Brazil with our church youth group.

John (7), Joseph (5), and Garry (two and a half) have taken up hunting with Opa too. Opa was brave enough a few weeks ago to load all the boys into his pickup for some deer hunting. The trip was going “super,” as Opa would say, the boys dressed picture-perfect in their camouflage clothes, only apparently the little predators were not seat-belted in on the dirt road, and when the dandy buck was spotted and the brakes slammed upon, G2 (as Opa has dubbed his namesake) torpedoed into the dash, then smashed against Opa’s over-sized beverage, cooling off the excited hunters with a tsunami of ice tea. G2 then landed on Opa’s rifle in a howling, banged-up fit. One can only imagine the shock of the buck witnessing such a spectacle. I’m sure the big one that got away laughed his way back to the other bucks with the “dumb hunter” story of the day.

Opa has vowed to never hunt again with a grandson who needs a car seat. Good thing Oma keeps the home fires burning making little ones happy beside the hearth while the bigger boys feed the family.

Scott continues to enjoy teaching history at Faith Christian, and this year coached Luke’s junior high soccer team. By His grace, Jesus remains our reason for the season.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

Christmas blessings and love to all,
Scott, Paula, Cami, Lacy, Luke, John, Joseph, Garry, and Baby Number 7.