Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year,

This year, we decided to start a new tradition and send out the year’s letter and picture after Christmas. I LOVE getting Christmas cards, and I love the process of writing and reflecting on the year past, but I don’t like doing it before Christmas. For me, it gets in the way of celebrating Christ’s birth. So this letter and picture are not technically late, but are purposefully post-Christmas. And we have had a very sweet holiday season.

At the beginning of 2012, a good friend of mine shared with me how instead of setting resolutions at the New Year, she chose a one word or phrase theme for the year. I loved the idea and tried to come up with one of my own but failed to do so. I felt that I couldn’t come up with a theme until I had a better idea of how our life would be in 2012, and all of that seemed to hinge on getting a job. In addition to being knocked flat by morning sickness into the spring, I kept pulling a blank when it came to planning and imagining our life. Retrospectively, too much of our year was unintentionally themed “stalled,” “neutral,” or “stuck” because we were fixated on moving—out of my parent’s house, on to the next stage of life, and into a “real” lawyer job for Eric. We had this one very narrow definition of growth and progress and that idea eclipsed too often the blessings, joy, love, and growth we have experienced this year. And while we still really, really want to “move” and are doing everything in our power to do so, we are also trying to see the bigger picture. That view, however, only comes with an eye of faith. So our theme for 2013, which we hope is our lucky number, is simply Faith.

Another way to describe 2012 would be “The Word of God.” We spent much energy this year drawing closer to God. We made General Conference the biggest holidays of the year (next to Christmas) and effectively used it as our curriculum for Family Home Evenings. We also started reading scriptures as a family from the “big scriptures” every morning. Jane’s favorite scripture story is the Nativity and Emiline’s is when King Noah and Abinadi “get burned.” It was amazing how the spirit in our home changed so much and so sweetly and so quickly as we had opportunity to learn lessons about asking in faith, obeying immediately, and having a soft heart.

The adventures of the year include a trip to Ft. Worth the see the Ludlows in February, a few Sisters’ get-a-ways in the spring, renovating a bathroom, installing hardwood floors, time with Great Grandparents, Jane riding a lamb in the Scipio Rodeo (granted, she fell off in about a second, but she was determined to do it!), camping as a family, having a baby, filing a police report after our storage unit got broken into, Grammy and Grampy Ludlow and Great Grandma Ludlow coming for a visit for Adam’s blessing, lots of family in town for Thanksgiving, and once again producing our children’s Christmas musical and benefit. It has been a full year!

Our wiggliest bundle of joy, Lloyd Adam, was born on August 23. Named for Marcee’s Dad and Eric’s dearest mentor, he has been the happiest and most social of our babies yet. So social, in fact, that he doesn’t want to sleep long, day or night! At 4 months old, he already loves to figure things out, and we’re amazed at how he can squirm his way across the floor on his back.

Emiline is our busiest child, running or jumping almost everywhere she goes, which often leads to a fall or crash most days and her sobbing cry of, “No, that wasn’t a trick!” She loves a good joke, being silly, and teasing. She definitely has a mind of her own and likes to challenge limits. When she decided she was ready to be done wearing diapers, she just did it—that day, and no sooner. She loves playing ball, dressing up, singing, being silly, blocks, pocket dolls, coloring, painting, being silly, her puppy she got from Santa, and her big sister and baby brother.

Jane is now a full-fledged little girl. Before she started preschool this fall, she was already reading which is of particular delight to her father. She discovered princesses this year: movies, dolls, barbies, and stories. Daily she asks one adult or another to make up a princess story. She has a vast imagination and delights in all stories and spends her day making up her own, whether through dressing up, playing dolls, or drawing pictures. She loves to sing and dance and even had a speaking part in the Christmas play her mother directed. She also loves “fashion” and one day fell to pieces because Mommy threw out a stack of magazines before she got to look through them. She LOVES to pick out her outfits and loves contrast; orange is still her favorite color. She has a sweet and tender heart, her sister is her best friend, and she adores her little brother. She has quite the “mommy voice” when playing with him.

Marcee has had her best year physically since Jane was born. Her back issues are no more and she had a pretty great pregnancy and delivery. She is even more amazed by the human body and continues to study health, alignment, and nutrition. She still teaches the Beehives and even made it to Girls Camp at 37 weeks pregnant. She also started writing again this year, including an essay for the collection “Undefining Women” (release date still TBA). She again taught music and drama this year and she and Eric will be teaching at the local community college in the spring.

Eric is, according to Marcee’s mother, “the busiest unemployed person I know.”  He has worked so hard in so many ways. He continues to do all he can in the job search as well as work other odd jobs. He’s been blessed to have many opportunities to substitute teach. He continues to volunteer at Legal Aid, do some contract work and has even had some successful tax clients. He’s packed 3 years worth of Continuing Legal Education into about 8 months. He’s currently building a website to expand his virtual practice opportunities. He loves to help out (probably too much) with the children, and is the sweetest husband.

We hope your Christmas season was filled with joy and peace and your new year with hope!

Much Love,

The Ludlows