We had a great Christmas with Marnie, Peter and Anne and Kim and Treven. It was a lot livelier here than normal. Today is my first day with Dad at work and noone but Kim home. Kim, however, got up, took a shower and disappeared over to Treven's house so it is pretty quiet here. I have spent my morning getting the Christmas decorations put away (you know how we are!!!) and now I am getting ready to clean up my desk and work on the business plan for the practice. We are still moving that direction but have not proceeded so far that we couldn't change our mind. Our broker is negotiating with the owner of the building that we would like to go into ..if that fell through, it might give us pause for further thought...

Well, what about this last week of Christmas...Peter and Anne arrived on the 18th. That evening we went to a Christmas program at the symphony and then down to Brian's to see Martha and Dick who were up for just that day. We then stopped to eat on our way home which made a long day!! Monday, Anne, Peter, Kim and Treven went up to Seattle for the day while Dad and I met with various people regarding the practice. Wednesday, Anne, Peter and I went to the temple. Marnie came in on Wednesday night. Then I was fully inundated with three girls critiqueing my every move! Actually it wasn't that bad. They had a lot of fun together...lots of games and puzzles and movies going. On Christmas Eve afternoon, we went to see Lemony Snicket... which we really enjoyed and then came home for our usual Christmas eve festivities. Christmas morning was slightly delayed since Kim went over to the Perry's (Treven's family) for gifts at 7 am. She was back before 8, however, and none of the others were awake yet so it didn't cramp our style too much.

We appreciated all the gifts....Adina and David...we really did need the closet organizers. That is one of my projects for these next few weeks. Buffy...I am very impressed by the scarf. It is so soft and I can't believe you just started crocheting and got so much done. I love the puzzle caddy...it has really smoothed out my puzzle making. And I am digging into the Lemony Snicket books also! The puzzle that Tom and Tracy and Mike and Brooke gave me was a real doozy to do. It had multiple pieces that looked like they would fit and then later you would find that they should be somewhere else. Marnie got me a pedicure kit...which will save me a bit of money!! And we have a new BYU ornament from Anne and Peter.....All together a thoroughly satisfactory Christmas!

Of course, the best part of Christmas is not the gifts but the enjoyment of family and reflection on the significance of Christ's gift to us. This Christmas has been wonderful with more excess time to just enjoy being home and listening to Christmas music etc. Very peaceful! We are taking off on Friday after Dad gets done with work to take Kim to BYU Idaho. Then it will really be quiet!

With Dad's plan of going on his own, I really do need employment and I have one promising lead. I just was called back for a second round of interviews for a job at Northwest Evaluation Association. It is a Research Coordinator for their research department. It's a new position and sounds very interesting....in addition, the job starts with 6 weeks of vacation/sick time. Pretty attractive. My interviews are not until next week so I'll let you know how they go. The only drawback is that it is all the way down by the temple so that it would be a long commute:~(.

I just finished reading " The Kite Runner" It is really a great book---makes you understand better all that has happened in Afganistan.

Well, I'd better get to that business plan.

We love all of you! (If you haven't written to the blog for a while....do it!)
Mom