Larson 2010 Christmas Letter

What a year for the Larsons! We started the year out freezing in Smithfield Utah, and have ended up with some December surfing in Huntington Beach California. Here is a little of what has happened in between:

In January we got to take a fun trip to the dunes in St. George. In early May Jeff graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Utah State!!!! YEA!!!! After graduation we went to the north-east corner of the country (Bellingham, WA) to go to a Baja competition for Jeff's senior project. (If you don't know what a Baja is, ask Jaki. She can tell you.) Right after the final ceremonies of the competition we loaded into the car and headed down the coast to Orange County, CA. Jeff started his dream job with King Shocks developing off-road shocks. We found the house we wanted to rent, went back to Logan to load up all our.....junk, and drove off into the sunset.

With the move and new job, Kayla finally got to trim back her RN hours. Jeff's lack of school, and Kayla working less means we get to enjoy a lot more family time! We enjoy going to the beach, playing in the pool, checking out the sights around Orange County, learning to surf, and taking family bike-rides. (Rachel learned to ride without training wheels!) We've made trips to Snowflake for the 24th of July, St. George to watch some football, Mesa for a girls' trip (Jeff wasn't invited) and Logan for Thanksgiving. Now we get to head back to Snowflake for Christmas and we can hardly wait. Our girls have really missed the Logan snow, but have enjoyed having more than 6 months in the year to enjoy some warm weather.

We've found that living in Huntington Beach, California seems to attract more visitors than living in Smithfield, Utah. I can't imagine that living 5 minutes from the beach and 20 minutes from a few popular theme parks make any difference. We really have loved haviing everyone. Our girls have become quite the entertainers! We're always ready for more visitors, so if you're coming this way, we'd love to have you stay with us.

We are so grateful for the year we have had, for prayers that have been answered, and for the great associations we have with family and friends. We hope this letter finds you well and that you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Love, Jeff, Kayla, Rachel and Jaki

Larson

Innocence

Yesterday after dropping Rachel off at preschool Jaki and I came home to continue making our goodie plates. Jaki decided to go into the other room to admire the tree for a while (where she and Rachel had already been told they could not have a candycane until after lunch). After a little while she comes into the kitchen handing me a candycane wrapper with candycane all over her face and hands. She got a little scolding, and a good wash but I couldn't be too mad at her. I found that she hadn't eaten all the candycane, just a little part that had broken off. What is a little 2-year-old to do when she sees a little piece broken off a candycane?

So we got busy again making out pumpkin rolls with Jaki going in and out of the kitchen. After a while she comes back in holding a partly unwrapped candycane with the tip all sticky and tapered to a nice little point. She has blue candycane all over her face and hands. I tell her, "Jaki, I told you not to eat any more candycanes. Now you don't get any more candy today."

As I'm washing her face and hands again she turns to me and says, "I just wicked it."

My mom flew in last Thursday and she and Jeff took Rachel to my OCMCO Christmas concert. OCMCO stands for Orange County Mormon Choral Organization. There is an amazing adult choir, a wonderul orchestra (which I was fortunate enough to join) and some younger choirs, even down to kids Rachel's age. I figured Rachel would enjoy watching the groups of small children sing. I also hoped exposing her to a fun Christmas concert such as this would help to instill a love for good music. I thought without Jaki being there and Rachel sitting by my mom and Jeff she would do okay at the concert. She got to wear her new Christmas dress and was very excited to go, while Jaki got to go to her friend Billy's house. Rachel ended up doing okay at the concert and Jeff said she liked it, but he also said she had a hard time sitting still. Understandable for a 4-year-old.

The next day Rachel was having a hard time listening and obeying and I thought a good motivator would be to tell her that if she couldn't act like a big girl she wouldn't be able to go to any more concerts. She told me she didn't want to go to any more concerts. "You didn't like hearing all those little kids sing?" I said. Her idea was, "I just want all the kids to come sing at Billie's house."

That'll show me to threaten taking away something I wanted Rachel to enjoy in the first place. Oh well, maybe when shes older she will enjoy the concerts a little more.

The day after my concert we had to take my mom back to the airport so she could go to another concert in Mesa. She gave each of my girls her famous brand which is a big kiss on the cheek leaving a bright red kiss-mark from her lipstick. Rachel liked hers, but washed it off a few minutes after getting it. Jaki, however, loved hers. Each time she looked in the mirror and saw her "mooch" as she called it, her face would light up. She didn't want to wash it off and it ended staying on for most of the next day. When it finally came off in her bath she was so sad. Every once in a while when she sees that it is missing she gets so sad. I told her she can get one again when we see Grandma next time. Now she can't wait to go to Snowflake for Christmas so Grandma Flake can give her another mooch on her keek.

Since I haven't posted any pictures for a while, here are a couple of our freeeezing wintertime fun around here.