Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

Merry Christmas!

My Christmas Wish For You

by Ruth Kephart

My Christmas wish for you, my friend

Is not a simple one

For I wish you hope and joy and peace,

Days filled with warmth and sun.

I wish you love and friendship, too

Throughout the coming year,

Lots of laughter and happiness

To fill your world with cheer.

May you count your blessings, one by one

And when totaled by the lot

May you find all you've been given,

To be more than what you sought.

May your journeys be short, your burdens light

May your spirit never grow old,

May all your clouds have silver linings

And your rainbows pots of gold.

I wish this all and so much more

May all your dreams come true,

May you have a Merry Christmas, friend

And a Happy New Year, too.

She's Home!

My sweet niece is home!  She has been serving an LDS mission in Paraguay.  She left balmy Paraguay and entered a winter wonderland in Salt Lake City late Thursday night. 

It didn't take long to start the transition to non missionary life.  She sent me a text last night with her new phone number.  Meranda is an amazing niece and we are so happy to have her home safe and sound.  There is so much in store for her as she takes the next steps in her life!

The longest day!

Today was absolutely the longest work day in many days.  It started out with snow-packed and slippery roads, power outages at intersections, and a slow drive to work.  The radio kept me (and all of the other drivers) informed about road closures, airport closures, accidents and more.  After 2, yes 2, hours to make an 11 mile drive, I was wiped out and not ready to get going on anything.  The clocked ticked by and finally at 3:30 I wished everyone a nice evening and headed home.  Oh my goodness!

December!

I need to record the events and experiences of the past few months.  If I don't, I am not likely to remember them at all or tell anyone about them. I am home chilling for a few hours before my meeting schedule begins for the day.  I have a pretty amazing life filled with blessings of family, good health, associates, work, church service and more that lead to ongoing happiness, purpose, meaning and substance.

Family Party

Saturday, December 7, we hosted the annual Petersen Family Christmas Party.  We had a good crowd but were missing more family than in previous years.  Annie created the menu, Haley and I were support staff and everyone there had a nice family evening which included several rounds of TREE (Bingo for Christmas) with prizes for all.

Who'd have thought . . . 

I grew up in a small community only 1.9 miles from where I currently live.  It was a pretty positive upbringing for the most part, not perfect, but good parents and religion moved all 8 kids in the family along. Last week, Friday (December 6), I sat on a pretty high profile panel of education, workforce, and government leaders to talk about the future of young people using Pathway to Prosperity as our reference.  The author of the Harvard document was the key panelist.  The panel was organized to speak with attendees of the national ACTE conference (Association of Career and Technical Education) held in Las Vegas.  It was a pretty amazing experience, to say the least.

In October, I made a lightning-speed trip to New York City to sit on a panel of large district, school counseling leaders from across the country at the Fall Forum of the College Board.  My charge there was to share how school counseling is experiencing a transformation to emphasis the importance of college and career readiness for all students. While right downtown in NYC I found my way to the top of the Empire State Building to the center of Rockefeller Plaza.  I had an interesting cabbie, Vido, who provided a travel/historical dialog to the airport. 

Grands!

Having now five grandchildren is quite an accomplishment and so much fun.  I had some alone time with all of them after Thanksgiving. What cute little chillins!  Elliott is so smart and wants to be helpful and has a million questions and ideas.  Wyatt is very strong-willed and a little on the stubborn side but so endearing.  Molly is my "golden granddaughter" and she is always so good when it's just the two of us.  Jackity-Jack is s sweet little boy who manages to understand and communicate in his own language.  And, Quinn is my chubby-wubby who patiently waits for me to look his way to share a huge smile. 

Lithuanian Express

Willie's Fantasy Basketball Team is affectionately call the Lithuanian Express. Preparing a missionary is a new thing for all of us.  When the "call" came in September, I thought "why so much time to prepare"?  Now, with just a little over two months from MTC time, I am feeling a little pressure.  Willie is ready! Now, we just need to get the shopping done -- for two years!  We are all excited to send a missionary off; but our excitement pales to what Willie is feeling.  He's ready!

U of U Student

One semester down and seven or eight to go.  With concurrent and AP credit and one semester nearly completed, Willie has enough credit to be considered a sophomore!  It's amazing how he has made the transition from high school to the college scene.  He's focused, he studies hard, and it has been a good life prep program to give him some substance to draw from as he moves to a new life experience.

The day after Thanksgiving

So, it's the day after Thanksgiving and a beautiful day!  Not sure about how the rest of the world celebrated but we had a huge group at Dad's for dinner.  I think there were close to 50!  We overprepared and over planned and there was delicious turkey and all the fixins for all; and seconds, and thirds, too.

It was a great day!