Draperland: December 2010

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

and a Happy New Year!!

Well, I hope that a little post on the blog will suffice for a Draperland Christmas letter this year... even without a recent family picture. There are some years when you can just get around to it but this is my guilt-free, enjoy-the-moment year. That is due to either carpooling loads of teenagers or snuggling with my little girlie. Either way, time is going to fast...

Here is a quick update on the fam:

TOP TEN DRAPER MEMORIES of 2010:

10. Ryan's continued fettish for Superman and drawing the "S" symbol on every possible piece of paper in the house. Notice I said paper, which is a step up from just just drawing on anything last year.

9. Zach's 12th birthday was a major highlight as he graduated into Young men's from Primary and surprised both of his parents by reciting from memorization the 13th article of faith from the pulpit. Yes, I think a single tear formed as I thought,"He does hear what we teach!....." Sniff. Sniff.

8. Tanner decided one day that he likes to organize shelves and drawers. Yes, we were a little concerned that he was our son, too, for a while BUT decided to claim him no matter what due to the surprise one day when he organized the entire DVD book case according to genre and alphabetical order. It was a beautiful sight. I didn't even discover it for a few days until I needed to find a workout dvd and there they were all in order.

7. We learned a lot about Kaden's ability to never give up after he suffered a terrible football accident one week into the season and had a broken hand. Even after surgery he did not quit the team until one day he realized that although he wanted to try and tackle with a cast on, it wasn't worth hitting the long pins in his knuckles and damaging his hand permanently. Still he went to almost every practice and game to be with the team, running drills and giving water, all the time with only one hand.

BUT

He would tell you the best moment of this year was getting his cast off so that he could play his guitar. We missed hearing him play all the time and he couldn't wait to get back to it.

6. Tom is about to enter year 9 in the car dealership business and still loves it as much as year 1. Each year has had its challenges and different learning curves, but he continues to amaze me at his talent and I am convinced that he is the "smartest auto guy" on the planet. It is part of his fiber to be positive and although things get stressful, I never see him go out the door dreading work. He is genuinely happy to help people find the right car for the right price.

*******side note: Being the wife of a car dealer has been very educational. When he first got started, we used to play the "intersection game" where we would sit at a stop light and he would see if he could guess the make and model of each car that would drive through. I couldn't believe how good he was and now after hearing and being a silent observer after all these years I CAN PLAY, TOO! And sometimes win..... ( I even have dreams where I am selling cars to people and sounding just like Tom :)

5. We love our ward and have both had a number of changes in callings this year. Wherever we go, it is only a matter of time before word leaks out about my organ-playing spouse. He tends to eventually become the ward organist in every ward we live in most of the time coupled with other callings. He always does such a great job. Right now he is also the Cubmaster. Can you think of two callings that are more polar opposites?! One for the musician in him, the other for the little boy in him...

I have been recently switched from Bear den leader to RS 2nd counselor. Missing the boys but now loving the ladies.

4. Vinyl machine up and running again. Enough said. Probably the real reason Christmas has totally snuck up on me.

3. March brought the color pink into our home!! Sophie is almost 9 months old and crawling around. She has a thing for Zach and when he walks in the room, she starts to laugh. It is like she just GETS him even though she can't understand what he is saying to her. So cute but we had better watch out.

This is my first Christmas with a daughter. Wow!

2. Road trip 2010 took us to "Baby-palooza" as we traveled down to Phoenix to meet the first Baird cousin (Lisa & Renton's baby Ava) and then up to Payson to see Maycee (Eric & Shaili's baby). Over to Rexburg to meet Grant (Megan & Joseph's baby) and eventually Idaho Falls to meet Annie (Kaylee & Scott's baby). I have been looking forward to the baby boom happening in my family for a long time-- who knew it would happen all at once?!

1. There really is not a #1 memory for this year but I can say that the top priority for us has just been trying harder to keep the Lord with us everyday. We would not be able to get through anything without the ability to drop down on our knees and talk to Him in prayer. He is always there. All you have to do is ask. You are never too far away from him.