Merry Christmas Again! 2016 was a wonderful year!
Happy New Year! 2017 is going to be Great!
Best wishes from our family to yours, for a wonderful holiday season and a blessed new year.
First, thoughts about weather…..Despite the common conception that we do not have four seasons in Southern California, I beg to differ. Three of our seasons are simply compressed into about 3 weeks.
Summer: Lasts from about January 15 through November 15
Fall: November 15 through December 31. The famous California Natural Christmas Trees appear in California Fall, with their ornaments of yellow, red, gold, and flowing garlands of berries, lemons, and oranges. We also have the precious Christmas relic known as “Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming,” from the famous Christmas Plainsong.
Winter: December 31 (give or take a few nights)
This wonderful night sometimes has rain, sometimes ice. Rarely snow (except in higher altitudes). Sometimes our migratory friends must flee to Mammoth, Lake Tahoe, Utah or Colorado to experience snow. But we have our own winter weather. Here are photos of the rare steaming waters of winter, and the endangered species known as “pool in the rain”:
Spring: January 1 through January 15.
This wonderful 2 weeks is a delight! Daffodils, tulips, spring apple blossoms! Green grass! We love our Springtime!
So enough about the 4 Seasons.
The Child Family has had some
great adventures this year–
David continues his work as the Bishop in the Westlake Village Ward. He and Amelia got lovely new surfboards. They love their early beach mornings! They have really nice warm wetsuits, and love playing with the dolphins and fish. No shark sitings yet. David loves his surfing App, and he loves learning how to read the tides, currents, and wave patterns. The favorite surf spot this year has been Mondos beach a little north of Ventura. David also loves his running routes and his study time. He also enjoys visiting Utah and hearing Aaron play gigs. He and Diane have started playing in a piano trio with a friend, and had their first trio performance at a small home concert in the fall. We sold the house in Provo Utah this summer and so are committed California residents. And that could mean a lot of different things.
Diane is the proud grandmother of Henry, and also Luca, born in June. She continues her training work with Elliot, Don Carlos, and David. She started to play with a community orchestra this year, The Westlake Village Symphony where she is breaking out of her genetic tendency to play 2nd Violin. She loved directing the Ward Choir this year in the Westlake Village Ward. She had a wonderful College Roommate Reunion with BYU girlfriends. Younger friends Garrison (13) and Gracie (15) made the end of the summer really fun! Then, Diane bonded even more with Henry for a few weeks in September. She went to Philadelphia with David while Dan and Claire traveled to Europe for a scientific conference (Dan) and exploration (Claire and Dan). Plus, Diane visited Jacob in Italy in late October and explored at bit of Florence again. Then, she and Jacob climbed Mt. Vesuvius, delved into Herculaneum and Pompei, and had fun poking around Sorrento and Capri. Diane has taken a liking to planting succulents in the garden beds (one of few plants that seem to thrive on benign neglect). To her delight, the tangerines ripened early this year. With mixed feelings, Diane also sold the Barn/Arena property in Charleston Utah this summer, convinced to stay in this area by the lovely weather and opportunities in California. Here, she is very grateful to be able to keep her horses at a wonderful barn in Somis, about 35 minutes from home, surrounded by lemon and avocado orchards. She appreciates the friendly people and great facilities.
Dan and Claire and Henry live, work and play in Philadelphia. Henry celebrated his first birthday with the whole family in Montana, hiking around Glacier National Park. Dan continues his Phd research in genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. Claire keeps VERY busy serving as the Young Women’s President in their ward and working as a physical therapist. They are both involved and excellent parents to Henry. Freya the wonderful dog is a patient and gentle companion to a busy toddler. Facetime has been a great way to keep in touch this year, and we love watching and talking to Henry as he learns to talk, sing, and dance.
Aaron lives works, climbs, and plays in Orem Utah. He spent a nice chunk of the fall in Spain climbing great terrain AND working remotely for his job doing IT for Momentum Rock Climbing Gym. He plays guitar, mandolin, and sings backups with a few bands in Utah, and enjoys session work at local recording studios. He continues to send after-the-fact rock climbing photos to his grateful mother. We love his weekly morning phone calls.
Amelia lives, works, rides, surfs and plays in California. She continues her work at Abright as a lead behavioral therapist (promotion!), working with adorable autistic children. This fall, she bought Gino, a 5-year-old chestnut Dutch Warmblood gelding and is having lots of fun training him up for sale. She worked miracles on Don Carlos for Diane during travel weeks. Amelia was involved in psychology research and which will be presented 2 papers. She also worked hard preparing for and taking the GRE and applying to graduate programs in psychology. Our home is never a dull place with Amelia living here. She keeps us entertained, smiling, and dancing. Out and about, we love the surf time and barn time we get to spend with her.
Jacob spent the fall in Florence Italy at SAATCHI, working hard at a study abroad program through MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore MD). He studied mural restoration, and museolgy, painting, and pizza. He loves art school! He is technically a Senior in January, but will graduate in the Spring of 2018. He is thinking about working and then going to grad school. This summer he worked as an intern at Revolver Gallery in Beverly Hills, which specializes in Andy Warhol works. He also enjoyed teaching lots of great kids at Young Art in Thousand Oaks. We love that Jacob is doing so well in school and love our Skype time with him.
Christmas All Year 