Dear Family and Friends,
Hello! I am feeling grateful and blessed at this Christmas
season and wanted to reach out and wish you Merry Christmas and the Happiest of
New Years! Our family has had a
monumental change this year, we have moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan! A year ago,
I didn’t even know where Kalamazoo was. Now we are trying to settle in and make
friends and learn our way around our new city.
We are enjoying Michigan in general. It is such a pretty
place! We arrived for the fall colors and bought some produce from a roadside
stand in late October. We have taken two trips (about an hour drive) to visit
Lake Michigan and it is WOW! I’ve seen my first light houses (there are 150
them here in the state) and walked the sand—yes it was chilly, but loved every
minute! Now we are experiencing the first of the winter storms. So far, we seem
to be located in a more protected area. Some schools closed last week west of
us (closer to the lake), but we were functional all week. We will wait and see
how the winter goes.
Nate has had to return to Salt Lake 3 times, for a combined
total of 4 weeks. Ugh! That hasn’t been fun to have the family separated, but
he is now coming home again from what we hope is the last trip for a while. He
has been working hard to finish real estate deals there and preparing our own
home to sell. We felt strongly about the timing when we left, but knew it would
mean some of this kind of sacrifice to fix what still needed work in Salt Lake.
I have been called to finish teaching out this year of
seminary. Caleb is in my class (there are 15 youth on my roles) and we travel
25 min. each morning to hold class at 6 a.m. It is a humbling, and wonderful
calling. Nate also has a new calling; he will serve as the Cub master! (Pack
meeting, here we come!)
The kids have made friends in the ward, and a couple in our
neighborhood, although I’m sure there must be more kids around us, we just
haven’t found them yet. We have spent a lot of time cleaning up the house
(which had been a rental for some time) and finding furniture to replace all we
left behind. We still have a ways to go on that, but we can sit down
comfortably now, and we count that a bonus.
I wanted to thank all of you who helped us move! We couldn’t
have done it without you! We felt loved and supported in everything by all of
you wonderful people! Thank you!! We miss you! It is hard to leave those you
love. We have also appreciated efforts to stay in touch with us, like phone
calls and letters and emails and even packages. Thank you!!
We hope you are well!
Christ lives! His birth was the glad tidings of great joy! May you all
have joy this Christmas! Love, Jenny and Nathan and Family
