Sunday, December 17, 2017

Christmas Letter

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

2 comments:

Brandi said...

I'm so glad you're settling in and finding friends! Merry Christmas to you too!

Becky said...

Wow, that is a huge leap! I hope it is a wonderful adventure for you all!