Christmas Letter 2012 - Part 2

Princess 4 – 15. Princess 4 is one of the busiest people I know. I will just list some of the things she is involved in this year and you will be tired just reading. She is a Jr this year and is turning 16 and getting a drivers license soon. She is on the drill team and performing at games and competitions.(You can go to the search at the bottom of this page and type in "drill team" and see lots of posts about that) She’s an elected Student body Officer. She went to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership) and is going next year as an alumni to help other students as a youth leader. She went to HOBY (Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership) a few months ago and has applied to go back next year as a youth leader. She was just accepted to be a Service Missionary to Thailand (click here to see my post about that) next summer which means she has to do 80 hours of local service (she already did 100 for HOBY) and is volunteering at the local food bank. She also has to earn almost $4000 to go as well. (If you are interested in donating to her trip, please let me know.) She is busy working and trying to earn the money and get people to sponsor some of her trip. She is a leader in our church youth program. She is in a youth choir in our town that will be touring CA next spring and meet weekly for practices and we enjoyed a Christmas concert tonight. She is on the City youth Council, Governing Youth Council, National Honor Society and I am sure there are a few thing in there that I am forgetting but she organizes herself well and has be able to do all these fun events and still maintain a 4.0 GPA. She also just signed up for some college classes along with the concurrent classes she is already taking. She has boys lining up for her attention but she is staying focused on these other things for now. She skipped a grade and being so young, it is amazing she is so dedicated.  She was in a play "Oliver" with Princess five and our exchange student this summer. This is a picture of her in the play. (Click here to see that post)

Princess 5 – 13. Princess 5 has grown so quickly this past year that we had to go through her clothes almost monthly. She has continued to be easy going and kind and I know God sent us a blessing at the end as she is loved by everyone and has not a cross word to say to anyone. She is dancing on a competition team again and picked up the guitar this past year and wrote a song which is on youtube and my blog. (Click here to my post about that) She has many other songs down and enjoys singing and playing the guitar for herself and others. She preformed her song at the Fair and played for her sister to sing as well. (Click here to see her sister sing)  She is taking some honors classes and is at the top of her class and is following in her sisters footsteps but takes her own paths which we enjoy watching as she creates a place for herself. She has many friends and the other girls are always commenting on how social she is and why didn’t they do that…. She has more friends than all of us and is loved by all. She likes playing games with the family (click here for a post on that) and doing crafts (Click here for one) and cooking. I wish we did it more often. Being busy, we enjoy it when we can. I am excited to see where the next year takes her as she enters high school.She was also in the community play, is missing our exchange student and played "Ophelia" in a school play. (Click here for that post)

The last year has been so crazy with court once again, Princess 2’s health issues, Princess 3 moving off to college and graduation, kids in dance, exchange students, surgeries, etc. I am still taking care of my aging mother who at times is well and other times, not so well. I took her to Czech Republic last week after Thanksgiving and it was VERY hard to travel with her and we were only there for two days but it took its toll. She attended the opening of a museum for the Skoda car company which she modeled for in 1957. You can see pictures of it online and see my post about it here. (Part one) (Part 2) Upon arriving home, we stopped at the bank and found out that she has been donating $300-$500 monthly to many charities that call and write her. I’ve spent hours on it and will continue to figure it out. She has never been the same since her accident a few years ago and soon she will end up living with one of us. She doesn’t know she has a problem which makes the situation worse.

I don't have many photos of me but here is a photo of me holding the moon. (Click here to see the post on that.)

We are so blessed to have all that we do and for the most part we are happily engaged in living a wonderful life. I know we all have trials and when I look at others, I know that mine are minimal. I am truly blessed with amazing children and a beautiful life. I know God loves us and blesses us daily. I hope you are so blessed and this letter finds you all well.

We would love to see you any time, come visit! You can follow us on my blog at thesecretisgratitude.com.

We love and miss you! The Queen of the Blog and her Princesses