Merry Christmas to All Our Dear Friends and Family

Merry Christmas Everyone,

I can't believe its only 4 days till Christmas and I'm just writing my letter. It has been a crazy year and truthfully, I'm glad that we can start a new year soon. Our family has been very blessed this past year and we have much to be thankful and grateful for this holiday season. So many feelings and emotions have been felt since our son Marc's horrible car accident in August. For those that don't know, he was in the hospital for 6 weeks and in the beginning the doctors weren't sure whether he would come out of the coma and if he did, whether he'd fully recover. He was a passenger in a car and he suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as other injuries but thanks to the power of priesthood blessings, the expertise of the doctors/nurses, family that stood by his side everyday, prayers from friends, family, churches, temples, and so many others, Marc has had an amazing recovery. He's doing very well and hopefully will be able to go back to work in late spring/early summer. He still gets tired after an hour or two of physical activity but he comes over almost daily and works with his dad or just hangs out with family and friends. He amazed the doctors when he went back in November for his neurology follow up. The doctors say it will be a year before we know the entire outcome but I know without a doubt that our Heavenly Father was and is watching over him and that Heavenly Father gave our family the strength to get through this trial.

It has been wonderful having Becky, Sam and Eli living next door. We see our grandson Eli everyday and he is such a joy in our lives. We love him dearly and he is a miracle as well. Just 3 years ago he was born 3 ½ months early and was in the hospital for 14 weeks. He had a tough couple of years, last fall being the last time he was in the hospital (for 12 days) but this year he has been doing really well. He was diagnosed with Autism in August, high functioning autism is what they say. He has severe delays in speech and communication but he started 'school' a few weeks ago, where he works with a speech therapist and OT and in the last 2 weeks he is now saying 15 words, some two word phrases and repeats a lot of words we say. He loves to sing, hum and dance and he loves books. Becky is a full time mom plus works from home for the Alpine Shop doing their online sales and Sam is a full time college student at Vermont Tech studying computer IT with a GPA of 4.0.

We had great news in July when Melinda announced that she and Adam were having a baby. She is due the end of March with our first granddaughter. She is doing great and is sooooo...excited. Frank and I can't wait to have another grandbaby to spoil rotten, Eli could tell you stories... Melinda is working as full time bookkeeper for the Larson family (for anyone from church that may remember them). Nate is her boss and she absolutely loves the job. She also has 2 or 3 bookkeeping jobs on the side, yup, she's busy.

Amanda is working at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital and switched to the OR recovery unit this past June and is really liking it and learning a lot. She and Frank have been taking an EMT course this fall and they take their final exam mid January 09. Amanda is a natural when it comes to working with patients, she is amazing both in the field, in the hospital and also when Marc was in the hospital. She was wonderful with him.

While it has been a busy year, it has also been an amazing year of trials and triumphs, out pouring of love and times for us to reflect on the things in life that are most important and that being, our Father in Heaven, family and friends and also a time to find out just what inner strengths we have and that we can draw on when need be. Thank you all for being a part of our lives. We love you all very much. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.