A Whole New Year...

A whole New Year, still "fresh, with no mistakes in it!" as Anne Shirley would say. It's always nice, naturally, to have a fresh start and take the opportunity to review your life and consider your future. Of course, your future can't be determined entirely by yourself, but it's largely what we make of it.

We sent 2005 out with a bang here in N.M. Joel and Caity had all of Dan and Joel's family here - 28 people in all - for a big reunion. It was wonderful! We hadn't all been together like that ever before. Not as married couples, and certainly not with all those fabulous kids! We ate a big dinner, played with the kids, opened gifts, took lots of pictures, and even put up a "confessional" in Joel and Caity's room where each couple talked to the videocamera about the last year and their upcoming goals. I hope we can all do it again sometime.

Something about being with so much family - it's sort of an existential thing, isn't it? It makes me think, because we're all sealed together, and I know that past generations have done many of the same things we have - have children, do reunions, take pictures, work at our jobs, do our callings, etc. And when each person comes to the end of his or her life, the one thing that they consider is FAMILY. Not work or money or hobbies or even charitable work, but family. I was with my grandmother when she passed away, and although she wasn't conscious, I was - very conscious of my responsibility to honor her by living the principles that she taught me. It was the most powerful moment of my life up to that time and it remains one of the most influential ones.

And so I'd like to take just a paragraph and honor my family. Particularly my immediate one. To begin with, I have a husband who really took a risk in marrying me, and with all my faults, I love him so much. Partly it's because he's so amazingly forgiving, but also for his innumerable good qualities, and the best one of all - he's committed unflinchingly to the gospel and to his family. Can't ask for more than that. And then, as a sort of "icing on the cake" move on Heavenly Father's part, he blessed us with a perfectly beautiful, healthy, loving, funny, intelligent daughter. She's a challenge and a ham and, always, a blessing. Someday, maybe we'll have more children to fill up our quiver, who will help us grow in other ways and give us new opportunities to serve (and make us laugh some more).

"I'll build a boat, steady and true, as soon as it's done...I'm going to sail along in a dream with my Dear Someone."