Merry Christmas 2009

Every year I love getting wonderful photos and letters from dear family and friends in the mail. I feel sort of like a free loader that I'm not returning the favor. But I just can't quite find the time or money to send Christmas cards out in the mail now that our list of good friends and family has topped 400 people (8 siblings each, friends from college, grad school, Boston, DC, San Jose, various jobs, etc.). So I do emailed cards.

It still takes plenty of time composing a letter and making a collages of photos that represent our year plus I have to track down a lot of missing email addresses (if you didn't get an emailed Christmas card from me and would like one, please put your email in the comments section and I'll get one right off to you!). But we really do love to connect with the people we love. I hope people don't think I'm terribly cheap and tacky for skipping out on the labor of love that I admire so many people for when it comes to Christmas cards. But I hope our dear friends and family will accept our humble attempt to reach out and share with them via email each Christmas. And my hat is off to those who still manage to get lovely cards in the mail!

Anyway, for anyone whose email I don't have, our Christmas photo collage is above and our Christmas letter is right here:
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Merry Christmas from the Loosli Family

2009 has brought the Loosli family LOTS of:

Hiking and biking: Zion Narrows was a highlight as was a 52-mile bike ride around Bear Lake, the kids and Jared got involved in mountain bike racing and loved it

Community involvement: Neighborhood Board, volunteering at the kids' school, and leading mothers' groups for Saren, entrepreneur groups and business councils for Jared, working with the youth at church for Saren and Jared

Running: Jared ran the St George Marathon and I'm always running somewhere and usually running late...

Music: Ashton's learning the guitar and violin, singing in the school choir and playing percussion, Isaac's learning piano, Eliza and the twins are constantly singing, we've learned a hymn a week

Trips to the ER: Oliver had stitches in his chin 2x and butterfly bandages on his forehead, Eliza had 14 stitches in her forehead, Silas had stitches in his chin. Three of these incidents were within a 9 day period. Really, we're not abusing our children!

New ventures: Saren launched powerofmoms.com and worked to get The Joy School Company really rolling. Jared got an exciting new invention to help trucks be more energy efficient off the ground plus came up with new software to streamline things at his trucking company. Now we've got to figure out how to get some of our new ventures to turn a profit. This year has been about hard work and no pay...

Family events:

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  Funeral: Sadly, Jared's dad passed away in February. We enjoyed celebrating his full and rich life with all the rest of his great posterity.
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  Weddings: Last fall, my brother Talmadge married Anita and our niece Mikalla married Brett
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  Baptisms: Isaac and his two cousins Grace and Aniston were all baptized in Bear Lake last summer; cousin Michael was also baptized
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  Missions: My sister, Charity got home from her mission to England and we've got a niece and a nephew serving in Poland and a niece headed to Cincinnati next month

Pioneer stories and experiences: Jared and I headed up a youth group on a Pioneer Trek last summer and we learned so much

Pets: We had a horny toad, a really cool gopher snake, and several frogs and lizards. The rule is that if you can catch it, you can have it for a pet (for a few months). Right now we're pet-less but the kids are working on catching a rabbit – there are about a million wild rabbits around here right now.

Travel: NYC for my brother Tal's wedding and our 11^th anniversary, the Bay Area for Spring Break, Bear Lake and Ashton Idaho to be with family for family events and a big chunk of the summer

Art: We visited several museums and did quite a few art projects, exploring different mediums. Eliza won the Reflections Art Contest for her watercolor of a sunset at the regional level and we'll see how she does at the state level now.

Visitors: I think we're up to about 100 house guests this year – if you count all the kids and all the repeats. We love it – mostly!

Uncertainty: After a couple hard years of trying to ride out the storms that the flailing economy has thrown at Jared's trucking company, we've come to the realization that we need to move on. As of January 1^st, Jared's officially done with MG Trucklines. We've got lots of ideas, contacts and projects to pursue but we're gearing up for some uncertainty for a while. Should be an adventure!

We're excited (and nervous) about all that 2010 will bring!

Thank you for your friendship and examples. We're so grateful for all our family and friends. We wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Love,

The Loosli Family

Jared, Saren, Ashton (10 in January), Isaac (8), Eliza (almost 7), Oliver and Silas (5 in January)