Merry Christmas! Our Official Christmas Letter for 2009

Hello all! We've decided to do a digital Christmas letter this year for multiple reasons, including, but not limited to the following: it saves time, it saves money, and it saves trees! We hope you are all having a happy holiday so far, and wish you the best of new years. :)

Here are a few highlights from our year, and a little about the near future.

First, the kids. Dana is now 17 and a senior in high school. She finished up her college apps this fall, and is really hoping to go to BYU. She spends a lot of her time singing, and less time dancing this year. She is in A Cappella Choir and Chamber Choir, and is the music director for a 12 person student-run a cappella group called the Free Raticals as well. You can see videos of her performing on my Facebook. In January, the choir will perform Mozart's Requiem with the Ann Arbor Symphony. In March, I will have the privilege of accompanying Dana and the rest of the choir to Salzburg, where they will participate in a choir festival. Among other things, they will perform a mass by Bach in Salzburg's cathedral while we are there. I can't wait! I'm so glad she gets to have these special opportunities. She is also participating in the school musical this winter, which is Aida. She is learning the fine art of keeping her head above water when it comes to school!

Sarah is 14 and a freshman in high school this year. She is adjusting well to the new academic challenges. Although she participated in both band and choir in middle school, she has chosen to go with choir in high school. I must admit that I may have had something to do with that! She is enjoying it, and also enjoying participating in the school musical. She still loves to tap dance, although like Dana, dancing has taken a back seat this year. We'll see what happens next year. Sarah is a smiley, enthusiastic girl and is a lot of fun to be with. :)

Cameron is 12 and in 7th grade. He had fun playing soccer on the school team this fall. He loves to draw, and for some reason, has a thing for weapons. Must be a guy thing. We don't keep weapons around the house, but he finds ways to learn about them. He is our family comedian and keeps us all laughing. Lately, he has also taken an interest in rugby. I'm not sure where that will lead! He sings in the choir at school, but his interest in that is quickly waning. He is still our little Buddy, and although his interest in hugging other girls is growing,I'm happy to say he still loves to hug his mom!

Mary is nine and in 4th grade now. At school, she finds the boys who follow her around particularly annoying. :) She is involved in lots of activities these days. She continues to enjoy dancing, and has given gymnastics a try this fall. She loves to play on the bars at school. Also, she is taking piano lessons again. She has truly been blessed with a gift when it comes to music. I don't think she enjoys the responsibility that can come along with special gifts, but she is learning to let others teach her so she can excel.

Lizzie is five and is in Kindergarten! She loves school and making new friends. Her BFF is a little girl named Julia who lives a few doors down. They have a great time together. She likes to sing, dance and draw. She often does little performances for us at home. Lizzie is incredibly active (phew!) but lots of fun and very happy. We still treat her like our little baby, but I hope she's not getting spoiled!

Troy is still working at TechSmith, a software company which designs screen capture software. At present, he is working as the product manager for Camtasia for the Mac. He really enjoys his work there, and is really excited about the products. He does a little bit of traveling, much of which happens in the fall. This fall he got to travel to Germany again for a couple of weeks. He enjoys being able to keep up those language skills he acquired from Frau Parker (high school German teacher!) and his mission to Munich. He still loves playing soccer in his free time, as well as playing with the kids! He's a great dad. At church, he is currently serving as the President of the Young Men's organization.

I left myself for last because I knew that the descriptions of the others would tell a lot about my life! It's been great keeping in touch with many of you on Facebook--the miracles of modern technology! Let's see...I'm not a big fan of getting up at 5am each weekday to help the high school aged kids get off to seminary (religion class), but I am enjoying having a few hours of alone time each morning, which magically gets filled up to overflowing every day. I get to volunteer in Lizzie's classroom once a week, which is fun. I've been helping out with the fundraising for the choir trip to Salzburg, as well as doing a little babysitting to help pay for it. I am looking into finding a real job of some kind in the near future to help pay for college for the kids and the other expenses that life throws at us. We'll see what happens. I love hanging out with my kids. We have such a great time together. A few recent highlights included going to see New Moon with my big girls, and taking them to see David Archuleta in concert with the Ann Arbor Symphony. Fun!

This past summer we traveled west again. We visited the campuses of BYU-Idaho and BYU in Provo, as well as Stanford. We were so happy to go to California again and visit with my family there. We can never stay long enough! We headed down to Las Vegas to see my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousins, then headed to Lake Powell for a few days of fun and sun with Troy's family. Our trip lasted 17 days, and we were driving on 10 of those days! Our kids are troopers, and seasoned veterans at cross country drives. But we were sure glad to get home!

I am so happy to have a wonderful husband and family, despite our challenges (which we all have). I love to take the opportunity at this time of year to reflect on all the blessings that God has given me and my family as I think about the little baby born in Bethlehem who came to save us all. It is my sincere hope that you all have a wonderful, happy holiday and a blessed and prosperous new year.
Much love,

The Steins :D