Nunn Christmas Letter

Austin's Family Christmas Letter

This time of year we pause and reflect on our lives. Not something I love to do because it only makes me feel bad for the things we are not doing.  So rather than reflect, I will just state the obvious.

Did you know the wind blows in southern Alberta?

Jill has worked long and hard to be a great basketball player.  She is getting better.  She only tripped over the lines on the floor twice in her last game. Guess she takes after her mom.  Jill's emotions are like the Alberta weather, wait 5 minutes or drive 5 miles and it will change.

Hanna also takes after her mom.  She is always in the principal's office with boy problems - early marriage proposals and causing the principal stress - oh yeah, that is her dad.

Lucy has been saving us money by not using as much toothpaste since she lost most of her teeth.  Although she does leave money for the tooth fairy to give to other kids, so I guess we really didn't save money.  Lucy also walks with a tilt in her neck because the wind is more powerful than her.

Carly (payback) takes after her mother as well.  She is four and she runs the house.  She plays eenie-meenie-minnie-mo every morning to decide what she is going to wear.

Kaylynn continues to grow spiritually as well as physically (no more cookies for her).

I love my job and only have 17 more years until retirement.

My parent's reached their halfway mark of their mission to Nauvoo this week.  We are taking care of their house, their dogs, and their mice while they are gone.

Merry Christmas!

Pre and Post Christmas News

Watching the Nativity at the Cardston West Stake Centre with the Sommerfeldts

Cardston Junior High had a family Christmas party this year. We had a rock concert from 3 awesome teachers with their kids on the drums, games, kid train rides, Santa Claus and food. It was a fun party.

Lucy is in the Cardston Elementary Junior Choir this year. They are truly amazing. I love the concerts.

 Hanna is in Senior Choir.

We were in Taber for Jill's basketball tournament so we were able to go to Sarah's youth choir concert. This was our first time hearing Kaela play the cello.  It was a great concert.

The concert fans

We had two rodeos over the break.

Jill and Hanna team roping in Claresholm. Lucy was the photographer.

Carly's barrel racing run

We went on a fun overnight trip to Great Falls with the Sommerfeldts.  We shopped, ate, swam at the Holiday Inn Express pool where we stayed, ate, shopped, ate, shopped and came home. When I stock up on my U.S. grocery shopping, I take it seriously. We almost had food on our laps on the way home:)

Carly with her new pajamas she bought. The ones she got on Christmas eve were about 2 feet too long.

Before we headed to church, we modeled our gifts from Grandma Carol.  Austin and I got new scripture cases.  Lucy and Carly got new dresses.  Jill and Hanna got new make-up bags, but they didn't model for us.

On New Year's Eve, we went to the Lewis's for a family Christmas party.  It was a fun time. No pictures to share.



We went to the ranch in Saskatchewan for 2 days to visit Joe and Joan.  Austin moved cows.  We watched Disney channel until we were braindead, and then went outside and played on the frozen creek.

The Lees came so we could go to the temple together.  Sarah, Rod, Austin and I did Sealings and Initiatories.  Jill, Kaela and Julia did Baptisms.  We had lunch in the cafeteria to celebrate Kaela's 16th birthday and to talk about her first date she was going to have that night. Thanks to Hanna and Taylor for staying home to entertain and feed the younger kids.

I love Christmas break. I love having my husband home for the whole break.

Christmas 2012

Santa Claus came to town...

Santa's deliveries:

Jill - new saddle (she has  been saving for months, so she had to send the money she saved to the North Pole and Santa covered the rest)

Hanna - new camera (since her Mom lost hers in the Redwood Forest)

Lucy - new dresser and a new watch

Carly - new dresser and a Figit Friend

Other highlights of our fantastic Christmas Day:

This picture has a really great story. It is a picture of me at Moroni's Quest with the Savior (President Low) taken by Boyd Leavitt (right?). Austin brought it out as the last present of Christmas morning.  Tears.

And now the rest of the story,
First, Barb Salmon called Austin and said she found this great picture and that he could use it for a gift.
Next, Dixie Bevans had the picture printed.
Then, Austin was at the bookstore looking for a frame, when he ran into Char Olsen.  He asked Char if she liked the frame he had found. She said, no, that won't do.  So she took the picture to Lethbridge to find a better frame.  She found a frame that was a match made in heaven.  It couldn't fit more perfectly.  Truly a highlight of Christmas.

This is a new Joseph Smith picture from Grandma and Grandpa Nunn who are serving their mission in Nauvoo.

* Kaylynn's birthday/Christmas gift: Bosch mixer (thanks to a screaming, awesome deal on Cyber Monday on amazon.com)

* Austin gave Kaylynn a toilet brush (a funny joke, it's a good thing he made it up for it with the other gifts)

*Austin was opening his gift which was supposed to be spur straps.  Instead he found a  leather tie down for Jeannie Logan in Colorado.  I ordered the spur straps and didn't even open them when they came. I just wrapped them. Order mix up.

*Carly won the prize for the most excited responses to every gift she opened. "This is just what I wished for", etc.

*We stayed home the whole day and just enjoyed the holiday together. We didn't even start a car. That's never happened before.

*We spent a few hours cleaning the girls' bedrooms to make a place for their new dressers. Not your usual Christmas Day activity, but very useful.

New tradition of the day:  Tree Gifts

(I learned this from Julie Andrews who was a guest on Rachel Ray the other day)

There was a small wrapped gift for each person in our family in the branches of the Christmas tree.  We opened them at the end of Christmas Day.  It gives you something to look forward to and puts a bookend on Christmas day (those were Julie's words).  I loved the idea. 

Thanks to all of the great gifts from friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents.

Christmas Eve 2012

Over the river and through the woods, to Sarah's house we go.

We had a great Christmas Eve celebration with the cousins.

This year's performance: Twas the Night Before Christmas

 We also had a Family Home Evening on Luke 2.  Then a white elephant gift game, thanks to Uncle Rod. The most wanted item: Axe girly body spray and crackle fingernail polish.

Driving back into the wind to our house to get new pajamas to wear to bed on Christmas Eve.