Merry Christmas from the Pedersens!

Happy Holidays from the Pedersens! It has been a great year for our family. We hope it has been for yours as well.  We’re excited to share some of the highlights with you…

Dan (the Man):  Dan enjoying his second year of working at Liberty Press selling advertising for hunting and fishing publications.  He is serving as the High Priest Group Leader in our ward at church and enjoys his calling.  He has gained a great love for the widows of our ward and goes out visiting them almost every week.  Dan had a successful year with his favorite hobby (obsession): hunting.  He and his friend, Gordon made their annual trek to South Dakota (thank you Lyons family for being their home away from home!) in November for white tail deer and pheasant.  He got the biggest white tail he’s ever gotten (a 5 x 5, scored approx.150) and they maxed out on their pheasants in two hours. He also got an antelope in Wyoming and is looking forward to some elk hunting with his boys this Christmas. He loves to take the family up the canyon near our home for shooting practice. It has become a fun family activity. He is a proud daddy and grandpa and will talk to anyone who will listen about his kids and grandkids, hunting, and/or sports. If you take into account how much he’s on the telephone with friends and how often he cries (even in commercials), you might join the rest of us in thinking this big, burly guy is really a big teddy bear.

Karen (that’s me!):  I continue to love my scrapbooking (Close To My Heart) business and am coming up on 20 years with the company in January. How did that happen? I must have started when I was 10! I was given the “Spirit of Close To My Heart” award at our national convention in Dallas this past July.  It was a huge shock and honor. The company even flew Dan, Kori and Daci in to surprise me on stage. As if having my name announced for the award weren’t enough, having some of my family members walk out on stage just about put me over the edge and I definitely went into the ugly cry. I seriously thought I was having a heart attack.  I am so grateful for this great company and the people who make it what it is! In addition to Close To My Heart I have had a new opportunity come my way.  A brand new direct sales quilting company (My Lazy Daisy…they do beautiful quilting kits) contacted me to do a little bit of work for them training their consultants in September. After that work was completed they offered me the position of Director of Sales and Marketing. This company is going places! It is owned by two sisters (Dana and Diane) who are both amazing people and wonderful to work with.  I work from home (most of the time) and am able to work around my scrapbooking business. I work on My Lazy Daisy’s advertising materials, catalog, website, social marketing, etc. I still work with their training department as well.  I really like both of my jobs and am so grateful for them.  I also enjoyed a getaway (courtesy of Close To My Heart) for a week-long cruise to Hawaii in March with Dawson.  We had a blast. I am serving as the Young Women’s President at church.

Kori, Rick, Daci, Livvi and Street:  As you can tell by the additional names on the list this year, the Roberts family is growing. They nearly doubled themselves this past year with the birth of twins in January: Livvi Maren and Street Frederick.  Dan and I are such proud grandparents.  We do have the three most beautiful grandkids in the history of all mankind…and we are not the least bit biased. My mom (the kids' great-grandma) and I got to go to Chicago for the birth of the babies and stay for 3 weeks to help. Rick continues to stay on top of the IT consulting world working with Paraveda in Chicago and is in the Sunday School presidency at church. He is a wonderful hubby and daddy too. Kori is a stay-at-home mommy and teaches Relief Society at church.  She has also joined a group of moms who do a pre-school and they take turns teaching. They are doing a great job. We are so impressed with the wonderful things they are teaching these little ones.  Kori continues to amaze us with all that she has on her plate as well as dealing with lupus. Daci is so excited to be in pre-school this year. She is full of life and fun, and more than a little mischief. Daci’s big “accomplishment” this year was finding a pair of children’s plastic scissors and proceeding to give herself a new haircut. If you are wondering what it looked like, well…if any of you have seen “Joe Dirt.” Enough said.  It is finally growing back out. Yay! We are so excited that the Roberts will be in Utah for Christmas this year.

Easton and Daysha:  We call these two our “power couple.”  They just never slow down. Daysha spent the first part of the year teaching dance at a local studio.  In March she auditioned again for Tuachan (a marvelous outdoor theater in St. George, UT) and was selected for roles in both “Hairspray” and Disney’s “Aladdin”. She was wonderful in both. When those plays came to an end she was chosen for a featured part in Odyssey Dance Company’s “Thriller” which was performed during October.  She was also cast as one of the four female leads for a movie re-make of the LDS musical, “My Turn On Earth.”  She will be playing Gloria. That is scheduled to begin shooting the first part of 2013, so watch for it!  Daysha teaches Relief Society at church.  Easton is in school at Southern Utah University majoring in Hospitality and Resort Management.  He also just finished his sophomore year on the SUU football team at receiver. He had an amazing year. I think the highlight of his season was getting to score the team’s last touchdown of the year as they beat Northern Arizona University in three overtimes. He even dove into the end zone, just for style points! Easton worked for the forest service this Summer where he supervised his own crew. He teaches Gospel Doctrine at church.  Easton and Daysha have a darling apartment in Cedar City, UT and we love going to visit. They will celebrate their 2^nd wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks.

Tannon had quite the year!  He finished his 2-year mission for our church in Malaga, Spain the end of August and returned home.  We are still trying to get him to speak English. He loved his mission and was a great missionary.  Coming “home” wasn’t what it was for most missionaries, as we had moved from Highland to Springville, UT during his mission. He was such a good sport about it.  He did get to return to give his homecoming talk at our old ward in Highland and it was so great for all of us to see the people we had lived by and loved during our time in Highland for the past 17 years.  Tannon returned with the same energy and gusto that he has always had. He jumped right into working out and preparing to start school and his football scholarship in January at Southern Utah University.  He moved to Cedar City in October and promptly found a job at a vintage movie theater in town.  They still thread the films through the old projectors, which is Tannon’s job. Pretty cool.  He is so exited for Spring football to start so that he can be out throwing balls with the team.  He said being a quarterback was the thing he missed most on his mission. “What?” I thought, “What about us?” Probably safer not to ask him. I’m hoping he’s excited for his collegiate education to begin as well. {Wink}. I wonder if there is a QB major?

Dawson is in his Senior year at Springville High School. Go Red Devils! Dan and I are so sad to see this last ‘baby’ of ours nearing his flight from the nest.  We are savoring every moment before it happens. He is such a delight to have around, full of fun and laughter, and oh-so-sweet to his mommy!  Dawson had a great football season and was the leading receiver on the team.  He was so sad when the season ended, as were we. It’s hard to realize we have watched our boys play their last high school football game.  Luckily, Dawson also plays basketball. Yay!  We started our season off this week with a win and hope that trend continues for the rest of the season.  Dawson got a job this Fall and Winter refereeing the bantam basketball games (3-8^th grade) in our county. He loves it.  He is excited to begin working on his application papers for his mission soon and plans to leave this Summer.  We are all anticipating where he may be sent.  When he was 4 years old he told us he knew where he was going on his mission when he grew up. We all said, “Really? Where?”  His reply, “Jurassic Park!”  Hmmmm. Dawson enjoyed a very fun week with his mother on a week-long cruise to Hawaii in March. Sometimes it pays to be the baby of the family! His favorite part of the trip was swamping their kayak on a trip through a jungle river on Kauaii.  He swears it wasn’t his fault. His mother swears otherwise.

If you are still with me after all of that, please accept our warmest holiday wishes.  We are so grateful for the best family and friends anyone could ever ask for. We are also grateful every day, and especially this time of year for our Savior, Jesus Christ and his life and sacrifice for each of us.  May we all do our best to live up to it every day!

Warmly,

The Pedersens