Dear Friends and Family,
It’s that time of year again, when Kaerlig is extremely busy with all kinds of Christmas preparations, and she just asks one thing of me: writing a Christmas missive to all our friends and family. In spite of only having one simple job, each year I struggle with this assignment, because I can’t stand to write a generic letter. I try angle after angle, ranging from the trite to the sarcastic, until I run out of time and just puke something out. Then Kaerlig edits it and makes it palatable enough for printing.
In many ways this pattern is congruent with the way we do most things. She makes everything better. Along those lines, here are some of the ways Kaerlig made the year better for each of us:
Ellie graduated from Timpview High School in the spring and moved into the dorms at BYU to begin her college studies as a fine arts student. She and Kaerlig became close friends this year and bonded over the show Gilmore Girls. In many ways Ellie’s transition into college has paralleled the mother/daughter relationship in that show, which was amusing for me to observe from the sidelines. Ellie is a very good student full of promise, determination, and focus. She loves to run, she’s good to her roommates, and she’s creative. All of these are traits she inherited from her mother.
Davey finished his missionary service after spending time as both a proselyting missionary in Columbia, South Carolina and a service missionary here in Provo. He is now enrolled at UVU majoring in English, and working part-time at our shop. I’ve enjoyed spending more time with him on projects, and watching him grow in knowledge and stature. We are very proud of Davey. He dutifully faces his challenges with courage. You know who else does that? His mom does, that’s who.
Rainer is now a student at UVU. He’s studying Geography with a Geographic Information Systems certificate. He isn’t sure what he wants to do for a living yet, but he knows he wants to spend lots of time in nature. When he was a little boy he hated hiking in nature, but Kaerlig insisted on doing lots of it and now he can’t imagine life behind a desk. Rainer also was married to his sweetheart Breanna on May 14th. That was definitely the best day of the year. Breanna is almost finished with her Bachelor degree in the Medical Laboratory Science program at BYU. We all love her.
Kaerlig hasn’t been able to run the way she used to, so instead she’s taken to hiking the Y a few times a week. She just completed her 400th hike to the Y a few days ago. I’m only 399 times behind her. I’ll catch up soon. Kaerlig is an awesome accountant and manager at our store, where we recently celebrated 20 years in business. Without her it would surely have imploded long ago. She is also a temple worker which she really enjoys and for which she somehow never complains about waking up at 4am.
As for me, it’s been a pretty good year. I’m finishing up the last few assignments before graduation from SUU with a Bachelor of General Studies. In January I start a masters program. One of my short-stories was published recently in an anthology that nobody is ever going to read, but it’s published nonetheless. I’ve been really enjoying college this time around, and if it weren’t for Kaerlig suggesting I do it, it never would have happened. That’s about it. Merry Christmas!
Love,
The Hurtados
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