Happy Holidays from the Scotts

Like millions of other Americans, we indulge in the yearly tradition of writing down all the tedious details of our lives and sending it out as a Christmas letter to friends and family. Here's this year's attempt. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Scott family!

Jeremiah turned three this Halloween and has worked hard all year on the job of growing up and copying his older brother. They are getting along better than ever now that Jeremiah can keep up with the running, jumping, talking, and pretending. Jeremiah loves scooting around on his tricycle and greets dad each evening at the door with “Let’s play blocks!” He graduated from crib to big bed this year and likes to sing along with the hymns at church.

Hyrum moved from preschool to kindergarten in September and has made amazing progress in reading, writing and drawing. He started swimming lessons and learned to ride his bike in one day! He is a good playmate to Jeremiah and loves attention from anyone who will give it. Hyrum is a very articulate and friendly child who likes to read books and collect paper, boxes, and anything else he can lay his hands on!

James enjoys his job at Coldwater Creek where he helps design inventory management systems. He and Kayla spent two weeks this May hiking in France, exploring villages and a national park. James loves the Idaho summers and got in plenty of kayaking, gardening, landscaping and hiking this year. He continues to sing with a vocal ensemble, Wild Mountain Thyme, and also participates in community choir and other groups during the year. This winter he is learning woodworking and has joined an indoor soccer league.

Kayla has been as busy as usual this year, with one major exception: she is expecting our first baby girl in late January! We can’t wait for this new little arrival to bless our home. Kayla teaches 17 piano students and music classes at the kindergarten and preschool. She and James have done several home improvement projects such as painting and replacing flooring. Kayla serves in church as Enrichment counselor in the Relief Society and Activity Days leader for 8-11year old girls.

Our family was joined in December by Clémence, an exchange student from France. She is a senior in high school and keeps our house lively with her sociable nature and sense of humor. Clémence enjoys skiing, drama class and visiting with friends. She played soccer this fall and keeps busy with different activities through her sponsor, the Rotary Club. The boys enjoy having a big sister, and we all appreciate Clémence’s presence in our home.

Add comment December 25th, 2006

Small Kindnesses Remembered

My grandmother passed away last night. She was 91 years old.

Small kindnesses when I was a child come back to me now. Grandma had a drawer in her apartment where she kept her small stock of toys. Buttons on strings that you wound and spun. A set of iron horseshoes joined with a small chain, a game of trying to untangle what looks to be an impossible knot in the chain. At some point, Grandma had an ostrich puppet on strings, a fascinating creature with awkward movements made more ungainly by our childish manipulations.

Other memories, mostly from childhood: eating thick wheat pancakes that absorbed syrup faster than I could pour it, set out on heavy blue glass plates that I was afraid I would drop. Arriving one winter’s evening from our rainy home in Oregon and finding snow on the ground, then running about the apartment courtyard throwing snowballs with my cousins. The intense, biting pain of afterwards coming in and warming my gloveless hands.

Later, as a teenager, arguing with my dad and slamming the door at Grandma’s house. He yells, I sulk. Grandma listens and finds a moment to give me quiet words, the words of a peacemaker.

We all find ways of accommodating the circumstances of our lives, bridging the gap between what we expect out of life and the realities of mortality. For as long as I can remember, Grandma was limited by her health. To my young mind, her life was confined, shaped by the walls of her own home and her own reaction to pain and discomfort. Having not yet crossed that bridge, I have little perspective from which to judge her life, other than the trinkets of childhood and stray memories from visits over the years.

“Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.” --- John Muir

Add comment December 18th, 2006