Dear Family and Friends,
When I was growing up my mother always sent out a lengthy Christmas letter updating family and friends about us kids and about our growing families. I love reading them and remembering those happy carefree days of childhood. I love receiving your cards, pictures, letters from others, SO this year I will try to share some of our memories of this past year and update you on our family growth.
First: We now have 30 grandchildren, had 3 since August and we now have 2 great-grandchildren. We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary next September and are revisiting many of our “memory” places during this year.
John and I still live at the yellow home in Orem, with our big front porch. We are involved in being Temple workers on Fridays, Ginny is a Primary teacher and loves that. John serves as a community volunteer at a Health Clinic and can use his language skills. Ginny is Captain of our DUP (Daughters of Utah Pioneers) Camp on the east side of Orem and both love Family History. We went on a cruise to Hawaii, from San Francisco in March with Ginny’s sister Sara, and went to England for a month this fall to help Beth’s family move, have a new baby, and to just visit.
We will now bore you to death with a summary of each of our wonderful families, but if I don’t write it down we won’t remember it all! And I’m not giving you all the fun birthday dinners, family camping, field trips, etc. that we’ve done.
Christie and Mike Hardy still have 5 sons and a daughter, but they are mostly all grown up and live in Orem. Jeff and Emily now have two beautiful children, Lucy and Garrett. Kevin, Brandon and Hunter are all adults and working and living at home. They love their jeeps, camping, computer games, and their two dogs, Radar and Rikku. TyLynne is a freshman at BYU and loves ballroom dance, competes with two different partners and performs on her class and the summer back-up team. Austin is a Junior at Orem High School, bored to death with school, likes ballroom and working at Maverick (likes earning money). Christie is an RN and works in NICU and Labor and Delivery at Orem Community Hospital (sometimes at the Valley). Mike is recuperating from Pneumonia and works at Home Depot when well.
Jeanette and James Allan are still living in Laguna Hills, California. Kyla has graduated from BYU and works in Utah county when she is not home visiting. Chris studies at Saddleback College at home. They love to travel, visit family and friends, and all love the Japanese language and culture. Jeanette works at the Family History Center in her stake and is very good at finding sources for our ancestors.
Julianne and Everett Hoffmann are very busy working and raising their four beautiful daughters. Niki is 16 and a junior at Provo High School. She is in Air Force JROTC and is taking a CNA course, so she can help her Grandma Hoffmann and others. Cami is a freshman and plays the trumpet in the Provo band. She marched in her first parade on the 4th of July. Paris is 12 and attended Girls Camp this summer and loves mutual. Megan is a very precocious 10 year old and has lots of friends.
Beth and Gohar Nisar were blessed with their 7th child October 3rd and moved into a new house on September 23rd, the day that Grandma and Grandpa Ball arrived. They are much closer now to their office and have a beautiful 2 story, red brick Victorian home with a nice garden and parking area. Elly (13) is in Secondary School and doing very well academically and also making good friends. Russell (11), Nate (9), Cailey (7), and Shenna(5) are all in Primary School and love learning, playing outside and watching old movies (like Court Jester). Sam is now 3 and adores his little brother Thaddeus. The best thing about the new house, besides having 4 toilets, 6 bedrooms, etc. is that it is 3 doors from the Church in Doncaster.
Mike and Robin Ball are busily involved in Scouting and Young Men’s, which is great since they have 4 very active boys. James is almost 9 and a super lego creater, Daniel is 7, Andrew will soon be 5, and Derek is 2. They love to camp, play in the snow, travel to see family in California, and even go to school. They also enjoy musicals and love Cub Scouts and playing with friends and cousins.
Carol and her two children, Jonathan and Crystal are in Boise, Idaho. Carol is studying English Literature and Jonathon is a 10th grader and Crystal a 7th grader this year. Crystal loved girls camp and Pioneer Trek this summer with her ward in Orem. Jonathan continues to love learning, especially about History. They went to school in Orem for the 2015-16 year and are going to school in Boise this year. We saw them at Thanksgiving and loved playing games and watching the original Miracle on 34th Street with them, also watched White Christmas but they weren’t quite so impressed. This year they are baking “cookies for cops” this year to help feel the spirit of Christmas. The kids will be here in Orem with their dad for Christmas.
Shelly and Scott Sackett made a big change this year. Scott has taught 7th grade Math for the last 5 years and transferred to Orem High School this fall and is the Drama teacher and also teaches 3 math classes. Scott directed his first show – Lucky Stiff, this fall and it was a delightful musical comedy. He also had his tonsils out on the 5th of July, then traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland and participated in the Fringe Festival(singing and performing with a group from Utah County). On his way home, Shelly delivered their beautiful daughter, Hazel Eileen and he watched on Face Time. The three brothers, Taylor (6), Zach (almost 5), and Aaron (almost 3) all love their little sister. Shelly stays very busy helping Scott, getting the kids to and from school, dance lessons, piano, etc.
Anna and Nate Burch are the proud parents of a beautiful, but tiny daughter Naomi. She was born December 2nd and is a very special addition to their family. Nate and Anna are helping with instruction for Self Reliance in their Ward and Nate is also in the Ward Sunday School. Anna just finished being Girls Camp Director for the last 2 years. She is a RN and works for a Provo OB/GYN clinic and will work a day or two after her long maternity leave. Nathan was able to go to Peru this fall with the men in his family and pick up his brother from his mission.
We feel very blessed this Christmas season as we remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the great gift that the Father gave us, of sending his Son to this earth. Christmas is a wonderful time of giving and living as He would want us to do. As we spread kind acts of service to others and enjoy the love of our family and friends, may we remember Him and His great love for us.
We love hearing from so many of you and know the blessings of this Season will be with all who seek Him. Love, Ginny and John Ball
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