Train around the Christmas tree

However, things do not always work out as planned…

Paul and Megan's wedding reception in Driggs, Idaho

This is our fourth annual Christmas Letter blog post. We will send the URL to this page to friends and family with their Christmas cards. We have added a few events that happened too late in the season to be included in last year’s letter.

December 2010

Missionary Dan returned home from his mission. He came bearing gifts from afar and reported his mission in sacrament meeting.
A day after Daniel returned he attended Jake and Rachel’s marriage in the Bountiful Temple.

United States Capitol, Washington D.C.

Spring

Daniel got a cool new girlfriend.
We had The Best Easter ever.
Toured the Carl Bloch: The Master’s Hand exhibition and the Model Railroad Festival.

Summer

We took a few local hikes, for example Ford Canyon and Shepard Creek Trail. We also camped at North Fork Park.
Checked up on the Spiral Jetty.
Went to the obligatory parades.
We took our grandchildren to the zoo to see the dinosaurs.
Took a trip to the Mesa Easter Pageant and the Grand Canyon. Jill really enjoyed her trip, as did we all. Daniel and Jill toured Washington D.C. with the Kent Ward family.
Rick surprised Jill with an anniversary trip to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn.
Paul and Megan were engaged. They married in the Rexburg Temple.

Fall

Jake and Rachel moved into their new home.

As we celebrate what really matters this Christmas season, we share with you some of James Tissot’s paintings to illustrate the birth of Christ, along with scriptures from Matthew and Luke.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas,

Rick and Jill

Jake and Rachel at the Bountiful Temple

Hi Friends and Family,

This is our third annual Christmas Letter blog post. We will send the URL to this page to friends and family with their Christmas cards. It has been a great year for our family. Here are a few highlights:

Steven and Adelaide welcomed a new baby, Cassandra Ruth Willoughby (Cassie) in June. Aurora had her first birthday party in February and is a good big sister. They are enjoying their new home. If you go on over to Ada Shot Me there is a fun video to watch about Cassandra.

Derek was able to obtain employment in Utah so he and Sarah loaded up the U-Haul and moved back home. Grandparents are so happy that Bryson is able to visit more often and play with all the toys and cousins. We enjoyed his second birthday party by building and racing balloon cars.

Paul and Jake graduated from the University of Utah in Computer Engineering. They are both working for Hill Air Force Base and have traveled to Texas twice already for a project they worked on.

Paul, working on one of his many projects, made use of some empty barrels.

Robert and his 80th Birthday Cake

Jake announced his engagement to Rachel and they will be married December 15th in the Bountiful temple. Rachel is a beautiful young woman and is attending Weber University in Family Studies. After a cruise honeymoon to the Bahamas they will live in Roy.

Rick and Jill celebrated 30 years of marriage in August. Earlier in the year they visited Sarah’s family in Texas and toured the Cowboys Stadium, Battleship Texas, San Jacinto Monument, and the Johnson Space Center.

In March Rick and Jake visited all the California and Nevada temples during Spring break. They did a year’s worth of temple work in less than a week. One of Jake’s photographs that he took on the trip was used by the Church on its temples home page at lds.org.

Daniel, our youngest, is coming home after serving his mission in three different missions — Alabama, Mongolia and Washington. He will have served 2 years and 47 days (not that we are counting). Daniel will come home December 14th just in time to attend his brother’s wedding.

Rick planned a fun 30th anniversary trip for us to the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City where Jill got to see Pride and Prejudice and other plays.

Jill has been on two fun trips with her extended family. In June we traveled on the Skunk Train in the California Redwoods. In October we celebrated our Dad’s 80th birthday by going on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Carnival Cruise line Splendor. We enjoyed the Extreme Canopy Zip Line in Puerto Vallarta, a city tour in Mazatlan, shopping and snorkeling in Cabo San Lucas and tons of great food and fun. We were joined at a family dinner at Maddox by other family members for the historic 80th birthday.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas,

Rick and Jill

Nativity scene at Temple Square during a photowalk

My brother Mike took part in the Holiday Light Clinic and Temple Square Photowalk last night. His photograph is of the largest of several nativity scenes that sits beneath a star directly east of the Salt Lake Temple.

Writes LDS Newsroom:

In an annual tradition to mark this most Christian of holidays, the switch was flipped the day after Thanksgiving on a glittering display of light and color on Temple Square and on the nearby plazas of the Church.

The largest Nativity scene, directly east of the Salt Lake Temple, is a display featuring lifelike figures of Joseph, Mary and the Christ child in a stable, with shepherds tending their flocks nearby and wise men following the star to Bethlehem.

Accompanying this Nativity scene is a soundtrack relating the biblical account of the holy night and songs by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with brief remarks by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, who speaks of Latter-day Saints’ love for Jesus Christ.

Mike said that 141 people took part in the light clinic and photowalk. See more of Mike’s Temple Square photoshoot.

Merry Christmas from Rick and Jill

Hi Friends and Family,

Here is our second Christmas blog post. We will send to friends and family the URL to this page with their Christmas cards. It has been a very busy year and here are a few highlights:

Steven and Adelaide had a baby girl, Aurora, born in February. They just bought their first home in Layton. It was good timing as they announced the arrival of baby number two due June 26th.

Jill, Kent, Susan, Melissa, Shauna, Scott, Connor and Ashley took our dad on a trip to Nevada’s Virginia City to ride the historic steam-engine on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Some of us went on a river raft trip while the others rode across Lake Tahoe on the Emerald Bay Sightseeing Cruise.

Sarah and Derek moved to Keller, Texas. Rick, Paul and Jill drove down to visit in March. We enjoyed the sights in Dallas and Fort Worth and Rick published a book about the historic water park there. Jill flew down in October to help Bryson celebrate his first birthday. We enjoyed a mini vacation visiting the Alamo in San Antonio.

Adelaide graduated in May with a Bachelor’s degree in English. She managed to finish school while being pregnant and having a baby so they graduated together.

Daniel is serving in the Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia mission and has helped construct a ger, taught English, and helped baptize the good people there.

Aurora starred in “All Things Bright And Beautiful”

Paul is graduating this month in Computer Engineering from the University of Utah. He hopes to work at Hill Air Force Base or maybe stay where he is, working for Avalon Care Centers. Jake is studying in the same field and will graduate in May.

And Jake went skydiving.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas,

Rick and Jill

Rick, Jill, Steven, Adelaide, Aurora, Paul, Sarah, Bryson, Jake, and Derek at Alexandra's wedding.

Christmas is over and it is way too early to begin this year’s celebrations but the Christmas card to the right really does capture the blogger mindset. On the inside of the card is the message, “Here’s hoping your holidays are notable” — emphasis mine, in case you missed the continuation of the blogging theme. There are several other greeting cards to choose from in The Wondermark Goodsery. There is also a Wondermark blog.

What do you think the other shepherds said in response to their blogger brother?

Yeah right, there’s no wi-fi way out here.

This is big! I told you to get an AdSense account.

If the angel comes back again make sure you get his picture.

You can do better than rickety old me. What do you think the other shepherds said to the blogger?

This rickety blog is closed for the

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS

If you want something to read try Jill’s Christmas Letter.

Here is the somewhat rickety forecast for the week:

Another storm will arrive Monday afternoon into Tuesday. A third storm will brush southern Utah on Wednesday, with the next significant storm arriving here along the Wasatch Front and in Northern Utah around Friday.

As always, here in Utah we are grateful for the snow and the water it brings. I’m also glad I won’t have to contend with a storm Monday morning. With the snow falling and the tree decorated it really feels like Christmas. Now if I could just get my gift buying wrapped up I could really enjoy the season.

Hi Friends and Family,

Instead of mailing a Christmas letter, we decided to do something different this year and post it to our blog. We will send to friends and family the URL to this page with their Christmas cards. It has been a very busy year and here are a few highlights:

Steven and Adelaide were married in the Salt Lake temple March 11th.

Jill, Susan, Shauna, Scott, Connor and Ashley took our dad on a trip to Colorado to ride the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in April.

Mike, Rick, Jill, Steven, Adelaide and Paul took a trip to Zion National Park in May.

Daniel, our last child, graduated from high school after helping win the State Track Championship.

Rick and Jill celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary in August with a trip to Cedar City and the Shakespearean Festival.

Jake returned home from the Mexico City North Mission August 27th.

Sarah and Derek had our first grandchild, Bryson Henry Moss on October 6th.

The boys took a Utah Temples Tour of all thirteen Utah temples in October. Follow the story on Day 1 and Day 2 and continue through Day 3 and Day 4.

Daniel left for a mission to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia October 29th. He will be in the MTC for twelve weeks and will leave for Mongolia January 19th.

Derek got a job in Texas where they will be relocating next year. Know anyone that wants to buy their house in Kaysville?

Paul and Jake are studying for Computer Engineering degrees at the University of Utah.

Steven and Adelaide announced a baby girl is expected on Valentine’s Day.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas,

Rick and Jill