Hello all to our good family and friends,
With so many things to do this time of year, I just about accomplished it all (and even more than I thought I had energy for being 9 months pregnant), just about everything except my yearly family christmas letter that is.
We just finished a wonderful day of opening presents, playing games and eating a delicious Christmas dinner, but my day would not be finished without sending out warm wishes to all of you where ever you may be.
Just a quick recap on our ever-growing family:
-John continues to enjoy serving his country, or at least his countries' dental needs here in Okinawa, Japan. But after being part of the military family for over 5 years, we have made the tough decision and will be departing not only from Japan this coming summer, but from the military. John is actively seeking out opportunities and practices that he would like to buy, and with that comes lots of research, prayers, more research and some serious planning to make it all come together. He has been super active with his road cycling buddies, traveling the island and seeing the sights. He is now Cub Master and is really enjoying spending time helping Ben with his cub scout requirements, and it's been fun to watch how close these guys are getting. He recently was scuba certified and enjoyed having his mom come and visit us and go scuba diving with him.
-Melissa, who hopes to have a new buddle of joy, sometime between now and the new year (you know, for tax reasons ;) ) has been pretty busy driving her kids around back and forth to gymnastics and violin lessons. Even though she had to discontinue teaching dance once she got pregnant, she still keeps pretty busy... (okay, weird to be writing this in third person)....I have been busy most days running the house, working in my church callings, tending kids, growing babies in my tummy, and writing a novel...which is almost done and in which I hope to be sending out to agents soon. Wish me luck! I am still a free-lance writer for our local military paper here, and for the Mormon Women Project (www.mormonwomen.com) but haven't written much the past few months as I am trying to just save what energy I can muster when kids get home from school. And believe me, I don't seem to have much energy these days...all the more reason to have this baby...it's a boy BTW, and we still need to pick a name!
-Ben, who recently turned 8 years old, was baptized, and has taken this new responsibility of being a member of our church very seriously. It's great to see him get excited about the scriptures and the stories and to grasp the deeper meanings and morals. In the past year, he was diagnosed with Aspergers ( a high-functioning form of Autism) and ADHD (the reason I need to save my energy so that I can match his. :) ) But with even with all of that, Ben has come along way and has really surprised us with his love for school work and writing (that honestly was a surprise to us). His teacher put him in a special class for writers because she was so impressed with his writing skills and stories. Ben has been taking violin this past year and has really excelled there, but his favorite thing to go to gymnastics. He has no fear when it comes to doing flips, tumbles and back flips also.
-Bella, who will be 6 in a few weeks, is our dainty little princess. She graces our home often with her singing songs or ballet dance moves. She is a great older sister to Amelia and they play so well together. She loves kindergarten and loves even more her new skill of reading and discovering the world of words around her. She also has really done well in her classes and has a great memory for learning Japanese, and knows more than I think any of us do. She's smart, inquisitive and has John completely wrapped around her finger....oh the things she can get him to do for her! She also enjoys playing the violin, piano and her gymnastics class also.
-Amelia, ( 3.5 years )known more commonly as Messy-Mia. You can find Mia running and jumping around our house, usually in her underwear....I swear I need to duct-tape her clothes on, but dressing her several times a day gets old fast. She loves to follow Bella around mostly and mimic and copy Bella almost word-for-word at times. Mia goes to preschool a few days a week, and has really developed her artistic and cutting skills. In fact most days, if she finds my scissors (which she always seem to find my scissors no matter how hard I try to keep them from her), you can find my floors covered in small pieces of paper as she loves to cut triangles and other shapes. This girl loves nothing more than to paint and take gymnastics too and even though she is the smallest in class, she by far displays some amazing skills.
We have really enjoyed our time here in japan and have learned to really love and appreciate the people and the culture and will really have a hard time leaving our good friends and this beautiful island. But we are excited for the new adventures that await us as we make the transition back to civilian life and settle down hopefully for a long time.
We hope this letter finds you all in happy spirits and we hope that you all have a Merry Christmas!
The Petrini's
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