Gabriel – I can’t believe it’s already Christmas time again. It sure seems as if the older I get, the faster the years seem to go. Christmas season always brings extra excitement and a little chaos. More importantly, however, I find it a time to visit with family and friends, and a time to reflect on the importance of the birth of our Savior and think on how blessed we are to be able to learn of Him and His gospel. I have been able to teach Sunday school at church to ages 8-11 this past year and have really enjoyed it. They seem to enjoy my class as well, but I think it’s only because I bring them snacks. I grateful that the electrical business has been good for us this past year and am glad for the flexibility running a business offers. In beginning of the year we had Hannah and were able to experience a bit of Korean culture and food, and we shared with her some of our ours as well. Jennifer and I have taken several camping trips with family and friends and love the outdoors together. We have been able to attend many concerts and make all kinds of excuses to take weekend trips out of town. We always have friends stop by and are always glad to welcome old and new friends into our home. During the summer I was able to attend scout camp and have been able to go camping several other times with the scouts as well. Because we felt like we are definitely not busy enough (j/k) we decided to host another exchange student, Saskia. Since Jennifer is originally from Germany, I was excited to learn more of the German culture and show her our culture. She introduced me to some German cooking and holiday traditions we will probably keep in our family. She has been a great joy to have around and I often tease her that she makes it seem like whatever she is doing is fun. I am looking forward to next year with optimism and gladness.
Jennifer – This year has been a crazy one. Really crazy. I contemplated skipping this year’s letter, but when I thought about it there was much joy amongst all the craziness. So here are some of my favorite high lights of 2010. We have done a ton of camping this year. We have visited Goose Island, McKinney Falls, and Lake CC to name a few. But I think most of my free time has been spent at some amazing country concerts. This year I had the opportunity to see Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum, Howie Day, Willie Nelson, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Kevin Fowler (a few times), Roger Creager, Rich O Toole, Ryan Beaver, and Eli Young Band. Throughout this year it is amazing to me how much music has helped me express myself. One of the coolest things that has happened all year is that I appeared in a Kevin Fowler Music Video. Still makes me smile when I think about it. We also had a few visitors my Aunt Judy and Family came for St. Patties, my sister for Easter, our friends Jonathan, Oscar, and Jacob with His Family all stopped by and most recently my Mama came for my birthday. Who herself had a great year, because she graduated from college and we are so proud of her. As every year we had a few hurricanes to watch for and although Alex gave us a scare we made it through safely. I had another year in Young Women’s and was able to attend both Youth Conference and Girls Camp with my amazing girls. I love how close we are and I could not picture life without them. Hannah left us in mid May and in July we received Saskia. We have loved having her every minute she has been a member of our family. She has been the biggest blessing we have had all year. She fits right into our craziness and adds a little of her own. This year we finally made it to the State Fair and were able to show Saskia some real Texas fun. We also added another family member, a hamster, which Saskia named TB – for Taco Bell of course. But most of all throughout this year and all the craziness, I have come to better understand the atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the role He plays in my life. And I know that without him I would have not made it through this year.
Saskia - The last half year, was probably the most exciting ever. It all started at July,18th,2010. I flew to Boston, Massachusetts and stayed there for two weeks and after that I flew to Corpus Christi. All excited I meet the Oliva’s and I directly knew we going to have an awesome time together. On my first night in Corpus Christi, Jennifer and I went to a Kevin Fowler Concert, it was awesome and the perfect start for a perfect time. We as a Family had so much fun together, we went up to Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, we went Camping, we‘ve been fishing, we celebrate mine and Jennifer’s Birthday together at the Beach and ah I think I can’t even tell ya’ll how much we did and what a big experience it is for me . Now we going to celebrate Christmas together and it’s kind of the ending for my Exchange Year. When I have to think of all this great time, I’m so glad and thankful that I got the opportunity to stay with this incredible, nice and friendly and funny family. I’m also thankful to be able to go to Church here with Jennifer and Gabriel. It’s always so much fun and the Youth are really nice. I’m also very glad to got to know Jasmin, she is so important here for me and also the Missionaries, which gave me an idea of the Church of Latter-day Saints . I hope that you all are going to have a great Christmas and want to thank you all for making my time in America just unforgettable.
Merry Christmas– Froehliche Weihnachten. ♥
We wish your family a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
With Much Love,
The Oliva Family
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