Christmas Greetings

Family and Friends,

Happy Holidays! We hope that this letter has found you all doing well this season. We have had a very full year. We started the year off with a temporary move to Colorado. We were just waiting to find out about medical school and most of our stuff was already in storage. We thought that it would be a great time to be closer to my family for a short while. Ryan was able to take a leave of absence from the hospital and work for my dad, and we lived in my Oma’s basement. We enjoyed it so much! Maja and Faja (my parents) were just down the road, not to mention the great experience it was for Kaylie and James to bond with their great-grandmother. How many kids get the chance to do that?

Our time was short because we found out the 1st week of April that Ryan was accepted to The University of Utah Medical School! Words can’t express the joy and relief that was felt with that 2-page letter. The blood sweat and tears that were spent (The down payment) to get in had finally been enough. We quickly found a nice condo, won a bidding war and were in escrow in a weekend. Two weeks before closing there was a horrible fire in the unit above what was soon to be our home. Many homes were destroyed. We redrew the contract and decided we would wait for it to be restored… the market for nice, cheep real estate is hard to come by in the Salt Lake Valley. The wait was much much longer than the contractor expected and we decided it was time to move on. As luck, fate or otherwise would have it we received a phone call in early September that our name had come up, after six months, on the waiting list for student housing. We moved in 2 weeks later. We are in heaven. We love our new place. There are lots of medical school families as well as other student families. Ryan’s commute went from a 1 ½ hour bus ride each way to a five minute walk! We see him so much more and the community is like no other.

Ryan has successfully completed his first block of classes of medical school with little stress. He truly loves what he is doing. He also participated in intramural basketball with some other fellow 1st year med-students and had a great time. In Church Ryan is currently serving in the Elder’s Quorum Presidency as the secretary.

Kaylie is 3 ½ now and growing and maturing every second. She is such a sweet girl and loves to be with her brother. She has many new friends in our neighborhood and can’t wait to play with all of them. She is attending preschool twice a week in the morning. She is learning her alphabet, numbers and much more. She can write the letters of her name although they don’t always quite make it in the right order.

James is 15 months old. He is also very sweet but is very rough. He is always throwing, hitting jumping, climbing, riding, or wrestling something or someone. His smile makes up for any mishap that comes along.

I am staying very busy with all of the activities Ryan and kids have going on and running the home. The ladies in the neighborhood have card making club, book club, exercising club, and more. I have fun being involved in whatever I can. I am also serving in church, once again in the primary presidency, this time as the secretary.

We are so thankful for all of the blessings we have in our lives especially the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is our prayer that we may all take the time to remember Him, whose birth we celebrate. Merry Christmas and best wishes for the coming year!

Love Always,
Ryan, Annette, Kaylie, and James