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No silly readers, not the end of the blog, it's only the end of the year! We've had a great 2009. Below is a recap of our wonderful year.

"We too have had an exciting and challenging year. The recession has impacted everyone, and for the first time, Jim’s company felt the sting. Although there were no lay offs, hiring for any new positions required a lengthy process and this resulted in a vacancy in Jim’s group for over 5 months. Jim and the other 4 people that report to him did a lot more travelling than normal. Sometimes, Melanie thought she was a widow living alone in Texas.

Jim was released as Gospel Principles teacher in February, and continues without a calling (this has been a blessing to Melanie when she was in Nursery so he could help out). We both continue to support our Ward Choir, although, because of Jim’s travel, we did not participate in the Christmas program for the first time in 8 years.

Melanie was released as Nursery Leader in May, and quickly called to Sunbeam teacher in June. She has between 12 and 16 Sunbeams in her class – really challenging for her! Even with such a big class, she loves those children and they in turn love her.

In August, we celebrated our 22^nd wedding anniversary! Gosh, time flies when you’re having fun! We were lucky this year, Melanie’s parents came to visit and her Father, Bill had some major dental work done, so they were here for two solid months. This really came in handy while Jim was travelling.

Jim was very blessed with all the travel, no accidents, and he got to see some very beautiful parts of the world. In March, Jim returned to New Zealand for work, where he spent two weeks and was able to attend Church with the Saints there.

In September, Jim went to Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador for work. Again he was gone for two weeks and while spending the weekend in Peru, he went to Machu Picchu, the ancient Incan city! The pictures he brought back are breathtaking.

Then later in September he attended a global meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as well as a day trip to Indonesia. In his journey there, he went to London (only got to see the airport) and spent 1½ days in Dubai! Again, we’re blessed that he had great travels and didn’t have any problems. Jim continues to travel to Mexico quite a bit, and already has a trip planned to return there in January.

We spent Thanksgiving here in Texas, with some friends who’ve become surrogate family, and are looking forward to a “staycation” during the Christmas Holiday. We also spent Christmas here in Texas as Jim needed his time away from the road. We missed seeing our families, but are secure knowing that Heavenly Father is watching over us all."

We look forward to 2010! Lot's of opportunities and challenges will await us. We look forward to seeing friends and family and having good times together. We look forward to a visit again from the In Laws and also from Jim's Dad and his new wife!"

Be safe tonight and have fun celebrating the beginning of a new year!

Jim