December 5, 2010

Dear Family & Friends,

The holiday season is upon us and I hope during this busy time of year everyone can have a chance to reflect on the "Reason for the Season" as well as spend QUALITY time with loved ones.  As most of you should know by now, we no longer send out Christmas Cards. Since I now have the Blog, those interested parties will already know what is happening in our lives as well as have had the opportunity to view current photos of the family.  Basically this is YOUR official holiday greetings from the Thorne Family!
 
We are starting off the month of December busy as usual.  Scott and I began December in Sonora where Scott and his cousin were finishing up a 3-day of training course they have been conducting and another training is scheduled for mid-December that will take us out of town once again.  And of course there is all the Christmas festivities that began for our family the weekend after Thanksgiving with choosing our Christmas Tree.  We chose the simple route this year and selected one from the Rescue Fire House Christmas tree lot. 

But the most important event in our family (aside from Christmas) is that we have a birthday coming up this week.  Leah turns six on Dec. 9th (even though it seems like 16 yrs. on some days); and she had a tea party with a few of her friends and family to celebrate.  Leah wanted a "dress-up" tea party where the girls could play dress up, so we turned her bedroom into a dressing room and the girls even put on a pseudo-fashion show for us.  And Chris (Mema) went all out again on her "teapot" cake and the individual "tea cup" cakes that each girl could take home. 
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I also broke down & purchased a new camera since my favorite photo camera crashed and burned last year during my Valentine photo shoot.  So one (of many) goals for this coming year is to take more "quality" photos once again.  With that being said, I've had several people mention that it is hard to "see" photos on the blog.  So I will be setting up a photo account very soon and in addition to a few "highlighted" photos on the blog, I'll also have a photo site you can go to view recent photos that I take.
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As a summary to our year I will just list off the things that occurred during this year that we are thankful for. 

We are thankful for:

• Our health.  We've all remained healthy and out of hospitals and ER's this year!
• Scott's business opportunities. His business venture has kept us with a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, food in our bellies and even a few extra $.
•  Our family.  Without the help of many of them, we could not have gotten as far in the business as we have.  Whether it was watching the kids so I could help Scott, working on Scott's website and other computer stuff, or kick starting the training aspect of the business, none of these would have been possible without our family members efforts.
• The ability to travel.  Though several vacations were pre-paid and pre-planned for, some unexpected travel experiences have come up through Scott's trainings  and our homeschool group as well; and it has been very nice indeed.
• Our friends.  They too have supported us emotionally this year in more ways than they could ever know and we are grateful and very blessed to have such a wonderful network of friends.
• And last but not least:  Leah & Nolan.  Without them, our life would be (dare I say it) boring. :)  They keep us on our toes, make us laugh, make us cry, (and sometimes scream) but at the days end they have brought so much joy that it make it all worth it.

God Bless each and every one of you this holiday season.

Love,
Jill, Scott, Leah & Nolan