Family Christmas Letter, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Another year has passed, the guilt has mounted, and here is our Christmas Card written as a single stream of consciousness by me (Brian).  Maybe we’ll go back and edit out some of the stuff that might come out of my mouth when I’m tired, but chances aren’t good, so I hope you enjoy it. We had a lot of exciting things happen this year.

Almost exactly one year ago, I (Brian) left my position at Adaptive Computing - a small company that no one has ever heard of - and joined Adobe - a larger company that one or two people have heard of - as a software architect.  And before you’re tempted to be impressed, I don’t work on Photoshop.  I work on an internal team in the Digital Marketing division.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Adobe so far and hope to continue there for many more years.  The rest of my time has been spent on working on our basement, including finishing a child-sized castle in a playroom and a bathroom, working on a pet project for the BYU bands, watching the lawn die and trying to resuscitate it, and watching movies with the family.

Devri has been spending all year dreaming up more things for me to work on in the basement and then helping me finish some of them.  She spent many hours stuffed into small spaces in the castle priming and painting during April and May.  The first half of the year, she became a personal assistant to my parents as they planned a trip for Utah Ambassadors of Music to Europe for ~200 high school music students.  She then accompanied them to Europe.  Actually, I was there too.  We spent 16 days visiting 7 countries.  Her favorite by far was London, with both of us deciding by the end that we could easily live in London as long as we didn’t have to drive.  Her photography hobby has officially started to become something more than a hobby with many photoshoots throughout the year for friends and others.  She started teaching piano this fall and has loved teaching beginning and intermediate children (speaking mostly of their piano skills).

Michael turned 6 this year, and thankfully fully came out of the terrible 3’s.  He started kindergarten this fall, and has consistently told us that he thinks it’s “ok” or “boring”.  You can really feel the enthusiasm coming from him when he says “do I have to go to school today?”.  Honestly, we believe he is quite bored since he is so far ahead of his class.  In January, with little to no help from us, he decided he would learn how to read on his own.  In typical Michael style, he was reading on his own within a week, and just yesterday finished his first chapter book on his own.  He loves learning things and is constantly asking “why”.  He took many swimming lessons this year and continues to take piano.  His piano skills have come out during the Christmas season as he learned Carol of the Bells and other favorite Christmas songs.  Michael can be summed up in a love of living life to the fullest, independence (enough said), and always trying to make others laugh.

Rachel is nearly 3 now and got an early start into the terrible 3’s (terrible 2’s don’t exist as far as we’re concerned).  Still, she continues to melt our hearts every day (or at least every other day) as she plays with her babies - putting them to sleep, pushing them around in the stroller, or helping them with their (usually pretend) swimming lessons.  Her own swimming lessons got her to the point where she could be dropped into the water (face first!), come up to the top and float on her back, kick herself to the side of the pool, and reach her hand up to grab the side.  She still struggles a bit with the kicking to get to the edge and grabbing it, but I still think it’s impressive at her age to be floating like she does.  She has become utterly obsessed with princesses and especially Frozen this year, and constantly insists that she is Anna or Elsa, depending on her current hair style.  Words could not convey the cuteness of her saying things like “Oh, how cute!”, “Mine! (scream)”, and “Baby Jane sleeping” or saying her little prayers at an unnaturally high octave.   She has an insatiable sweet tooth and is our little cookie monster.  Her smile can light up a room, which is probably the only reason she has survived this long.

Ethan (Devri’s brother) no longer lives with us.  He said something bad about BYU so he had to go.  In all seriousness, he left of his own accord, something about wanting to get out of our basement and become a true Aggie.  I don’t know, we weren’t really paying attention all that much.

Baby Unwin™ is our newest addition to the family, but won’t be here until the end of the April 2016.  We’re all excited, but most of all Michael, who has wanted a baby brother for a very long time and constantly tells us so.

Spike the Fish is still living, which is a miracle in itself.  In truth, it’s a miracle any of the kids survived as long as they have.  No guarantees this next year.

In this Christmas season, we’re especially grateful for our Savior and for all of you for being our friends, whether separated by streets, rivers, mountains, or oceans.  We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a great year ahead of you.

Love, Brian, Devri, Michael & Rachel Saville

PS No, we’re not really going to name the baby Unwin.  It actually means “unfriendly”.  What kind of parents do you think we are?  Of course, our second choice is still baby Voldemort and a close third is “Hot Stuff”, which is Michael’s suggestion.  Honestly, I don’t know where he gets it from.