Dear friends and family,
We are so excited to finally give you the one thing that you actually wanted for Christmas this year (besides socks): our annual Christmas card! This year the Saville family have had so many adventures that we couldn’t even begin to list them all, so we won’t even try. Ok, that’s a lie, we’ll give you a few.
In March, we had four weeks together for Brian’s month of freedom sabbatical. It was originally going to be a trip to Europe, but due to COVID (doesn’t everyone’s Christmas card have that phrase in there somewhere?), we decided to go big in Florida instead. We spent three weeks living it up at the beach, at our rented condo pool, at Universal Studios, and at Disney World. After a week and a half, our spirits started giving out, but then our friends showed up and gave us a boost for the rest of the trip! Also, we hit a major milestone on this trip: our first major trip without a stroller!And we only had to carry Gabe a couple of times.
After such an epic trip, we decided to sit back and relax for a long time (2 days exactly if I remember right). For some reason, this became the year of trips: we spent many weekends in Idaho (family functions and vacations), went to Yellowstone Park with family, toured Charleston for a week with other friends, drove Idaho and Oregon (dropping into California to see the redwoods) all the way to the coast (visiting sisters), and even visited (but did not stay in) the Idaho Potato Hotel (so named because it actually looks like a giant potato, I couldn’t even make this up if I tried, seriously, just google it).
We also continued settling into our house by putting in a ton of trees and bushes (I estimate about 5 million) in the new yard, extending the deck by 20 feet, adding a covered roof to the bigger and better deck, and even putting in our own tiny house (AKA the shed) which could double as a small Airbnb if we get desperate or need to put in more trees. We’ve also been cultivating our talents and sitting-still-abilities by attending many musicals (8 as a couple that were wonderful, 3 with kids that were wonderful, but with kids). The entire family (except me) went to swim camp this summer for a week and Rachel and Gabe finally figured out how to swim, which means pool days got much easier. Finally, despite heavy peer pressure, we remained firm in our resolve to never do yoga.
And now for the family, in no particular order:
Rachel (8 going on 8.939) literally never stops singing or dancing her way through 3rd grade. She was baptized in February with her cousin. This was her first year doing dance competitions, and her group earned the Lou Diamond rating, or something like that. I honestly don’t know what it means, but I hear it’s great. She’s currently working hard on her first solo dance, and she will begin performing it in February, at which point she may be world famous.
Michael (12 in body, full on teenager in spirit) is in his final year of elementary school and does not sing or dance since he cannot bring himself to admit he knows how to do either. He became a deacon this year and has been passing the Sacrament like he was born to do it with a twinkle in his eye for his family (not that he would admit that either). Due to the pandemic, we weren’t able to take him to the temple until August, and he is anxiously awaiting the day he can go back (and he might actually admit that). Though his love of all things WW2 and airplanes continues, he has been spending more time designing the perfect paper airplane and playing soccer or football with a passion.
Devri (age undisclosed - I’m not a fool) has been loving hosting parties again (though smaller than before). She has worked tirelessly to decorate, undecorate, and redecorate our house for each holiday, birthday, and innumerable other events that were created simply to have a reason to decorate a house. She has had fun learning how to use a serger (not a surgeon) and cover stitcher (looks exactly the same as a serger but does different things, apparently). She has continued her photography business, but it has largely taken a back seat to general life, vacations, and getting our house in order this year.
Gabe (“5 and a half” if you ask him) is now in kindergarten and has found out he loves reading. He keeps busy with tumbling lessons, turning into the embodiment of anger (with flames leaping from his head like in Inside Out), Let’s Play Music, cuddling with us, making us laugh, praying for us to “remember Jesus and never never never never never never Satan”, and peppering us with kisses. In short, he is the sweet and sour sauce of our family, and we love every bit of him.
Brian (not yet 40, to the disappointment of certain siblings) has been working from home the entire year but has just started going back into the office once a week. Devri really wanted me out of the house early on in the year, until I was actually able to go in, and she realized she actually did like having me around (even when I have noisy meetings). Just after getting back from Florida, I was finally able to fulfill a life dream/goal of putting in a home theater in our basement, with 142” of screen and 11 speakers and 2 subwoofers. It might be the single best thing that has ever happened to me, except for my wife and kids and corrective eye surgery and probably a couple of other things. But it’s definitely in the top 10!
As we reflect back on this year full of disease, restrictions, and anger in the world, we are profoundly grateful for our Savior who has given us peace in the midst of life as we all currently know it. We are also grateful for wonderful friends and family who have been there for us through it all, and we wish there was more time in a year to be able to spend more with you. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and let’s make 2022 great again!
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