Dear family and friends,
Welcome to another year of the Nearly-Famous Saville Christmas Card™! This was a banner year for the family, with a boys trip to Eden for Snowboarding/Skiing, a girls trip to Disneyland, a fun weekend to St George, a work trip to San Jose, multiple trips to Idaho, and a 39 day epic adventure to Europe with the whole family. Yes, you read that right, we took the kids to Europe for over 5 weeks this summer and survived! Well, mostly. We did lose some possessions of Gabe (strangely, only Gabe’s stuff…), a few hours on a delayed train, a cruise port in Ireland (too windy for tendering), and only some of our sanity. For those wondering where we went, here’s the short list: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Turkey, Poland, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. We ended with the kids being completely museumed out and no one wanting to go anywhere for a month (except for Gabe who thrives on schedules). And now, the family updates...
Gabe (4th grade but 1st in hugs; favorite place in Europe: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales) is busy exploring all of the good things in life such as flag football (his team placed 2nd this fall), Code Ninjas (programming), piano (self-explanatory), and now basketball (the one where you score hoop goal-units). He still loves sharks, but in a radical shift of his entire personality, his favorite color is now light blue. It’s like we don’t even know him anymore.
Rachel (7th grade but 1st in singing; favorite place in Europe: Disneyland Paris) has recently made the tough decision to take a break from ballet and instead focus on musical theater. She will be performing in the ensemble for Elf Jr. at the Ruth Theater in December, which is pretty competitive to get a part in! She has also started playing violin in addition to continuing piano and is managing to not get completely overwhelmed with middle school somehow. She is utterly obsessed with all things Disney parks and will talk anyone’s ear off about it for hours if they let her (including our D-day Beaches tour guide in France!).
Michael (10th grade but 1st in dry humor; favorite place in Europe: Normandy) is enjoying finally being in the high school, playing football (receiver), and continuing improving his woodworking skills with a lathe. He was also able to complete a blacksmithing workshop at Combe Mill in Oxfordshire, England, and thankfully got to bring all three of his projects home. In an effort to save his parents from driving him to his numerous social endeavors, he nobly volunteered to drive himself. Prayers for all of us.
Devri (?th grade but 1st in vacation planning; favorite place in Europe: Scotland) finally turned 40 and works hard at her numerous exploits whether it’s surface pattern design, water coloring, serving in the stake primary presidency, serving as the ward choir pianist, or even her latest venture: not developing any new incurable diseases and avoiding surgery this year for the first time years! (and we feel so grateful!) She wore herself out so much planning the Europe trip that she waited 3 months before even attempting to plan another trip. It’s a record.
Brian (?th grade but 1st in accidentally booking business class seats for literally the one train he booked; favorite place in Europe: the Colosseum - are you not entertained!?) is wrapping up his 11th year at Adobe as a Senior Software Architect. While his job has turned into more meetings than programming, he thoroughly enjoyed his 5 week long sabbatical, snowboarding faster, doing jumps in the terrain park (reviewed as “looked like a baby learning how to jump” by Michael), having another surgery on his right wrist followed by months of pain, and then finally figuring out what’s going on and being able to use his right hand again. He hopes to reclaim a small section of the woodshop in the garage back from Michael soon.
Gracie (sluffs school but 1st in fending off delivery-men; favorite place in Europe: false, we did not take our dog, we’re not THAT crazy) has spent all her days sleeping, eating, and attempting to steal all the garlic bread. She is also against eating lettuce, even though she’s always excited when it drops on the floor. We still like her even if she doesn’t eat her greens.
As we close out this year, we’re especially mindful that time seems to keep moving faster and faster. We have especially loved moving into a new phase of life with a teenage driver and are trying to treasure every moment with all our kids still at home while continuing to avoid yoga. We hope that you feel our love and the love of our Savior this Christmas season. As always, we are most grateful for His sacrifice that makes it possible for us to be better each day.
Love,
Brian, Devri, Michael, Rachel, Gabe, and even Gracie Saville
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