Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from the Hustons

It's that time of year, again.  To wish our friends and family a Merry Christmas and prayers for a Happy New Year, too.  We celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary this year!!  We were able to take a family vacation (for our Anniversary) back to Colorado to visit Trish's family.  All of her cousins have kids that are Thomas's age, so it's fun to watch them all play together.  We also spent some time with Grandma & Grandpa Donohue, which was very special since Grandpa was getting pretty ill.  We have spent a lot of hot summer days, at Seaworld cooling off and seeing all the attractions there.  We also visited Lego Land this year and got to see how fun that is.  We also went to the Zoo a few times and the Wild Animal Park, too.  It's nice to have so many things to do locally as a family.

This year has been a year of change, for Thomas.  He has grown from a little toddler, to a very smart 4-year-old little boy.  We constantly have to remind ourselves that he's only 4, as he acts much much older.  He started preschool this year.  It's a Montessori program and he goes 2 days a week, for half day.  He is learning how to write, learning his letters and so many other things that are taught in the Montessori program.  He loves to play outside, but mostly at Grandma Papa's where he can run, ride his bike, play on his battery-operated car (from Grandpa Huston), dig for worms and help Papa in the garden.  This year, Papa & Thomas won 3rd place in the pumpkin contest for the largest pumpkin.  Their pumpkin weighed 353 pounds!!  They hope to grow a larger one, next year.  Thomas has also advanced in his swimming skills.  He takes swim lessons two times a week (during the summer) to teach him how to swim and water safety.  In the pool, he's like a little fish, swimming, diving and splashing all around.  He loves to visit his Daddy at work (occasionally) where he gets to see his "favorite Hotshot" Jaime (a girl on Jim's crew) and play ball with the other Hotshots, too.  

Jim was pretty busy this year.  Fire season started off in early May and kept Jim away from home a lot (over 700 hours of just overtime, not counting regular hours).  It seemed like he was gone more than home this year.  It makes for some lonely weeks, but we love to look forward to our family time in the winter.  Thankful for SKYPE as we got to talk to him a lot while he was away.  Thomas knows that his Daddy is a Hotshot and sometimes leaves for fires, but it hard explaining how long 2 weeks is to a 4 yr old.  This year they did more than fight fires, his crew was flown back east with 4 other Hotshot crews to assist with clean-up efforts after Superstorm Sandy.  They flew in to Penslyvannia and were sent to West Virginia to work with the National Guard to clear roads. They got to experience the friendly, country welcomes from the locals there.  They made a few side visits Hershey, PA as well as Gettysburg, PA too!!  He came home with some SWEET souveniours and cool pictures.

Trish is enjoying being a Stay-At-Home-Mommy and working on some homeschool stuff with Thomas.  This year, she also began watching a friend's baby during the week.  The baby arrives around 6:30am and is with Trish & Thomas until 4:30pm.  It makes for a long day, but what a great opportunity to make some extra money and stay at home with Thomas. Thomas is a huge helper and practicing to be a big brother as we are once again on the list for placement/adoption of another child.  We are hoping to get a placement and grow our family, but if that's not God's will, we are okay with that, too.  Trish lost both of her Grandpas this year which was hard on the family.  But we are thankful that neither Grandpa is in pain, anymore.  

We plan on staying home this winter with many "stay-cations" planned.  We'll be doing our annual tradition trip to Knott's Berry Farm before Christmas, going to Lego Land (one more time) and many more fun things.  Part of making memories isn't about going lots places, but spending lots of time together.

Blessings,

From the Huston Family

PS- For more pictures and stories from the year, you can read more on our blog.