We have been asked this question many times. Recently when I was asked about how we celebrated Christmas in our home I kind of babbled a bit and then finally said that Santa was not welcome in our house, we celebrate Jesus instead. Here is what I SHOULD have said about Santa, but as normal, I didn.t think of it at the right time.

If we tell our children the Santa myth as truth, then we are lying to our children. I would also include the Easter bunny, tooth fairy and all those in this also. And when our children eventually figure out that we are lying about this, then will they really believe us when we tell them something really important? What about it. If we tell them that Santa can see all and knows if you are bad or good and that you must be good or Santa will NOT bring you a present this year. Then even when the child knows that he can.t be that good, he gets a present anyway. Did we just teach them that they would get a present either way, even if they were bad? Seems to me that this is what a lot of the cults are saying also, that it.s ok, God loves everyone and that you can get to heaven if you are good enough, but then they fail to define what is good enough. In our house we teach that no we can.t get there by being good, only by believing in the one true way to heaven, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sound harsh? Perhaps so, I do not intend to offend anyone with this, just stating the truth and by doing so, our children are learning that when I tell them something, they can believe me.

Now what about our family?

How are we doing this year and how have we done during the year?

Well we all got a year older. We had birthdays in almost every month of the year and we had our 26th anniversary in April.

Chris has been seeing a dermatologist for some scar tissue on the back of his neck. It has been really stubborn, the doctor cuts some of it off and after it heals up, it seems just as big as it was to start with. It.s an ongoing battle and he is on daily medications for it. We pray that it will be miraculously healed in the future. He is still working full time or from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily at New Horizon.s Workshop and guess we could call him the BIG breadwinner!

Charles and Patti (Our daughter-in-law) celebrated their 1st Anniversary in October and we enjoyed time with them.

Curtis is still attending Miller Special Ed and loving music, and Physical Education.

Charlotte now has only about 6 months left with her braces, she hasn.t mentioned it, but we know that she is ready to get them off. She enjoys journaling and working as a childcare/teacher with her younger brothers and sisters.

Candace is improving greatly in her living skills, diapering her younger brothers and sisters along with folding clothes, dishes and such.

Caleb is in his 2nd year at Lull and this has been one of those years that I guess we could call a year of ups and downs or roller coasters.

Cora continues to greet her brothers, Curtis and Caleb with their cups when they arrive home. She is trying to verbalize or sound out words better and still picking up a few more signs, she is developing very quickly.

Camille is gaining verbal skills more and more, involved in the regular Sunday school program at church.

Claire is also involved in the regular Sunday school program at church, however not in the same level as Camille. She is working on slowing down her talking. She is picking up more and more sign language and is enjoying drawing including heads/hair etc.

Connor is doing well in his schooling and still working on his artwork, which he seems to have a wonderful gift from the Lord along with Sister Charlotte. He is in the same Sunday school class as his sister Claire

Carter, shall we say he is beginning to calm down, depending on what time of day it is, however, he is filled with such love and is at the Why? Why? Stage. He is in the same Sunday school class as his sister Camille.

Clark is our 2-year-old baby; he seems to know this and tests it. He can be a little tow truck when he wants something. Still praying for that gentle and tender spirit. Loves to play hard to get when he knows Mommy wants a kiss. He is still going between church; he just loves the music and especially the drums. Mom is slowly adjusting him to be in the nursery.

We have all been sick at one time or more during the year, sometimes one at a time and other times all at once. We continue to overwhelm the doctor.s office when we take most of the younger ones in at the same time with infections, sore throats and such. I think they would rather not see us like that, but if we stretch it out over several days, it gets to be too much for us with all the coming and going. Just easier to do it and get it over with at the same time. Get them all on the medications they need at the same time and keep them from .sharing. the germs with each other.

We have had to spend more money than we really wanted to on the house and some much-needed mattress replacements. It seemed that we had been sleeping on the same mattress for over 20 years. No wonder it was so short!

Charlotte was blessed to be able to attend an acting class at the Granada Theatre, thank you Grma and Grpa for helping with that. She really enjoyed it and the family enjoyed seeing the final performance. Even the youngest kids sat and were well behaved for that. They enjoyed seeing their sister up there doing her thing.

We were re-trained and certified in first aid and CPR finally, Thank you to our daughter-in-law Patti for that. She spent a couple of her Saturdays in the class at our school and at our home doing that for us.

During the summer we took a week off of work and spent the time with the kids. We went to the LA Zoo (Thank you Auntie June), Up to a nature preserve in Soledad Canyon, Placerita Canyon where we saw the .Golden Oak.. We also spent a day out at Hart Ranch in Newhall. The kids love running around in the grass, checking out the animals, including the lizards and just looking at different things that they don.t get to see during the year here at home. The older ones took the hike up the hill at Hart ranch to see the old Ranch House; they seemed to be pretty happy about that.

We were also blessed to have found a couple ladies to baby-sit for us. Janis and Isabel. They have been working for us for a several months now and things are working out ok. We pray that we can continue with them for a while so we don.t have to go through the searching process again any time soon.

We thank you for all your prayers during the year and continue to ask you to lift us up before the Lord when you think of us. Specifically Carols ongoing foot problems, problems dealing with the public special ED system, continued health and safety for us and the kids and most of all that we would not just continue to serve the Lord but that we would have the heart felt desire to serve Him in everything that we do, that we would be bold in our proclaiming him as our Lord and Savior and that we would feel his peace in those times when it seems that there is none to be found.

Thank you.