The annual Christmas Newsletter ... this year and all previous years are saved in PDF format in the family dropbox (link to 2021) for close up viewing! If you don't have access to the family Dropbox, email/text Grandma/Chris/Jen for the signin/pw!
Text from the newsletter is included below for easy reading ...
McKenna and Spencer Erickson live in Seattle. Spencer received his MBA from BYU last Spring. McKenna works for Microsoft and Spencer works for Amazon. They spend their spare time traveling and preparing fine cuisine. Alyssa lives in Sugarhouse and teaches 5th grade at Spectrum Academy, a school for autistic children. Kellen is attending Utah Valley University and will graduate next Spring in Biology. He took the MCAT and is interviewing at medical schools. He works as an EKG Tech in the Emergency Department at Intermountain Medical Center. Kemery and Mitch Willes both graduated last December from UVU and BYU, respectively and live in Payson. They have a beautiful 7-month-old daughter Letti. Mitch works for a company that supplies software for the insurance industry. Taylee is a freshman at UVU and works two jobs. Amy is busy and loves being a grandma. Scott serves as the Stake Clerk and is the Chief Financial Officer for WCF Insurance. They live in Draper.
Chris and Kim live in Pleasant Grove, and Aaron and Cayson are living with them. Kim is a Medical Assistant for a Revere Nephrology Clinic and Chris works from home. Conner (29) works construction and Amber works from home for Progressive Leasing. Krystal (28) and Boris moved to Texas in order for Krystal to go to Law School. Boris works as a traveling nurse. Kadan (27) and Christine live in Cedar City. He works for Fastenal and she bakes for student dining on SUU campus. They are entrepreneurs also with small businesses on the side. Courtney (27) graduated in May in History and Religious Studies and is doing an internship for the Church. She and Seth live in American Fork and their daughter Integrity just turned four. Seth is in Law School at BYU. Corin (24) and Kylie bought a house in Redmond. Corin works at a gypsum plant. Seth (23) and Aspen bought a house in American Fork and have been renovating it. Seth has moved up to a supervisor at KCI, and Aspen works at Doterra as well as her own art business. Aaron (21) went back out into the mission field and was called to the Seattle, WA Spanish speaking mission. He came home late August and is working with his Dad. Aaron will start at UVU in January. Camden (19) is attending Snow College in Ephraim. Cayson (15) is a sophomore at PG High School and is working at Costa Vida.
Rick and Wendy live in St. George and have 7 children. Janika (26) just finished her Master’s Degree and is working as a middle school counselor. Her husband, Brandon (27), works at JobNimbus. They are new homeowners in Pleasant Grove and are expecting a baby in June! Jase (24) and Ellen (22) welcomed baby Evan to their family in July (8 weeks early)! They will move to Maryland this summer for Jase's internship at the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. Jared (21) is attending DSU and was recently hired as a part time seminary teacher. He loves it! Janelle (19) was called to the Taipei Taiwan Mission (temporarily assigned to the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission) and is currently in the Provo MTC learning Mandarin Chinese. Jaiden (17) is a very involved senior in high school – Executive Council, Madrigals, Distinguished Young Woman of Utah 1st runner up, SpongeBob in The SpongeBob Musical, and the Speech and Drama Sterling Scholar. Josh (15) is a sophomore, playing on his HS soccer team and two club teams. He is an honor student and fluent in Chinese. Jenna (13) also speaks Chinese and is involved with choir, theater, dance, and FRIENDS! Rick teaches seminary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is also over the Seminary and Institute Deaf/ASL program throughout the country. Wendy keeps the family running smoothly full-time and interprets for the Deaf part-time. (Family Newsletter: www.JensenChristmas.Blogspot.com)
Gray and Jen live in West Jordan, with three boys at home (Keaton, Cooper, and Colton) and two married but living close by (Landon and Sol, and Callahan and Kate). It's been a busy year for travel ~ Seattle a few times (once with the full family), Hawaii vacations, two trips to Mexico and lots of other weekend getaways. Kate graduated from the U, Keaton has been jumping out of planes, and it has been a year full of pickleball, ping-pong and Pokemon Go. We added an Occulus, Keaton created a 9-Square set, and Coop has been tearing it up on the treadmill. Grayson got a couple new gadgets in his garage kitchen and added several new recipes to his repertoire (when he's not riding his RZR). Jen started making sourdough, is still teaching Zumba and enjoying endless audiobooks. There is always basketball, Colton (a sophomore) has been playing JV and Varsity. Cal joined a men's league, and Coop is going to give "Senior Jazz" a go. Check out the family blog (blackhamboys.blogspot.com) for more details on all adventures.
Shane and Alicia and their 3 children live in Lindon, Utah. Shane is the Chief Product Officer at SimpleNexus in Lehi and Alicia owns a photography business. They are in the process of building a new home in Highland, which takes a good amount of their extra time and creative energy. Adria (17) is a junior and was a captain of the JV soccer team in the fall. She is taking several AP classes and is looking forward to a trip to France with students from the French program at school. Mirella (15) is a sophomore and on the Contemporary Dance Team at school as well as part of the Dance Company at her dance studio. She loves plants and is currently taking a floriculture class at school where she has learned how to create floral and plant arrangements. Calder (10) is in 4th grade. He loves building with Legos, Parkour, and figuring out how things work. He is always full of questions—thank goodness for the library and Google!
Derek and Danielle and their three girls live in Traverse Mountain in Lehi. Aniston (11) is in sixth-grade. She is on the swim-team and plays softball and piano and was the star of a local musical “Dear Edwina.” Layla (7) loves soccer, gymnastics, and crafting, and stays very busy making home-made gifts for her many friends (the whole school). Noelle will be 6 in January. She is a little clone of her mom and loves baking and helping Danielle with whatever she can. She is doing dance and tumbling and is loving it. Derek works as Director of Reputation Management for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He discovered pickleball this year and plays 3-4 times a week. Derek recorded an instrumental, piano Christmas album (just search for Derek Westra wherever you listen to music). Danielle is an amazing cook and baker and loves to design and create pretty spaces in their home. Derek loves to build whatever Danielle designs, and they run a little design website and Instagram called Functional-Décor.
Margie and Christopher are constantly updating Margie's Gospel Topics website, which has well over 2,000 pages, plus many hundreds of links. Their goal is to help busy family members and friends with material for their church talks and lessons. Check it out at MargiesMessages.com. :)
It has been a busy year as Wendy and Jeni have joined Margie and Chris in expanding a large Westra Family Database of photos and histories in Dropbox for current family and future posterity. Jeni has created dozens of fun family blog pages of the Westra Clan. It has been fun to relive and document memories of years gone by.
We have 32 grandchildren: 17 boys and 15 girls--ages 5 to 29 years old. We were blessed with 2 more great-grandchildren this year---a darling baby girl, Letti Rae, and a preemie baby boy, Evan, 4 lbs. 3 oz., both of whom are doing great! We have 3 great-grandchildren now and two more expected next June!
We now have 12 married grandchildren. We have 4 granddaughters and 8 grandsons that have served missions and returned home and one granddaughter in the MTC now. Our family is growing older (all except us, of course!)
We wish health and happiness to all our family and friends!
Love, Margie and LaMar
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