2010 Christmas Letter

The Scotts


We rang in 2010 with Catherine, Erin and Laura’s families at Disneyland. What a way to start the year! After the holidays, Jason went back to work in Utah and the rest of us had to make do without him back in Arizona. We took advantage of any excuse to go to Utah to see him including Nicole’s wedding in January.

Jason came back home to Arizona for Valentines Day week and the kids were glad to see him again.

We knew that Catherine and Noah were only going to be in California for a few more months so we took advantage of the short distance as much as possible by visiting in March for a weekend.

By April we decided Jason HAD to come back to Arizona. He got back in time for us to go back up to Utah for Aurelia’s Piano recital. We got to spend the night at Laura and Jeff’s in Las Vegas on the way back! The kids were excited to see all of their cousins. At the end of April I was laid off. After one day of feeling sad, I realized I was excited to do all the things I never had time for. I cleaned my baseboards and plastic plants and spent time with my kids. And then another office from my company called and asked me to come back to work. My kids were sad because they had been enjoying the home cooked meals. Anthony fell off the slide at school and we thought he had a broken elbow! After seeing three doctors they determined it was just a sprain and a week later he was back to normal.

In May we went to visit Catherine and Noah one last time. We spent time at the beach and celebrated Chloe’s birthday. School ended and suddenly the kids were anxious to find something to do. They worked on their swimming skills and the purchase of snorkeling masks made all the difference. Jason went to Scout Camp with Zach for a week and had a blast. Noah and Catherine came and stayed with us for a week which the kids loved. I think they enjoyed the pool by our house as well.

I had planned to take the whole family out to Aurelia’s wedding but since I was back to being a Newbie at work, I had to limit my time off. I flew out to her wedding and really enjoyed seeing everyone but missed my family. Megan finished her second year at girls camp and enjoyed it just as much as the first year.

July brought a visit from Laura and Jeff! We had fun seeing the fireworks and hanging out with cousins. Jason decided to go back to work in Utah and he took the kids up to Utah and they were gone for two weeks! We met back in Las Vegas in time to celebrate Megan’s birthday, spend a few days with Laura and Jeff. While we were there Grandma Zahller passed away.

I went out for Grandma’s funeral in August and then the kids started school the second week of August. This was a new school for the boys! They got to ride a bus for the first time and were excited about that. It took them a few months to decide if they liked the new school and Andrew still really misses his old school. With Jason back in Utah I had to finally bite the bullet and get a cell phone for Megan. I needed a way to coordinate with her to make sure she was home when the boys got off the bus. She goes to school outside our district and so can’t ride a bus. She suffered for the first two months riding her bike home in 100+ temperatures.

By October it had cooled down and just in time for Jason to come back home. He accepted a position with EPG (Environmental Planning Group) and we were all excited to have him back. He enjoys using all the knowledge he worked so hard to get in college and feels very appreciated at work. After the first week at work they sent him out to New Mexico for a few days to work on a billion dollar energy project that covers three states. He had to do some fast reading to get up to speed on that but impressed everyone with his knowledge. The owners of the company decided they needed to go to lunch with the biologists more often because they “talk about interesting stuff”. We went up to Utah to see Jubal perform in The Magic Flute (and listen to Aurelia play the piano in the pit orchestra). We got to spend time with Laura and Jeff and Joseph and Julia too! Andrew turned 8 and started cub scouts and he LOVES it! We celebrated his birthday as a family with a small party.

Then in November, Andrew was baptized by his brother Zach! Grandpa Andrews confirmed him and Laura and Jeff joined us for a big birthday party at the park with all his friends. We stayed home for Thanksgiving and I cooked a turkey for the 2nd time in my life. We went to see Tangled (I think everyone else in the family did too). The family purchased a PS3 Move as an early Christmas present and it was video games for a week straight. Anthony loves playing while Andrew prefers to watch. Megan is in Choir and Orchestra this year and they boys are tired of going to concerts. Megan had a vocal solo in the Christmas choir concert and we were so proud of her. She really enjoys singing!

We bought a real Christmas tree this year and it smelled sooooooo good. Jason had to spend a week in Las Vegas for work the week before Christmas so I took the kids with me to Dallas to visit Grandma Woodbury. Ruth brought her kids out and Barbara and Rick brought theirs up on the way to Denver. I exposed them all to strep throat before taking my kids to Six Flags. We managed to ride all the roller coasters before they closed. We made it back home to Arizona in time for Christmas. We made cookies and went Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve and then came back to read the Christmas story in Luke and used the hand puppets Grandma Woodbury made for us. Christmas brought the kids everything they wanted. This year they really enjoyed buying gifts for each other. I felt like it was the first year that they were more excited to watch each other open the gifts than opening their own. Megan wrapped Zach’s gift within multiple boxes and the last was completely covered in duct tape. She challenged him to open it within a five minute time span (and he couldn’t use any tools). That was fun to watch. We watched Disney’s The Christmas Carol and the kids thought it was good but SCARY.

Zach had is eagle board of review at 11:45 pm on December 31st so he officially got his eagle in the 100th year of scouting. We finished off the year with a bang and set off some fireworks while drinking hot chocolate in the 20 degree weather (COLD for Arizona). We hope your 2010 year was as wonderful as ours was and hope to see you this year!