Christmas Letter 2015
• • ☕️ 3 min readHello Loved Ones!
We’re glad you got our Christmas card. Last year was so busy, we didn’t end up sending any out. But this year, despite finals and the regular craziness of the holidays, we made it a priority. As a side note, however, there was a slight typo in our return address. We live at 38 G Street. The rest of the address is correct, we just forgot the street name.
Jake is still working for Delta Airlines at the SLC airport, and attending school at LDS Business College. He will be finishing his AS degree in April and will head to the University of Utah to pursue a degree in chemical engineering. He’'s really smart.
Heather is still attending UofU, majoring in English and minoring in Italian. She will graduate with her BA degree in May of 2016. She is still working for the London-based website The Culture Trip (check it out, it’s awesome!), writing between 3 and 8 articles a month. She works one or two nights a week, serving in the restaurant at a nearby Marriott hotel, and this fall, she started teaching beginning Italian classes for the Italian Club of Salt Lake. Heather is still serving as the secretary in the Young Women’s presidency, and loves working with the girls in our ward.
Of course, traveling is still our favorite hobby, so we had to fit some of that into our year. In January we did a quick two-day trip to Seattle to visit Heather’s brother, and to explore the city. Jake served his mission there, so it is always a treat to go back. In April, Heather went to Baton Rouge to visit her dad who was recovering from a surgery. They spent a few days relaxing, watching General Conference, and driving around to see the sights in Baton Rouge. Jake took a trip to St. George, where he lived for a few years in high school, and had fun with his friends, playing and running around their old stomping grounds. At the end of the semester in May, Heather left for a trip that she had been working and saving for: a studuy-abroad program in Italy. She spent five weeks in Siena, Italy living with a host family and study the Italian language. It was an amazing experience! At the end of her school program, Jake met her there. We spent two weeks exploring Siena, Rome, Florence, Milan, and Cinque Terre. After we came home to the US, the rest of the summer was spent working, hiking, and going to youth conference and girls camp. We did head back to to Seattle for a few days in July with Heather’s family for the 2015 Costello Syndrome Conference. In August, right before fall semester started, we drove to Portland and visited Heather’s brothers there. Sometimes it’s hard to have family all over the country, but that does give us a good excuse to visit cool places.
In August, Jake’s “Texas Family”, the Estradas moved from Waco to Utah. It has been so fun having them closer to us, and we enjoy getting to spend more time with them. In September, Jake’s little sister, Victoria was married in the Bountiful temple. Her and her husband, Garrett live just two blocks away from us here in the Avenues, and it’s really fun having them so close and in our ward. In November, Jake’s little sister, Kimmi, left for her mission in Baia Blanca, Argentina. Of course, we miss her, but she is thrilled to be a missionary, and is loving her time serving the Lord. Overall, our fall has been consumed with homework, papers, and calculus problems. We are almost done with all of our finals for this semester, and we’re looking forward to relaxing and spending time with friends and family over the holidays.
We hope that this letter finds everyone well and happy.