i just wanted to share with you all our annual christmas letter....
December 2011
We hope that our annual Christmas letter finds you all well and that you are enjoying the Blessings of this season. We wish you a joyous Christmas with your loved ones, with God’s richest blessings for 2012! This year’s letter seems to be a little longer than usual, so grab a coffee, put your feet up & I’ll fill you in on the happenings of the Otten family!
We have once again been blessed with a year of prosperity & health in our family. We continue to be busy with work, church & school activities.
Eryn: now 17yrs old, has become quite the young lady on the go. This past summer she headed to West Virginia with her youth group from our church. They hooked up with a mission based there called ‘mustard seeds & mountains’ where they help repair the homes of local residents. She saw poverty first hand & was able to witness the love of Christ to those in need. She was also blessed by the people she came in contact with and in the process, made new friends & amazing memories. Currently, Eryn is finishing up her senior year of high school. Just in the past few weeks, she’s been looking at area universities that offer courses in medical radiology or ultrasound technician…somewhere in that field. We’re not 100% sure what she’ll end up taking, but this is what she’s now leaning towards. You noticed that I said area universities; she’s determined to live at home if she heads off to university. I’m good with that J! This summer, both Eryn & Dani worked in a tree nursery…outside every day from 7:30 am~5pm. They did grafting, checking for blight, pruning, budding, gun~tying & labeling trees with a brush stroke of paint. They worked with all varieties of trees, but mainly apple & lindens.
Danielle: now 16yrs old and driving too!! When did this happen that we have 2 children driving already??!! Dani was ‘all talk’ last year when her sister started driving, but it’s a whole new story now that she’s behind the wheel! She now understands Eryn’s nerves the first few times on the road. She’s getting used to it & doing well. Dani is well into gr 11 and is finding it much tougher than last year. Since she still loves her sports, but finds it harder to juggle the extra-curricular with the work load this year. Basketball is now done & volley ball is well underway. This past April, Dani had the opportunity to host two Dutch guests from Groningen, the Netherlands for 2 weeks. Eryn graciously gave up her bedroom for them since it has two single beds in it. Our guests, Nikki & Pualien, go to a Christian school in the Netherlands and as part of their English program they were to visit a Canadian school for 2 weeks. We had a lot of fun with these two & showed them the area sights ~Niagara Falls in particular was a huge hit! But, when they were not in school with Dani, they were content to spend their free time at the mall…typical teenage girls! Dani also was able to go to Ottawa with her class for a week in May. Wayne was lucky enough to go as chaperone! They had a lot of fun together. In Feb. Dani & Eryn will start working in the greenhouse again on Saturdays till June
Veronica: now 13yrs old and is taller than Danielle…even though you can’t tell in the picture!! It’s hard to believe that she’s already in gr 8 & graduates in June! We have 2 graduating…one from gr 8 & one from gr 12! She went camping for 2 days & one night this past June for her yearend class trip. It was a lot of fun as I got to go along with her as chaperone. We weren’t in tents, but in small little, primitive cabins, and the resort had a main great room where we all ate. In total there were 47 kids as well as a dozen chaperones. It was a blast….got no sleep. Roni also enjoyed going to the cottage this summer with grandpa & Sylvia. One of Sylvia’s nieces is there with her family and she has a daughter that gets along with Roni. They head up to Buckhorn which is up towards Peterborough. This year Levi & Jordyn went up too. With grandpa’s boat & Sylvia’s kayak, the kids have a great time!
Levi: now 12yrs old… I know, already! He’s actually enjoying his gr. 7 year!! I’ve always said that he doesn’t like school, but this year he’s doing really well!! He’s picked up the love of reading…fine~a~lee!! ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ are the types of books he’s actually interested in. He likes adventure stories with different types of fictional characters & places/worlds. However, being creative is still one of Levi’s strong traits. This fall, he was helping me do some garden clean up and was cutting down some of the really tall(10’+) ornamental grasses with a small saw and took the left over pieces and made things like a bow & arrows and kites. He would take duct tape & string and anything else he could scrounge up to make his toys. Then he plays with these things for hours…who needs video games when you have nature that you can ‘up~cycle’ into new & exciting things!! He is also still active in sports at school and will try out for the basketball team this year. Even though he’s of small stature, this kid can move on the court & is fairly accurate getting the ball in the net. It will be tough for him to make the team because there are a lot of boys who are much taller than him, and being only in gr 7 he has to compete against the gr 8 boys for a spot on the team.
Jordyn: now 9yrs old & mid-way through gr 4! This girl too, has shot up in height and has almost caught up to her brother. She’s not tall for her age as she is of average height in her class. No more short hair for this little girl…she wants long hair. And it has gotten long over the last few years. Jordyn has grown up way too fast. I know I say this every year, but it’s true. She tries so hard to keep up with the big kids. She enjoys school and does well. This girl also loves to read and always has her nose in a book. She also loves to play board games and very often games are laid out on the floor in the family room (basement) & the three youngest are deep into playing a game. Jordyn is also forever singing or playing the piano or recorder…she just loves music. Her health issue seems nonexistent at times, but has fainted again a few times this past year. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal (& I don’t treat it as such) but there is always underlying concern with her heart murmur.
We’ve spent time together as family…it was great to have aunt Jeanette, uncle john & aunt Ann , grandpa & Sylvia, Deb & Bill and kids come for a bbq in September ~good times.
One highlight of the year was that we headed down to Florida the end of October. The kids had 2 PA days in a row on the 27th & 28th, so we took advantage of those days! Deb & Bill generously gave us their timeshare week so our accommodations were covered!!
We took the extra days off for travel time so we could be in Florida from a Friday to a Friday! From the hotel we listened to the timeshare presentation and received amazing deals on Disney & SeaWorld park tickets. We were busy doing a park every day! Because we did 2 Disney parks (Magic kingdom & Animal kingdom) they gave us free passes to ‘Typhoon Lagoon’ water park for a day…wu~hooo! We also went to ‘Medieval Times’ dinner/tournament on our last night there, to celebrate Levi’s birthday…that was a blast! The weather was perfect…hot & sunny every day with highs of 86°. It only rained the Friday morning when we were leaving for home. It had stopped raining by the time we reached the palm coast about an hour north east of Orlando. This is where we stopped at the beach so the kids could swim in the ocean. This was on the kid’s ‘to~do’ list. It was still very warm out, but hazy since it had been raining. We combed the beach for shells & sea glass and we even spotted a family of dolphins swimming by. That was so neat to see! We had just seen the dolphins up close at SeaWorld, but it is so cool seeing them in the wild!!! We had so much fun & made so many great memories together!
Wayne & I have been keeping busy as well. Wayne’s back is much better than it was last year, but he must be careful still. The renovations are moving along… slowly. The office & laundry room have been painted and are ready for the flooring to go down. This week, the new garage walls hope to be put up and the trusses will be delivered. It will be nice when that’s done so we can park our vehicles in a garage again…especially for when the snow flies!! I have picked up a few more clients this year, and now clean 8 houses. Most of these are every other week, so I work only 4 days a week…usually. However, this time of year, they all want me just before Christmas, so I will try to accommodate them & squeeze them in. It’s only mornings, so it’s usually not a problem. I also still teach the junior youth group at church every wed night. This keeps me busy as well, with planning lessons & fun activities for the kids. Just a few weeks ago, a niece on Wayne’s side got married and we were asked to be the MC’s for the night. What a job that was! We had fun, but the evening ran a little on the long side…oops!
God has certainly blessed us richly once again this year. May we continually give Him the glory for the wonderful gift He has given in the birth of His Son & thus the reason for this Christmas season!!
Sending our love,
Wayne, Brenda, Eryn, Danielle, Veronica, Levi & Jordyn Otten
~p.s. our dog Mika is doing fine too ;)!
from our family to yours...
wishing you & your loved ones a "Merry Christmas & Blessed New Year"!!
