Dear Family and Friends,
Christmas
2012
By the time you get this letter not only will your Christmas
decorations be put away, but your Valentine’s decorations probably will be
too! I thought about foregoing the
writing of this letter, or just sticking a photo in a card but I enjoy reading
your letters and writing this one, so if you’d like to catch up on our family’s
antics read on, if not just get out your pencil or whiteout, and skip to the
end there is an address change, albeit a temporary one, at the end.
In January I got to escape the cold again to spend a long
weekend with Roger in CA while he was there for work. For my birthday he had given me a spa day,
aaahhh. We took several long walks on
the beach and collected sand dollars.
Bryan and Julie joined us and we enjoyed a winery tour. Before I flew home Roger took me to his
favorite restaurant, Shabu Shabu. The
children and I enjoyed the Living History Fair in Brookings one snowy
Friday. We saw a Viking, a fur trapper,
a pirate and made butter.
In February Roger played volleyball on Wednesday nights with
friends. Micah and Kyle served us
pancakes one Sunday morning as part of the Scout Troop Annual Pancake
Breakfast. We had a bowling Valentine’s
Day party with our homeschool group. We
listened to the SD Symphony. Kyle went
to Omaha with his church youth group. We
celebrated Halla’s 12th and Caleb’s 5th birthday.
In March we visited our friends, the B Family, at their new
home in Minneapolis. We met our friends,
the T Family, at the Omaha Zoo. We had a
wonderful family vacation in the Badlands and Black Hills of SD. We ended our trip with three delightful days
skiing. Kyle took his friend S to
her senior prom.
In April my sister D and her boys, my sister S and
E, and my parents all came for a visit.
We talked, laughed, ate and played.
Later in the month we went to the SDSU Rodeo, where Caleb tried to win
some Wrangler jeans in a boot race.
Unfortunately, as the month ended so did Roger’s job at D L.
In May we brought home a pregnant gilt. Later in the month I delivered 4 live
piglets. Sadly the mother and one piglet
died but we were able to bottle raise three of the piglets. We went to Prairie Village for a tour on a
beautiful spring day. We celebrated the
end of Kyle’s high school years with a graduation party. He went camping with some friends in the Bad
Lands.
In June we dropped Micah off at Boy Scout camp for the summer
and walked across the river to Nebraska.
Kyle attended a BSA National Camp School. Roger and I celebrated our 23rd
wedding anniversary. We met the B Family at a park in Redwood Falls, we couldn’t pick strawberries though the weather
had ruined this year’s crop. Mom and Dad
Jones visited us on the start of their two month Western states tour. Kyle went to camp. Roger played sand volleyball with the same
group of friends.
In July the T Family visited us, we enjoyed an epic water
balloon fight and the 4th of July fireworks. The girls and I watched a draft horse show in
Slayton MN and a community theater play starring some of their friends. The younger children and I watched the Blue
Angels fly in the Sioux Falls Air Show.
After church one Sunday we watched a local Pow Wow. Tragically, midway
through a week of vacation in NH my Dad went missing while on a walk one
morning.
In August the girls entered their rabbit, dog, pigs, and
static exhibits in the county 4H fair.
Joyously, after 21 days missing and over 1000 miles traveled on foot and
hitchhiking my Dad was found alive and well by sheriffs in Marion NC. He was on his way to Wilmington where he
hoped my niece E could help him figure out who he was. While on the walk in NH he fell and lost his
memory. He is well now and remembers all
but pieces of his ordeal. Kyle moved
into his apartment at Mitchell Technical Institute where he is studying to be a
Wind Turbine Technician. The younger
children and I toured a local Hutterite Colony and I completed my CNA
training.
In September we enjoyed Skillet at Lifelight, a huge outdoor
Christian concert. We went to the State
Fair where we ate all our favorite fair foods and checked on a few more ribbons
for the girls’ static exhibits. We took
in a tour of a local winery, got to stomp on some grapes and try some grape
juice. Roger flew to Russia on a
consulting job with a pork producer. The
children and I camped at the local State Park and woke up to frost on the
tent. We participated in the DSU
parade.
In October we visited the B Family and enjoyed the MN Zoo
with them while the first snowflakes of the year fell. We picked Roger up from the MSP airport. We hiked through Pipestone National Monument
on a beautiful fall day. Micah
participated in the Fall Camporee and the Ikes Campout. We bobbed for apples and had a great hayride
with our homeschool group. The girls and
I had a lovely trailride with our 4H club.
The hogs went to the butcher. Roger
spent a weekend duck hunting with each of the older boys. We mastered a corn maze at sunset.
In November Roger flew back to Russia to consult with the hog
company again. Mom and Dad came to
visit, it was the first time I had seen him since he was lost and found. We visited Kyle and the Discovery Museum in
Mitchell. We celebrated Shiloh’s 10th
birthday. The T Family came to help us
celebrate Thanksgiving and decorate gingerbread houses. The girls hosted a sleepover for their
friends, pizza for dinner and waffles for breakfast.
In December we welcomed Roger home from Russia. We celebrated Kyle’s 19th and
Micah’s 16th birthdays. Mom
and Dad Jones arrived to help us celebrate Christmas. Micah completed his Eagle project, residing,
repainting and reroofing a shed at church, with help of family and friends. We celebrated the birth of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Kyle went to camp
for a snowmobiling weekend and we had takeout Chinese for New Year’s Eve.
In January we celebrated my birthday. Kyle went back school and Micah had a bonfire
and s’more cookout for friends. We
packed, sorted, gave away and stored everything we owned because we are headed
to Moscow Russia for three years. We left behind our home and beloved dogs with
trusted friends. The rabbit went home
with friends of the girls. We left SD
through tears and drove through Chattanooga TN touring Ruby Falls and Rock
City. We spent a relaxing week at the
beach on Emerald Isle where my family joined us midweek and Roger’s parents
joined us at the end of the week. Roger
was able to spend a weekend golfing with his brothers in Florida. Our ticket reservations have been made and
the passports and visas have arrived!
If you’ve ever wanted to visit Russia, see Red Square, the
Kremlin, Lenin’s tomb, St. Basil’s cathedral or eat caviar (or Herring under a
Fur Coat) you are welcome to stay with us!
I will be blogging about our life in Moscow at amy-cornerstoneretreat.blogspot.com
You can friend us on Facebook ~ Amy Armstrong Jones and Roger
Jones.
You can video call us on Skype, amyelizabeth67 and rowanredsetter.
And in case you want to find us on Google Earth our address
is 14 Flotskaya Ulitsa #87, Moscow Russia 125493.
May you find the peace of Christ everyday – not just at
Christmas. Live every day to its
fullest. Tell those you love, that you
do. Find the adventure in all that you
do. Be fully present in whatever you
do. Life is a gift, open it!
Love, Roger, Amy,
Kyle, Micah, Halla, Shiloh and Caleb
and in case you missed the letter, here it is.
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