Merry Christmas!

I know it's a little late, but I hope you had a very merry Christmas.

From 2009_12_12

Ho! Ho! Ho! This is the Thompson Christmas-Time Update

Grant’s biggest achievement this year was being born. A feet most people only complete once in their lives. Grant came with hardly any announcement, arriving three weeks early and after a very short labor. He surprised us all coming out a boy! He is now three months old and charming his entire family (and most strangers) with his smiles and coos.

Abigail is a loving girl who enjoys playing with her sisters. She is always a princess and often asks Daddy to be her prince. She loves to dance color and sing. She had her first haircut this year, initiated by Eve. She loves to copy whatever Eve is doing and has included learning to write, so Abigail is working on learning her letters, her favorite is, of course, the letter “A”. Abigail participated in a playgroup this year and has made several friends. But everyone knows her very best friend is Nathan. She asks to play with him every day and he makes it into most of her prayers. Her prayers have really developed this year, as she sincerely prays for family and friends and she has long lists of things she’s thankful for.

Eve loves to camp. If it were up to her she would camp every day. Since that’s about how often she asks to go. She is extremely creative. She makes elaborate stories and games to play. Eve is learning to write. Her favorite writing game is to make shopping lists. She’ll often follow Mom around demanding help spelling the words for her shopping lists which regularly include: fruit, Polly Pockets, Diamond Castle Barbie Movie, grapes, ice cream, plums, meat and chocolate. Eve graduated from speech therapy, which was a happy and sad time. We are glad to her speech has improved so much, but sad we don’t get to see Mrs. Oates every week any more.

Lily turned eight this year. We were able to have Lily’s baptism up in Utah so all of her grandparents and most of her aunts, uncles and cousins could attend. Lily was so excited to be baptized by her dad and felt so loved being surrounded by her family as she took this big step. We are so proud of the testimony we’ve seen her develop. Lily has been a big help as a big sister. She has gotten much better about helping out around the house and doing harder chores as mom needed more help this year while pregnant and with the new baby. Lily has even changed some diapers! Lily is doing fabulous in school. She has been with a good group of kids through the years and has some close friends. They are all reading Harry Potter and playing wizard games as often as they can get together. Her teachers rave about her. Reading Harry Potter has really helped Lily’s reading skills; her ability has jumped leaps and bounds since she started that series.

Katie’s most important activity this year was growing a healthy baby. That made her tired and a little emotional at times. Katie was blessed to give birth to Grant at home, something she really wanted to experience. Katie also went back to school to work on finishing a bachelor’s degree in business. It’s been a long time coming, and we’re glad the time finally arrived. Amid the craziness of raising 4 kids, and supporting her husband in studying and working, Katie finds joy in the friendships she is developing here in Albuquerque and online. She loves being a wife and a mom, and is truly grateful for sisters, and friends that she can count on.

Gordon took and passed his very last actuarial exam!!! We are all so proud of Gordon for working so long and hard on this huge goal. Because of this Gordon and Katie were able to go to Boston where Gordon was recognized for becoming a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society. Now that Gordon doesn’t have to study every waking second of the day, Gordon has tried to find some new hobbies. We’ve gone camping as a family a bunch. Gordon has started fishing and he has done some woodworking. He’s working on making us a new coffee table.

We’re glad to have you as friends. We love you and hope you have been as richly blessed this year as we have been.

Love, the Thompsons.

Keep in touch!