Christmas Letter
King Family News 2006
2006 Christmas News
Merry Christmas to you and your family! Here are a few newsworthy stories of our family doings this year.
Feb: Baby Rylee falls in the creek, rescued by her Mom and brother Theron. Grandpa Frank and Grandma Lauretta are here when we celebrate Grandpa’s 91st birthday.
Mar: Sierra and Hannah’s teams win their respective basketball championships. Bethani flies to Quebec and spends spring break with our friends the Balasingam family. Art attends an inspiring Men’s retreat at Wildhorse Canyon.
Apr: We enjoy spring skiing on Mt. Hood, including a family evening at Ski Bowl.
Jun: Bethani graduates from UCA, and Brenden from MEA on the same weekend. We split up to attend both. For his 12th birthday, Taylor gets a pellet gun from his Dad. Later in the month we enjoy a King family reunion at Wallowa Lake. Frank and Lauretta’s sons, daughter-in-laws, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were all there, 35 of us together. We mourn the passing of our friend Dan Davis.
Jul: The family stages a surprise party for Art’s 50th birthday and invite a houseful of friends over.
Aug: We take our annual Lost Lake camping weekend. While Frank and Lauretta visit, we drive to Jones Creek to swim and jump off a high bridge.
The children are gathered around the TV watching old family videos. Caleb watches for a minute and then asks; "Where was I?" "You were not born yet." replies an older sister. A few minutes later Caleb asks the same question again, and got the same answer. The video goes on a while and Caleb timidly queries again; "Where am I in this video?" "You weren't born yet Caleb!" firmly retorts the older sister. Caleb sighs, shakes his head and mutters; "I'm tired of not being born yet."
Sep: School starts with the five youngest in home school, Hannah in 8th grade at TVJA, Sierra in 10th grade at PAA, Bethani and Brenden freshmen at WWC and Elissa a senior at WWC. Sierra turns 16 and gets a drivers license the same day. A new puppy Lucy joins the family and immediately starts being pesky.
Oct: Hannah turns 14 and breaks all family records for the most inches of growth in 1 year.
Nov: We travel to Walla Walla to celebrate Aunt Mable Latsha’s 100th birthday party. Brenden drops out of college and goes to work. His parents try to avoid sermonizing and hope he will decide college is a good idea sometime. Willa turns seven with great glee. We enjoy Thanksgiving with Weston and Michele Davis and their children.
Wrap-up: With Art at the half-century mark, and Ronda soon to reach it, we pause to appreciate our ten children and a wonderful Christmas together. Truly we are abundantly blessed. We wish to you a very very..
Merry Christmas!
With Love from all of us: Art & Ronda, David & Elissa, Brenden (19), Bethani (19), Sierra (16), Hannah (14), Taylor (12), Caleb (10), Theron (9), Willa (7), Rylee (2)
Favorite Books of 2006
- Children’s Read-aloud: Incident at Hawks Hill by Ekert
- Art: Patrick O’Brian series
- David: Wild Fire by DeMille
- Elissa: Captivating by Eldredge
- Bethani: Lives of the Great Composers by Schonberg
- Sierra: Redeeming Love by Rivers
- Hannah: Oxygen by Olson
- Taylor: In Search of Perlas Grandes
- Caleb: Sarah Plain and Tall
