2012 Christmas greetings from our home to yours

Dearly Beloved Family and Friends, Our hearts are broken, as are everyone’s, with the tragic events that seem to come in waves of terror, but we still know that God is there and life eternal is still the promise made possible by our by our precious Savior, especially for innocent little children who are instantly embraced in His loving arms! Notwithstanding the evil in the world, we still celebrate this Christmas with joy as our hearts are turned to the Savior, and to you our dear family and our wonderful friends. We are so grateful that our family is our friends and our friends are family! It has been a very busy and interesting and productive year, with the addition of two wonderful great grandsons, Jacob August Neiffer and David Richard Dalling. This brings the count of our great grandchildren now tied with our grandchildren at 28 each, but we know the great grandchildren will win; time is on their side! We also have a granddaughter expecting twins, so they are coming in multiples! We lost a few precious souls this year, including our sweet Aunt Jean Jolivette and Aunt Ora’s son in law, Larry Viglione. We are running out of Aunts and Uncles, with none of 17 left on Ramona’s side, and just three of 15 on Dennis’, and they are struggling with health and mobility. Our parents are all gone, but we each have one brother left! We did recently have a wonderful 95th birthday celebration for Uncle Doyle Dickinson that was well attended by many family and friends! We have survived another contentious national election, and pray that our country can somehow unite in a consensus that will bring peace and prosperity, not only to our nation, but to the entire world. It may sound simplistic, but we know that living the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only plan that will ultimately succeed! We missed more reunions than we attended this year, and for that we apologize, but next year we hope to do better. We are committed to do more traveling next year as Ramona is recovering from a bout of polymyalgia rheumatica and temporal arteritis. (It is fascinating that the older we get the more familiar we become with exotic medical terms!) She will be ready to travel by spring and I am so ready, like a leashed Gazelle! We have family scattered from Alaska to Canada to the East Coast and many Western states, and friends all over the world; and they are all on our bucket list! There is so much world and so little time and resources! Some have suggested this might be a farewell tour, like the Rolling Stones, but we reject that! We had a wonderful Dalling Family Reunion at the Eagle Creek Overlook on the Columbia River last Labor Day, and we have scheduled the next one at the same place for 4 nights 5 days from Thurs 22 August to Mon 26 Aug 2013. We hope you can plan your time and join us! Put it on your vacation list for the summer! We attended our first World Series baseball game with son Daryl in San Francisco, and the Giants, though rated as the underdogs without any superstars, became the world champions! Their secret to success….teamwork rather that individual stardom! Is there a lesson there for all of us in our families and our work? We loved having family and friends come to visit us, some from our missionary travels; you are always welcome in our home. We spent the summer creating a pleasant back yard with a new gazebo that makes a splendid garden retreat. Of course, the winter ravages all of our hard work! We also enjoyed some visits to your homes. We hope for more of that next year in our proposed travels. Well, dear ones, we would like to give you a detailed account of each of the twenty two families that now constitute our expanding progeny, but that would be a book that you may not have time to read! Perhaps a brief summary would be tolerated: Son Dan lives nearby with his wife, Annette; he is a construction electrician foreman and is presently working in WA and she is in Safeway management. Together they have nine children, five married, and they have nine grandchildren. Son David lives in WA with his wife, Janet, and he works for Boeing. They have three married children living in Alaska, Canada, and VA, and they have eleven grandchildren. Son Daryl lives in San Francisco with his wife Trucene and he is an electrical construction manager and she is a professional notary. Together they have four children, two married, and have four grandchildren. Daughter Janet and her husband Barry share our home and it is a very compatible arrangement as they are prepping to be our caregivers! Janet is an office manager and Barry is a production manager. They have four children, two married, and have three grandchildren. Daughter Julia lives nearby with her husband Marc who is in real estate. They have two children, one married, and expecting two grandchildren! Son Dennis lives nearby with his wife Barbara and they have five children, none married, but one attending BYUI! Dennis is a project consultant for an international firm and has been commuting, mostly to Canada. Well, there you have it, too much information we know, but they are all we have to show for sixty one years of wedded bliss! So as we come to the end of 2012 and the beginning of a bright New Year, we pray for great blessings to be showered down up you and your families, and that your Christmas will be filled with love and giving and the Spirit of the Savior! We send our deepest love and fondest affection