2018 Year End Scott Family Christmas Letter

  

Come, grab a seat at the table, and let's catch up on experiences of 2018. Hope this finds you in good spirits and excellent health!

We weren't sure we were going to get Christmas cards or a letter out this year since December came upon us like a punch in the gut, losing Tere's mom on the 6th. It all started with a really bad fall she took in the kitchen on Thanksgiving preparing the turkey for our family gathering. It's sadly ironic that her lovely gift of serving others which she did so well is what led to the end of her life. She was transferring the turkey broth to the fridge when she took a hard fall and hit her head. She ended up with a severe head injury that resulted in complications of swelling and ultimately took her from us. In the midst of it, we feel God's peace and have experienced his goodness and mercies though none of us probably still believe it's real and would cherish another second of one more hug or conversation with her and wish we had a time machine to go back to Thanksgiving morning when we would have insisted she sit down and let us serve her. Now, we face the holidays and the new year without her.

  

In the midst of this, the Sunday following her fall, before we knew how bad her condition would become, we thought we would suffer a huge financial loss as John's musical gear was the victim of tornadic winds and drenching rains. Thankfully, after days of drying out, much prayer, and many helpful words of advice from friends, everything amazingly still works. As much as we thank God for this, we would have taken the musical equipment loss over the loss of Tere's mom's life.

There is no way to segue eloquently from that opening, though I will attempt to sum up the rest of our year as is our typical fashion.

  

Our family took a much-abbreviated tour this year to Wisconsin as we worked around Lifest, a Christian concert festival in Osh Kosh, so our oldest daughter could see For King & Country as well as celebrating our 26th wedding anniversary at one of our favorite places, the Blue Harbor in Sheboygan, WI. So, our typical four or five week tour became about a week and a half. Still, considering our rapidly growing children who are gradually edging out of our nest, we were happy to experience it at all.

Other little highlights and low-lights of our year included saying goodbye to Toys R Us along with the rest of America, which was unexpectedly harder than we had imagined it would be with many happy memories at the store, and watching the American Girl Doll store leave our area, which was sad because we spent many special birthdays there in their cafe'. We also installed a new mailbox in front of our house. Oh, and we discovered that a potato works really well to unscrew a lightbulb that had shattered.

  

JOHN is still teaching guitar and performing solo gigs. This year, he also had a few concerts with a band he was in years ago, Souvenir. This band also has recently released an album from recordings they had recorded years ago during the time they were getting airplay with their originals on St. Louis radio stations. We have also been selling a lot of items from his childhood, such as Spiderman comics and a James Bond spy kit along with other tidbits of his youth which we hope to help build a retirement fund.

 Check out the Souvenir album in iTunes

  

  

TERE is still homeschooling our two daughters, though mostly working with our youngest now since our older daughter is doing independent work. Tere also still writes for websites online and is working toward hoping to one day be a full-time reseller through eBay and Poshmark. She loves turning thrift store finds into a sale. She and Eliana, our youngest, have enjoyed sketching drawings together. They started with drawing eyes and moved onto flowers and trees hoping to draw benches next.

  

  

GRAHAM graduated in May and is currently working on self-study and monetizing some online projects. He is still learning to speak, write, and read Japanese and has also dug into learning Linux, application languages, .net, Python, several other computer-based knowledge, and modding games along with other programming projects. Before his graduation, he enjoyed his last robotics competition where they used an Android app for Fire tablets using bluetooth connection that he had designed and programmed for scouting and statistics gathering.

 

 

 

JALENA is a junior in high school and will have enough credits to graduate by the spring but has decided to wait to graduate with her 2020 homeschool co-op class. She keeps us busy with all of her activities, trips to For King & Country concerts, and the Muny as well as other events. In February she turned 16 and got her driver's license on the first try. During the summer, she helped with her grandparents' church's Vacation Bible School at Crestwood Christian Church by helping to lead the singing and also leading a group of preschoolers from class to class. She also got her first pair of pointe shoes and is now dancing ballet en pointe. She continues to thrive with her on-stage acting, singing, and dancing skills through Lifelight Youth Theatre. This year, she took part in The Little Mermaid musical, got her first lead role in Oklahoma, and played a villain as the White Witch in the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. She has been cast in Peter Pan, their 2019 Spring Production, as Mrs. Darling and an Indian dancer as well as the understudy for Wendy. In the spring, she was asked to be part of our church's expressive worship team, which she absolutely loves. She also has been part of a homeschool choir group and performed in her first choir performance this month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, during VBS, Tere introduced the girls to her unusual talent of being able to turn styrofoam cups inside out.

     Cast party for Little Mermaid

ELIANA turned 12 in September and is in the 7th grade as she continues to homeschool. In the spring, she also took part in Little Mermaid as a crab. In the fall, she decided to put her dancing shoes and acting on hold and opted to pursue tennis and completed a clinic at the Chesterfield Athletic Complex followed by she and Tere enjoying playing together until the weather turned too cold to get outside to the tennis courts. She also enjoys Anime and Manga, Tetris, drawing, painting, arts and crafts, and cooking. She comes up with some pretty tasty dishes. She and Tere have spent time sketching eyes, trees, and flowers together. She also loves astronomy and learning about the stars and planets, and has enjoyed the telescope we got John for Father's Day. And, she plays a mean game of Boggle. Of course, she still is our elephant-lover, but has added penguins, birds, and turtles to her animal love.

 

 

Eliana's tree is on the left, Tere's on the right

Two of Tere's eye and eye with tear

Tere's eye with Eliana's help

Another one of Tere's trees

Hope you enjoyed reading some highlights of our year. We would love to keep in touch with you through social media, email, or texting. Look us up. Above all, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year!

Make the most of your days, live in peace with each other, and above all love!

We will close with a few of our favorite random pictures from 2018: