Dotson Family Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and family,

Happy New Year!

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas, filled with peace and joy. We did!

This year has been one of growth and learning for us. Too many things have transpired to express in one letter, but we want to share with you the highlights of our lives in 2010.

Scott: This year Scott was called as the ward’s Employment Specialist. He helps network in finding better work situations for the unemployed and under-employed. He has enjoyed being able to help others in this area. This year Scott made several new discoveries in his garden. One: raised bed gardens work best in Oregon! Better even than the green house he worked so hard to build. This is a huge change for him, since he’s always wanted to garden in the traditional manner. Two: an infestation of Symphilids in our garden have been eating our plants and destroying our harvests. This is why we’ve been struggling so much to have a successful garden. And Third, Bees are terrific! Having a backyard hive is the best way to get lots and lots of fruit off your trees and bushes! Scott enjoyed expanding his Bee business and establishing an official LLC. Check out his business at http://www.bunnybirdapiaries.webs.com/ Scott spends all spring and summer running around responding to emergency calls to pick up bee swarms. Many people also hire him to remove live hives from their walls. It is a very exciting business. Scott has all kinds of amazing adventure stories to tell. He even got to remove hives from the State Fairgrounds right before a rock concert. (But the lead singer still got stung!) Scott’s favorite outing this year was when he and Laura celebrated their 14^th anniversary by spending 4 days in Klamath Falls, visiting Crater Lake and the surrounding areas.

Laura: This year Scott and Laura both became very involved in SalemHarvest.org, a non profit organization dedicated to ending hunger. We would go to a designated site: a home or farm, and then we would harvest all the fruit. We then would donate 50% to the food bank and other local charities, and then we would get to take home the other 50% free to our own families. We picked hundreds of pounds of cherries, blueberries, apples, pears and cauliflower. This Summer Laura trained 2 hours a day to compete in her first triathlon. She swam 500 yards, biked 12 miles, and ran 3.5 miles. This training inspired her to make many lifestyle changes in her eating habits which resulted in loosing about 15 pounds. Ask her anytime about the benefits of green smoothies and eating 50 to 80% low-fat, raw vegan. The other big change for Laura was when she got called to be the new Primary President. Laura’s biggest challenge is now juggling being wife, mother, homeschooler, teacher of a boys science/history class and being in charge of primary. *phew!* All the extra work is forcing Laura to prioritize her time better. *On a funny note, since I’ve been trying to write this letter for weeks, leaving a document open but always getting distracted by otherwork before finishing it, Dorathy thought she’d help me out by typing it out for me. This is what she wrote: “I would like to write this year’s Christmas letter, but I haven’t the time. Goodbye!” We all got a good laugh!

Christopher: Turned 12 this year and received the priesthood. He is now a deacon at church and passing the sacrament! He loves being in Young Men’s and enjoys all the privileges of being the eldest child. Christopher attends Middle School every morning for choir and band, and then walks home for homeschool. Christopher’s newest passion is music. He plays clarinet, the piano, an elaborate synthesizer, and has been begging for a guitar as well. Christopher is active in Scouts, Boys clubs, church, and piano lessons. He spends his free time reading books, and has become quite the expert at babysitting his little sisters. Christopher enjoys politics, history, and science. He is a philosopher at heart and loves to think about and discuss big ideas and current events.

Dorathy: Is now 9 years old and acting so grown up. She plans out each day with precision. She loves food, cooking, organizing things, drawing, and writing stories. Her favorite books are the Harry Potter series. Dorathy keeps more books in her bed than anyone I know. She can’t bear to be parted from them. “You never know when I might feel like reading one again!” she says. She’s a repeat reader. She finds a book she likes and then she reads it over and over until she can quote passages by heart to the entire family. She loves Gail Carson Levine books and the Percy Jackson series.

Courtney: Is enjoying life at 7 yrs old. She is always eagerly watching the older siblings trying to do all that they do. Courtney is passionate about all living things. She is our resident naturalist. When given the choice to bring us a book to read, she always finds us one about birds or ocean critters! Courtney loves Japanese things, her favorite movie is “My Neighbor Totoro”. She wishes she could speak Japanese. She still loves gymnastics and can often be found in odd places: the higher the better. If we had a good tree house, she’d go live in it! All Courtney wanted for Christmas this year was her two front teeth…and she’s getting them! She even sang to song for an audience this year!

Angel: is a very introspective 4 year old. Her imagination has blossomed, and she enjoys pretend games of all kinds. She is our happy family helper. She is on the “Sunshine Committee.” She is always giving hugs and kisses and helping everyone feel happy. She loves to tell stories and jokes, and enjoys performing for an audience. She has performed solos at 2 talent shows. Her favorite activity is building “forts” and playing pretend “camping” with Courtney. For this game, all she wants is a flashlight, a blanket, and an apple to “roast” on a fork. Precious!

Julianna: Is the life of the family at 2 and if she isn’t at the center of it all, she forces the issue! She has the whole family wrapped around her capable fingers, and it is good for us to be reminded occasionally that she isn’t a baby anymore! She loves cats and dogs and enjoys playing with our Beagle, Lucy. She knows her numbers, colors, and abc’s, but her way of talking is difficult for anyone but her Mom to understand since she doesn’t use most consonants at the beginning of her words.

*The Highlight of the year was getting a visit from Scott’s family in June and July. We enjoyed every second of the family visits, and we’d like to extend to invitation to all of you to come visit us anytime!

*We also got to spend a week camping in the Bend area and enjoyed many of the natural wonders that the beautiful country of Oregon has to offer.

We love each and everyone one of you and wish you many delightful 2011 moments to come! May the love of our Savior spread joy in your hearts and help us all to have the Christmas Spirit all year round!

Love, the Dotsons:

Scott, Laura, Christopher, Dorathy, Courtney, Angel, & Julianna.

Building the Temple

A good Sunday activity is building with blocks. I was in the other room on the computer when my kids came rushing in so excited. "We built a temple!" They said. "It even has the Angel Moroni on top!!!"

(The angel looks more like a bird than an angel because they gave it wings...I had to then teach that Angels don't have wings...people only draw them with wings because it is a symbol of their power from God and their role as messenger. Angels look just like you and me, except they are on an errand for God. The definition of Angel is "Messenger".

Angel was so excited about an ornament she made at church with her teacher, she spent an hour singing to it about how wonderful and beautiful Christmas time is. I caught the whole song in video format on my camera, then was devastated when it didn't download to my computer and was erased off of my camera's memory.

Christmas Nativity

Every year we put on a Christmas Nativity play with the kids. This is the first year that Julianna was really old enough to participate and get something out of it. She got to play Joseph while Courtney played Mary. She was happy to play with baby "Jesus" and dress him in swaddling clothes.

Angel was absolutely insistent on playing the Angel, of course!

My camera's battery died just as the sheperds and wisemen (Christopher and Dorathy) arrived.

On Christmas Eve we had a lovely Christmas feast filled with Meditteranean foods from the region where the Savior lived on earth. After we cleaned up together and watched a few sweet spiritual (and short!) Christmas movies, we then had our family gift exchange.

It's funny how excited my kids get to put out milk and cookies for Santa, even when they don't actually believe in him...but it's all part of the fun!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve Feast

We decided to start a new tradition of eating some middle-eastern style fare on Christmas Even as our big special evening meal. I wanted it to be a symbol of us remembering and honoring Christ's life. I hope that the kids like it well enough this year that we can do it again next year. Perhaps we ate some of the food he may have eaten while he walked the earth.

We had pistachios, unleavened bread with lentil stew, goat cheese and crackers, hummus, cucumbers, pommegranite, grapes, olives, and fish. We also had some candied almonds and baklava. And shrimp....just because I love shrimp.
We turned off all the lights, and ate by candlelight while soft Christmas music played in the background.
The kids actually tried some new things. They were pretty good sports about all the new foods; usually they complain and throw a fit. We had a really nice dinner to begin our family Celebration.
Julie was just happy to finally get to eat. It was driving her nuts to see all that food and not be eating it right away.Here the kids wait patiently to go fill up their plates at the buffet.After we had dinner, we had our annual Christmas Pageant. I read the Christmas story and we sang a song or two while we acted out the Christmas Story.Here we have 2 "wisemen" trying to look wise. What cute kids!Courtney wanted a turn to be Mary. She was really excited to have a baby Jesus to hold. At first she was very disappointed that Julianna couldn't be baby Jesus. But I had to explain to her that even though we call Julianna "baby" that she's really not a baby anymore. Our usual Mary outfit doesn't fit Courtney...but she was just happy to get to be the part.Angel of course, just had to be the Angel. She is the princess/ballerina/angel. She's all for any chance to dress up girly! We had a funny/sad experience, though. A couple of days before we put on our little pageant, I was talking to Angel about what we were going to do, and what her part was about. I told her that the Angel got to say "Fear not! I bring you glad tidings of great joy!" But when I began reading Luke 2 aloud, I noticed that Angel was trying to repeat everything I said. Then she began crying and crying, saying "I can't do it! I can't do it! I can't be the Angel!!" She was pulling off her costume in rage and disappointment when we finally understood that she thought she had to speak all the scripture lines that I was reading aloud, and she was very overwhelmed. Poor little girl! We finally got through to her that she didn't have to say anything. All she had to do was stand there and look pretty. She recovered and enjoyed herself after that! Here's Scott looking way more like a "wise man" than a shepherd! What a Ham! He can't help posing whenever there's a camera around.Julianna got to be one of the "Sheep". She LOVED her costume and ran all around the house with her little sheep bell going jingling everywhere. It was SO cute. I wish I had gotten more picture. After a while, she got pretty hot in all that sheepskin.
Our Christmas play was noisy, loud and fun....not really reverent at all, but the kids enjoyed it, and they knew what the true story of Christmas was about. I'll be sad when my kids are too big to dress up and act it out anymore. I'll probably cry on the first Christmas Eve that I don't have any cute sheep running around. How many years till I get grandkids? 12, or 15? I'm probably done having kids myself, and I still have a toddler in the house, but I'm already looking forward to having grandbabies! Crazy, huh?

Getting the Tree

Sorry for another late Christmas post, but had to put on the pics of us getting our Christmas Tree!

We spent about 2 hours outside till it got dark. Each kid wanted a different tree, and they all wanted ones too big for our living room. We ended up getting the first tree we really considered..duh! It was a Grand Fir. I love how they smell. Unfortunately, we let it get too dry so it didn't hold up too well during the Holiday Season. I think next year I want to try out a a noble fir again. Those are pretty neat.


I wish I could have captured Julianna's first reaction to the Christmas tree. When she woke up from her nap, it was totally decorated. She stared at all the lights and ornaments and in delight said over again, "WOW, Wow! WOW, wow!"

Naughty & Nice

All these pictures were taken at Scott's Santa party at his work early in December.

You better watch out

You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
He's making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O!
You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

If Santa Claus was real and had been watching my kids night and day here are some things he would have seen them do during the month of December. The question is, would he leave them stockings full of fun gifts and sweet goodies or give them coal and reindeer poop?

Nice Julianna: Singing twinkle twinkle little star, and singing Jingle Bells. Giving us all hugs and kisses. Snuggling and playing nicely with the kids. Sharing her food with Lucy ;) "Helping Mommy" with her chores!
Julianna's new favorite sitting spot is INSIDE the fridge.

Naughty Julianna: Learning to hit her siblings, in the face, quite hard sometimes. Biting mama. Screaming to get what she wants. Throwing fits. Running away at diaper time. Sitting inside the refrigerator. Pulling Mommy's hair really really hard! Needing time outs when she cries and screams on and on and on for no good reason!

Nice Angel: Giving hugs and pats and telling us she loves us. Playing nicely with her sisters. Being kind to Julianna. Whenever Julianna cries, Angel hugs her and sings her favorite song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Helping Mommy in the kitchen. Being cute: Whenever you ask "How are you" she answers "I'm Three!" Doing kind favors for other members of the family without being asked. Being the Angel of the family!

Naughty Angel: Not eating her dinner, but asking for dessert, and then crying at bedtime inconsolably because she's "HUNGRY!". Wetting the bed, after we had tried to wake her up in the middle of the night to go, but she refused. Throwing fits in the car because she doesn't want to let anyone buckle her. Kicking me when I'm trying to help her get dressed for the day.


Nice Courtney: Playing nicely with Julianna. Doing helpful jobs around the house for Mommy without asking. Once she did all the dishes after baking cookies (by hand! by herself!) Doing kind acts of service. Helping in the kitchen. Playing well with Christopher. Being thoughtful to her friends. Playing quietly during quiet time. Using her "sunshine smile" to bring us happiness! Cleaning up her own spills with a good will.

Naughty Courtney: Jumping off of furniture, jumping on beds, climbing up bookshelves, doing other dangerous dare-devil things like standing on top of the plastic play kitchen's highest point and then claiming "I forgot!" when we remind her of the no jumping/no climbing rule. Scaring Angel on purpose("Angel, there's hot Lava in this house!" and Angel believes her!). Fighting with Dorathy. Sneaking candy before breakfast. Asking "Why is it ALWAYS me?" Whenever we ask her to do something.

Nice Dorathy: Doing all her jobs without being asked, so quickly, and with a good attitude. Helping in the Kitchen. Taking Angel potty for me. Taking good care of Julianna"babysitting". Reading quietly during quiet time. Making nice arts and crafts as presents for other people. Being a good friend. Thinking of others.
Naughty Dorathy: Fighting and crying when she doesn't get her way. Complaining about food she doesn't like. Eating her boogers. Pinching Courtney...really...really HARD! Stealing Courtney's blanket and then hiding it from her. Trying to punish her younger sisters for minor infractions when I'm not looking. Staying up late till 10 O'clock reading books when she's suppose to have lights out at 8 p.m.

Nice Christopher: Taking good care of me when I sprained my wrist. Telling me to "rest" and "go read a book, Mom!" and "I'll take care of it, Mom, don't worry!" Being so happy to "babysit" the younger girls. Putting his sisters to bed. Putting on silly plays and telling stories. Changing diapers and helping the little ones get dressed. Making his sisters laugh when they are sad. Running errands for Mom & Dad. Doing extra chores and acts of service. Being a great helper to Dad. Being a good sport when he doesn't win a game. Having such integrity and strength of conscience.

Naughty Christopher: Arguing with lawyer-like precision on exactly why he SHOULDN'T have to do the dishes or clean his room. Begging for computer games and playdates when he hasn't earned them. Crying, whining, and pouting when things don't go his way. Being Angry. Saying "Why Me?" when I ask him for help.

I guess to be fair, I should post when I am naughty and nice, right?!?

Nice Laura: Not yelling at the kids when they aren't listening. Disciplining them with patience and love. Practicing What I preach instead of being a hypocrite. Being true to what I say (consistency!) instead of falling through. Reading them lots and lots of books. Letting them help in the kitchen and do all sorts of projects, even when it makes a huge mess. Getting up early and being organized so that the day runs smoothly for everyone. Cooking good nutritous food. Planning playdates and other fun family outings. Letting the kids be kids instead of demanding perfection and driving everyone, including myself, crazy.

Naughty Laura: Staying up too late at night, and then being grumpy and short tempered. Reading fun books instead of cleaning house. Letting the car get so messy it has become thoroughly scary. Sleeping in and then having a sloppy day. Eating too many sweets and then getting a sugar headache. Yelling at the kids when I should just put myself in a time out. Not being sweet and affectionate to my husband like he deserves.

Nice Scott: Changing all of Julianna's stinky diapers for me when he's at home. Cooking dinner for me and all the kids before he leaves for work. Playing with all the kids. Putting up with my nagging. Patiently teaching the kids something new. Taking great care of me and being an all around terrific husband and provider.

Naughty Scott: Wanting to stay in his pajamas all day and play computer games!


Hhhmmmmmm.......I guess I'm glad Santa Claus isn't out there watching us all the time. I think all of us would have made both the naughty and nice lists! But I'd like to think that the good won out over the bad! No Coal this year!


I sure am glad that God is always watching over us with his tender mercies and that he loves us despite all our faults and weaknesses! We all have the light of Christ in us ( our conscience!) and a divine nature within (our heritage from our Heavenly Father) which enables us to use our moral agency to overcome the "natural man" and make good decisions. I am so grateful for the Saviour's atonement which allows us to repent when we make mistakes (since I'm making them daily...no, hourly!) But I know, that as long as we are all doing our best day by day, we are on God's "Nice" list....and that's good enough for me!