Happy Holidays from the Mathews Family!!!

Well, here we are again. When I drafted our Christmas letter last year, I thought to myself, “Next year, I want to have a family webpage on-line.” That shouldn’t be a problem – after all, I had a whole year - I thought that was a reasonable goal. Ok…so where the heck did 2001 go? The years definitely seems to go faster and faster!

Anyway, here’s the Mathews 2001 summary:

The year started out with a lot of snow. We had a nice snowfall on New Year’s Day. Snowbowl, our local ski resort, had a good year last year. We had LOTs of snow in January and February and got to do some skiing. Michael enjoys skiing quite a bit. He and I toyed with the idea of learning to snowboard but Michael decided that he wanted to ski another year. Maybe we’ll learn to snowboard in 2002.

March was a tough month. Jim’s Daddy, fondly known as “Mr. Sonny”, passed away suddenly. We all learned (or re-learned) an important lesson that life is too short and we need to embrace each and everyday! Mr. Sonny had just turned 65 and was going to retire from farming this year. He was going to do all those things he waited all his life to do. He had plans to come to Arizona and elk hunt with Jim and both he and Ms. Duke were going to come visit Flagstaff in the summer, instead of the cold weather months, so they could fish and enjoy the outdoors. We were all reminded that our plans are not always in tune with God’s plans. Although under sad circumstances, we made the best of our spontaneous trip to see Jim’s family. The boys always enjoy getting to fish and play with their cousins who they don’t get to see very often.

Michael turned 7 in July and is a big second grader now. As far as school goes, we have the same report as last year. He’s very smart academically and if he could just keep his mouth shut during class, he’d be the model student. He loves to talk; I don’t have any idea where he got that trait (as I ramble on…). Michael was a Tiger Cub last year and participated in his first Pinewood Derby race in February. For those of you who aren’t familiar with a Pinewood Derby race, it’s where Father and Son take a block of wood (about 6 inches long) and build a racecar out of it. It was Daddy and Michael’s first race and they won first place in our pack. The first place win allowed us to compete in the District race a few months later but, unfortunately, Michael did didn’t place in that race. Michael had to limit his activities this year because he had too many of them the last school year. The sports activities won out. Michael played itty bitty basketball in the winter, t-ball and micro-soccer in the Spring, and baseball in the Fall. He seems, like his Father, to enjoy baseball the most. He improved a ton between t-ball in the Spring and the Fall baseball league, where he played with other 8 to 12 year olds.

Justin turned 4 in March and is a big preschooler now. Since we had such a good ski season and lots of snow, we decided to try him on skis on his birthday. After all, his brother loves to ski and wouldn’t it be cool if the whole family could go up to the mountain and ski for the day? He wasn’t sure he wanted to try it until we took him to rent the cute little skis and boots and then he was psyched. Well once he started slippin’ on the snow, he decided that he HATED it! He claimed that he wanted to go home and take a nap – and he’s a kid who despises naps! I guess we’ll try again this year if he wants. Justin just missed the age to play t-ball but he practiced a lot with Michael and Daddy (Daddy coached Michael’s t-ball team). Justin played micro-soccer this Fall for the first time and he loved it! At his age (4-5 year olds), the coaches pretty much just tries to teach the kids which goal is theirs and what the out-of-bounds markers mean. They play two 30-minute games every Sunday. Justin was one of the leading scorers – he scored 6 goals one Sunday (when his Maw Maw was visiting from Louisiana) and 10 goals the last Sunday of the season. But…keep in mind that the teams don’t have goalies at this age! Both boys are signed up to play itty-bitty basketball in January again.

We had a busy and fun summer. Right after school was out in May, the boys I and spent a week with our good friends, the Latskos, in “the valley” (Phoenix area). We had a relaxing week of sun and fun. May is still pretty cool in Flagstaff so we welcomed the desert heat. Both boys took semi-private swim lessons and made wonderful progress. We also made three or four trips to Lake Powell (see pictures on webpage) and had a blast. Both boys love to fish. I think Michael could fish non-stop from sunrise to sunset!!! Justin doesn’t have the patience yet! Our BIG summer vacation was a week at Oak Island, North Carolina. We went with the Latskos and had an absolute BLAST…as you’ll see from the pictures on our webpage. None of us had ever been to a beach on the East coast and thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the water was warm enough to play in! The weather could have been a little sunnier but we didn’t let it put a damper on our week. We’d go back in a minute – if only it wasn’t so far away!

Other highlights of the year included Jim and I celebrating our 10^th anniversary in February, taking our first trip with the boys to Disneyland in October, re-living my youth by attending a Bad Company/Styx/Journey concert, and Jim attending his 20^th high school reunion. Jim and I had hoped to take a kid-less trip to Alaska for our 10^th Anniversary but weren’t able to afford it this year. We’re in the process of planning the trip for next summer. We have a good friend who moved to Anchorage last year and we’re planning to spend some time with her (and her boyfriend that knows fishing in Alaska) and take a cruise. We should have lots of Alaska pictures on our website next year!

For those of you who keep up with the ”Hunting score”, Jim is still behind. The Elk won again this year. Jim was drawn for archery elk and had a fun season seeing lots of bull elk again. Luckily my Dad had a successful Elk hunt (guided by Jim) so we have meat in our freezer! Thanks Dad! Jim wanted me to make sure I mentioned the fact that he did get a turkey in the Spring (I guess that’s so that the hunting news doesn’t seem so dismal).

I still stamp and scrapbook as often as I can. I was lucky enough to get away for two scrappin’/stampin’ weekends in 2001 and I joined a stamping club that meets once a month. So, I had an excuse at least once a month to get out and stamp.

We had Thanksgiving at home in Flagstaff this year with my Mom, Aunt Lee, Gramma June and cousin Kim and family. It was my first time to hostess Thanksgiving at my house and we all had a very nice time. We spent Christmas in Louisiana this year. This Christmas was our first in Louisiana since our kids have been born; we normally don’t travel during the holidays but we really wanted to be with Jim’s family this year. It was a balmy 75 degrees when we landed in Houston and by the time we arrived in Alexandria, Louisiana, it was raining. We must have brought the cold weather with us. The weather turned cold after the rain and it was clear and cold (highs in the 30’s and 40’s) until we left on Friday morning, December 28^th.

I got my Christmas present early! About six weeks or so ago, we decided to take advantage of the 0% financing and upgrade from a mini-van to a sport utility vehicle. After a lengthy decision making process, I finally decided to order a 2002 Ford Explorer. I was really torn between a Chevy Tahoe and Ford Explorer (I didn’t like the Ford Expedition as well as I had hoped). We decided to order the truck so we’d have time to sell our mini-van and the truck was supposed to come in January or February. Instead, it arrived two days before we left for Louisiana. Now….to sell the mini-van.

Well, I guess that’s about it for 2001. We hope everyone had a joyous and blessed Holiday Season. Please keep in touch! There is a link to both of our emails on the home page. Drop a line sometime.

Love,

Leslie, Jim, Michael and Justin Mathews