Happy New Year 2025!!

The Taylor family and 2 mission friends sang "How Great thou Art" in Swahili as part of Kelly's homecoming talk in church December 29, 2024

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                     Our New Year's white elephant exchange

                 Luke was not happy with his puzzle so I got it!

                                   Toasting to a good 2025

      I had a sleepover for the younger girl cousins and went to the                Provo Recreation Center pools. Winter fun!

   I loved the Vienna philharmonic and Vienna ballet program on PBS

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Waiting at SLC airport for Elder Nick de Schweinitz' return after 2 years from Baltimore Spanish-speaking mission. Other arrivals were entertained by our signs and enthusiasm.

                                             Nick with parents, Marc and Fernanda 

   
Traditionally there is a reception at home after a missionary gives his homecoming talk in church. Admission companion, Elder Diestra (who returned 2 months ago) and Nick's friend Chris Williams (childhood friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan) came to welcome him home, along with lots of family and friends.

We celebrated the birthdays of my 3 children born in January: Julie, the 10th, Peter, the 15th, and Marc, the 18th. All are wonderful adults & parents!

                                                                       Marc and Marty

     Oldest granddaughter, Kelly, and youngest, Phoebe are buddies

During and after birthday dinner at Sundance Foundry

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The wedding reception for Chase Miner (third son of Todd and Andrea Miner) and Juliette Sorensen from Santa Barbara, CA, was held in the beautiful Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City on January 11.

It was a chance to see many friends, including Sara and Paul Gilman, Jim and Deanne Welch (just returned from their short but very busy, fun mission assignment to put on a huge, 45-day long creche exhibit, in Sao Paulo, Brazil).

Luke and Sunny Hsiao, and Chase's peers from Palo Alto: Nicholas Chiang, Lindsay Aldous, Miranda Wiener, Brandon Jacobsen, wife and baby, Maren and Camille Jacobsen, and many many others.

           This 1000 piece puzzle of Positano, Italy was tough!

Thank you to all who have sent me holiday cards and greetings. I treasure my friends around the world and close at home.

We are at the crossroads between the outgoing Biden administration and the Trump presidency. The world is fraught with horrific wildfires in California, a tenuous first phase of peace between Israel and Palestine, a continuing devastating war in Ukraine, recovery hopes for Lebanon and Syria, political divisions, famines, floods, and the  displacement of thousands/millions of people throughout the world. I was touched by a small part of a poem written by amazing 22 year old poet Amanda Gorman:

We have been so touched by the tremendous tribute paid to former US President Jimmy Carter, his remarkable career as our 39th president, his 40 years of humanitarian service after his presidency, and his  character: so honest, compassionate, the very embodiment of integrity and goodwill to all people throughout the world during his 100 years of life. I have been amazed by how many friends have had personal experiences with his programs, one of which is Habitat for Humanity.

I watched a poignant documentary entitled "The Lakota Nation vs. the  United States." We have much work to do here in our country and the world to rectify so much prejudice, ignorance, injustice, division, and destruction. It is easy to get discouraged, but if we each can be better informed, kinder, more compassionate and inclusive, a small measure of peace can go a long way.

 Christmas 2024.....I hope you had a very MERRY Christmas and will have a peaceful, happy New Year!!!!

     Simon accompanies his stake choir in a Christmas fireside

The Taylor family and a few extended family gather at the SLC airport to welcome home Kelly Taylor from her 18 month Iowa City, Iowa, Swahili-speaking mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A joyous reunion! Here she comes!

             The Taylor family is once again complete!

Return missionaries are announced with banners wrapped around the round-about by our nearby chapel.

A nativity puzzle, amaryllis, narcissus, tree, lights and lots of creches

Gae Rose and I and many friends and neighbors enjoyed a nice dessert gathering and piano Christmas music by Tommy Shallenberger, hosted by Ramona Miller (left). Below: Kathleen Ianziti, Gae and Kristin Rose, Rheonda, Ramona and her granddaughters, Miriam

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My annual Christmas holiday party (begun 52 years ago) often brings wonderful friends, including Kim Johnson, who served as a young missionary in Madrid at the same time as I in 2012-3.

Marc & Kelly Bonham, Marian Taylor, Christel and Roland Hart, Emily. Below, Joy and David Atkinson (we served in the DR together)

George Taylor, Suzanne and Doug Harwood, Glenna, Kari, and Bob Hammond, friendships made in California

While the Provo Temple is being rebuilt, I attend either Timpanogos, Orem, or Provo City Center Temple

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Christmas Eve at the Taylors with family and friends: 2 sisters, Anna and Alida (Emily met in her work at UVU) from Republic of Congo, attending college in Utah. The rest of the family live in Kentucky

     The teens and kids (above, Evie and Hannah)put on a wonderful Christmas pageant for us. Kelly directed, Lucie did costumes.

             Ken is not only a great chef but bunny-sitting cuddler!

And this is our relaxed singing after our Christmas dinner!

We are pleased that Schweinitz and other Moravian ancestors' were honored as Bethlehem, PA (founded in 1741) became officially a UNESCO site on December 27, 2024.

Watch the Press ConferenceBethlehem’s Moravian settlements became the 26th UNESCO World Heritage Site in the United States at an official inscription ceremony Thursday at Moravian University.The vote by the World Heritage Committee to recognize the settlements was July 26 in New Delhi, India, but Thursday’s ceremony made the designation official. Twenty-six also happens to be the number of points on the Moravian star, a traditional symbol of the Moravian Church and heritage. for everything Moravian community.”The Bethlehem settlements were nominated with sites in Gracehill, Northern Ireland; Hernnhut, Germany; and Christiansfeld, Denmark, as a single World Heritage Site representing the Moravian Church’s historical value.The Bethlehem site spans 10 acres in downtown Bethlehem and includes nine structures, four ruins and God’s Acre cemetery. The oldest Bethlehem structures date to 1741.It’s a significant milestone both for Bethlehem and the United States – it is the first transnational World Bethlehem’s sites along with the three in Europe (in N. Ireland, Denmark, and Herrnhut, Germany) share similar qualities like architecture and village structure with a town square.All four sites still have active church congregations that date back centuries.

Bethlehem’s Moravian sites are historically significant for several reasons – the Gemeinhaus home is the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, is the largest 18th-century log structure in continuous use in the United States. The 1762 Waterworks, in the Colonial Industrial Quarter, operated until the 1830s and is the first municipal water pump system in the United States.