Merry Christmas 2019

This is a landmark year for our family. Alex started junior high; Amy moved up to the high school; Laura began her last year of high school, and Callie began her last year of college. We know what this means--Leigh and Deborah are getting very old. For about 350 days of the year, we mostly did the usual stuff: Paid bills, cleaned toilets, mowed lawns, argued about how much screen time the kids were using, and nagged them to do homework....And the kids would tell you that we never do anything fun.

But we did have a couple of family adventures. Over Spring Break, we drove to Tijuana, Mexico to join with Spark of Hope Foundation to help construct a home for a young family whose 2-room basement house filled with mud every time it rained. Being there was a great reminder of how many blessings we take for granted every day. .

In July, Deborah's mom joined us on a trip to Missouri, Nebraska and Illinois to visit some Church History sites. It won't surprise you to learn that not everyone thought that was a very good idea for a vacation. Through Airbnb, we got to stay in the very charming Secret Service House right across the street from the home of Harry Truman. We hadn't known much about President Truman, but our experiences led us to be more interested--well, at least some of us.

And after our adventures, we went back to doing the same old, same old. And with both the work and the play and the usual routine and the adventures, it was a pretty great year. We hope your new year will be full of joy. With love, from the Johnsons

Merry Christmas 2018

This year we had a large wildfire just a couple of miles from our home. We were personally never in any danger, and our whole community was very blessed not to suffer the loss of life or property. But when we considered the possibility that we may have to evacuate, and we wondered what we would take with us, we realized there was very little we couldn't live without. We are grateful to have our family, our testimonies of our Savior and His gospel, wonderful friends, and lots of memories. All in all, it's been a pretty great year! There's been chess, engineering, the viola and piano for Alex. Amy has joined FFA, raised a pig, sung with the choir, and marched with the high school band. For Laura it's been a first date, driver's license, soccer, clubs, and choir. Callie and Mac have been working, going to school and enjoying their first year of marriage. The family said goodbye to Leigh's mother, six weeks after her 90th birthday (what a long, full life). We took a trip to Florida to experience Harry Potter World, met up with the Schumacher family who traveled to China with us at Christmas 2004. We got chickens. We washed a lot of dishes, paid a lot of bills, cleaned lots of toilets, mowed the lawn many times. We fought, we laughed, we cried. Just your average year! Here are a few of the highlights:

Merry Christmas 2017

Here's a run down of our year: Callie came home from her mission to Spain.

Laura tried her hand at being a thespian in the school production of "Guys and Dolls" Alex joined the robotics club and Chess club.

We moved Amy into a room downstairs and painted her old bedroom so Leigh's mom could move in with us.

We said our last earthly goodbyes to Deborah's dad. We are grateful for our knowledge that through the Plan of Salvation and our Savior's sacrifice, we will see him again. We went on a trip New York -- saw the Statue of Liberty, reunited with Laura's China "Sisters" (the girls from our 1st adoption group), saw Niagara Falls, visited many amazing Church history sites, and just had an amazing journey.

Girls Camp, soccer, FFA...just a few of the things to keep us hopping.

A Wedding

We have enjoyed doing our small part to #LighttheWorld

It has been a busy year. We have truly been blessed by the Lord in 2017. We wish you much joy in the coming year.

Merry Christmas 2016

Shhh. Don't tell Callie that we went to Disneyland without her. We took our niece/cousin Katrina who was visiting from Korea for six weeks.

To give you a true picture of our family, we invite you to imagine our dinner table. As the call goes out for everyone to set their places at the table, the questions come back, "What are we having?" followed by a series of groans and other complaints. We practice our bargaining at the table over exactly how many peas someone is required to eat. There are the inevitable snide looks followed by snide comments and the pouting among the under-15 crowd (and sometimes even the grown-ups join in). One child rushes through the meal and sneaks off in hopes of escaping dish duty; another child eats very slowly with the same goal in mind. This is followed by a period of lecturing and threats. We have always tried to eat dinner together as a family, but this year, Mom was going crazy with the nightly scene of rushing through dinner so we could get to the next event. She was tired of dirty dishes left on the table (sometimes until the next day), and the food that was ruined, because it didn't make it into the fridge. So extra- curricular activities were sharply curtailed, and everyone is expected to help until clean-up is done. It's all well and good to have expectations, but no one is all that interested in doing their part just for the good of the family, so there's usually plenty of arguing going on. Sure. It probably doesn't sound that great to you, but few things give Mom as much joy as the lively conversations squeezed in among the arguments, and the working alongside the children as everyone helps clean up the kitchen. Sometimes, we even dry and put the dishes away that night! What could bring more joy than that?!

We shouldn't make it sound like the kids don't do anything. Laura continues to be involved in her soccer club, and she played on the high school soccer team this fall. She is now taking part in her jr. high production of Guys and Dolls as a "Hot Box girl."

Amy, Laura and Alex all participate in their school choirs--practicing before or during school. Alex does chess club and cub scouts right after school once a week. Amy plays the saxophone in the jr. high band, and she uses her creative genius at home to create cardboard armor for live-action role-playing with her friends. We're just lucky that these don't usually interfere with family dinner!

Meanwhile, Callie is still serving as a missionary in Spain. It's been a more challenging experience than she's ever had before, but through it all, she's learned a lot about herself, and a lot about the Lord's love for her. And she has eaten a lot of interesting new things for dinner. We will get to talk to her on Christmas Day, and she'll come home six weeks later. Leigh still teaches at BYU and serves as the ward clerk at church. Deborah continues to be a full-time homemaker, and she works with the cub scouts. And we've figured out there's a lot to be happy about and even more to be thankful for. We hope you and your loved ones will find much joy this Christmas and in the coming year.