Season’s Greetings from
John and Nancy Finlay

Dear Family and Friends:

We wish you a Merry Christmas; We wish you a Merry Christmas; We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We are doing well in Herriman, UT. We manage to keep ourselves busy. Everyone was home for Thanksgiving. It was good to have them here. They seemed to get along with each other. All the kids and the grandkids are doing well. John and I were blessed to have them here for Thanksgiving.
John Jr. and family are doing well here. They will be adding their last baby to the family at the beginning of February. This will be another girl. Melissa is having more difficulties with this pregnancy. She is having terrible back pains and some nerve complications. She is carrying the baby so low that it has just been very uncomfortable and debilitating. There is a medical name for it, but I have forgotten what it is called – maybe placenta previa. They are hoping that she won’t have to be bed-ridden.
Their kids are being home-schooled this year. They seem to be doing well at home. Melissa enjoys helping the kids at home and is doing very well with the children. The kids enjoy being taught at home. John spends some time teaching at his old job and is busy with his regular job. I don’t know what it is he is doing but it has something to do with programming.
Jake is still in Sparks, NV. The family is doing well. Jake is working with a security type of company as a purchasing agent. The family would like to move to another area, but jobs are really hard to find in NV. He doesn’t seem to be able to find anything else that is better than what he has right now. I think he would move to UT if he could find work here.
Joe is in Eagar; yes that is Eagar, AZ. He moved there this past summer and is working with the hospital in Round Valley. He really didn’t like the hospital in Whiteriver and made arrangements to get a transfer to Eagar. The kids are doing much better in school there and they are renting a bigger and nicer house. It is funny that he has ended up in the “little down- home town” of his boyhood. He was so excited to leave Eagar when he came home from his mission, but now enjoys being there again. It is funny how maturity changes your outlook.
Jane is in Riverton, about 10 minutes away from us. Now that she is married, we don’t see her that much. I get to see her at school during our lunches – they overlap for about 15 minutes. We don’t get to talk much though because we each eat with our own teams. She is enjoying being married and does get a few chances to have Zayden with them during longer break times during school. Ryan goes to Wyoming, which is about 1 ½ hours away, and brings him back for a weekend and then takes him back. Ryan is busy learning a new job. He is training to be an insurance salesman for All State insurance co. He works at another All State office on Friday’s and Monday’s and it is closer to Wyoming than at his other office. Jane is also expecting a baby boy in mid-February. They are excited.

John has been busy building a deck on the back of our house. The deck is finished but the railings are not up around it, so it is not something we like to have the little ones go out and play on. It’s about 4 feet from the bottom layer of the yard to the upper terrace of the yard. So he added a little bridge across a five foot section from the deck to the upper terrace. Most of our yard is in the upper terrace area. We will be adding the rails as time goes on or when the weather warms up.
We had a nice garden this year. With the lack of rain and the hot weather, the few vegetables we planted, didn’t start producing until August. We just finished using the fresh tomatoes a couple of weeks ago. The vines were so full when we harvested them during the latter part of October. We kept them in the garage while they ripened. The back yard is fenced so the deer didn’t eat everything. The neighbors lost most of their gardens to deer. We see several deer in the front yard nearly every morning since it has turned cold.
John is still working at the temple two days a week. We had a new presidency take over last month. He is also a counselor in the High Priest Group. He will probably be Jane’s babysitter in March and he won’t work at the temple anymore. She would like to quit, but will have to keep at it until Ryan gets into his job more. She is the one that has health insurance which they absolutely need.
I am still teaching. I would like to retire, but John says I should wait two more years, but if Heavenly Father wants me to retire, I will. I have a great class this year. I hope the principal leaves me in fourth grade and doesn’t move me to another grade again. I really like this grade for this time in my life. If any changes are forced upon me, I think I will retire for sure. However, I shouldn’t have to change, I am no longer the last one hired on my grade level at my school and I won’t be so willing to change like I was the last time.
We have made several trips to Round Valley since Joe moved there. It is hard to stay away from the grandkids. I usually get to visit with some of our friends, but don’t seem to have enough time for visits for everyone. I hope all of you living there can understand if we miss you on one of our visits. We usually have four or five days to be there and two of those days are used for travelling.
Right now, I have no calling in church except for being a visiting teacher. I know that will change. I really hope the Bishopric will be inspired as to my next calling. I have some things that would be more detrimental to me psychologically than I think I can handle, even with Heavenly Father’s help.
We hope you enjoy your Christmas with your family and friends. We send our love to you and our testimonies that our Savior, Jesus Christ lives, blesses our lives, and guides us during trying times and times of joy and happiness.

Love Nancy and John Finlay