(This is the christmas letter I sent out with my christmas cards this year.)

December 2008

“When we have the spirit of Christmas, we remember Him whose birth we commemorate
at this season of the year. We contemplate that first Christmas day,
foretold by the prophets of old. You, with me, recall the words from Isaiah:
‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel—‘God with us’.”

Our Dear Family and Friends,
We recently listened to a Christmas address from our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson. He spoke of the story of the innkeeper who turned a young couple away because there was no room in the inn. He commented that the innkeeper wouldn’t have turned them away for all the gold and silver in the world, had he known who they were. He then went on to speak of the love and service we can give to those around us. We are striving to reach out to others. This is the spirit of Christmas and, I believe, why the world is enveloped in a special feeling this time of year. We strive to be a little more like Christ, of whose life we celebrate. There is much we can do through the small acts of service we give.
Our family has had an exciting year. We have moved to a new home in the neighboring community of Pacific Grove—our favorite spot in the world--and also now expecting our fourth child to be born in early June. We feel so blessed with these changes. It’s been a year of growth for our family.
Albert continues to work for Nova Management in Monterey and enjoying that. When he’s not working he enjoys spending time with our family. I’m so grateful that he loves to be with us at home. When the kids hear him open the front door a little after 5 o’clock, they run and laugh and try to get to him first. They are so happy he is home. He is a wonderful husband and father and so supportive of our needs and desires. I feel truly blessed for him. The longer we are married, the more I feel we are so perfectly compatible. In his extra time he enjoys playing sports, weight lifting, playing computer games, going for walks and bike rides with our family. He is completing his Masters degree this month and will begin his doctoral program in administrative leadership in May of 2009. I’m so proud of him for accomplishing that.
I stay busy with my family. I love having the opportunity to be a homemaker and involved with my children and all the things they do. I’m grateful to my loving husband and his support in enabling me to raise and teach my children in a time when it is very difficult to have one income. It is so very rewarding for me and beneficial to our children. Besides that, I am continually working slowly on my bachelor’s degree online. I’m so grateful that I can complete my degree online at my own pace. It has not always been easy but has worked out well and I am grateful for that opportunity. In my extra time I love to play the piano and my flute and work on my blog. I am so happy about the new addition that will come into our family. We are all eagerly anticipating what June will bring.
Jacen is twelve now. He is growing up so quickly! He is in 7th grade and in middle school. He is a good student with excellent grades and so responsible with completing his assignments. He is really very self-motivated. He loves to read and write. He is making plans about when he will publish his first book. He is also active in his church deacon’s quorum in the presidency and very responsible that way as well. He has been enjoying boy scouts and will be completing and achieving his second class this month. The scout and youth leaders in the ward here are great and take the boys on many adventures: hikes, camping trips, kayaking excursions, cave exploring, and rock climbing. The effort they put forth is amazing and Jacen is learning and growing so much. The group of boys he associates with are amazing too. Jacen continues to better himself on his trumpet—listening to him play has become one of my favorite things. He sounds really good and practices so faithfully. He definitely has a talent for it.
Linnea is my sweet, helpful, kind 8 year old. She was baptized this summer and we are so proud of her in making that faithful step. It was a beautiful baptism and it was so nice for so much family to come and support her on that big day. She is in third grade and excited about more extensive writing this year and learning her multiplication tables and even dabbling in division. Her teacher recently told me that she is the perfect student. She has had a wonderful example to follow in her older brother and she is a wonderful student. She is a good friend and kind to everyone. She is helpful at home and such a sweet little “caretaker” for her little brother. When Gavin has a problem, so often she knows just what to say or do to help him and it’s so nice to watch. She is talented in that way and, I believe, is better at that than I am. She will make such a wonderful mother someday. She has been taking piano lessons and I love to hear her play. She is a very musical little girl.
Gavin is growing up into a big four and a half year old! He loves to go to preschool twice a week and is so excited about when he will start kindergarten and get to go to school with Linnea. He is social and has many friends and is such a good boy at school. I love spending time with him during the day and teaching him little things and going on outings with him. He loves to go to the aquarium and the beach and for walks. He is so affectionate and just wraps his little arms around me and tells me how much he loves me. He says, “I love you more, Mom.” He won’t hear of it any other way. He wants to marry me and is upset if I tell him anything otherwise. (I remember when Jacen used to say that and now it’s quite another story!) One of his exciting feats this year is learning to ride his two-wheeler bike. He never had training wheels but went straight to the big bike and one push and he was off! He has his daddy’s skills! Since then, we have enjoyed riding bikes to take Linnea to school and family bike rides.
We hope this time of year brings you many happy memories and please know that our thoughts and prayers are with each of you. We think of you all year long.

With Love,
Albert, Jaime, Jacen, Linnea and Gavin Zuniga

You wouldn't believe it....

You wouldn't believe that we actually had hail! It has hailed here before several years ago but not often! Yesterday I was at Trader Joes thinking about and hoping that Jacen was waiting in a dry place for me to pick him up, when he called me and asked me to pick him up in front of his school because it was hailing. I thought, of course, that he was exaggerating about the hail and told him I was checking out my groceries and would be there soon. When I went outside, sure enough, it was hailing. I drove down Forest Avenue towards his school and there he was, standing right out by the street completely drenched and loving it actually. Boys! During the night the hail woke me up and this morning our front yard was covered with it. When I took Linnea to school, hail covered the ground along side of the road and looked like snow and several cars were covered with it. Talk about excitement in a small California beach town!

Gingerbread Houses

We have a tradition in which we make gingerbread houses with the kids each Christmas. In some years past I have used graham crackers and have even made the gingerbread pieces myself but this year I needed to make it a little easier, so thank goodness for Costco and their easy gingerbread kits. I felt a little like I was cheating but the kids loved it. Even so, Albert was the one who underwent the project and did almost all of the work helping them. He's such a great dad. They all had fun with it and will probably have even more fun eating them after Christmas!

Snow in the Park

Linnea and Gavin here--I never did get a picture of Jacen as he was way up on top playing rough with the big boys.

We had a fun weekend at the annual snow-in-the-park festival here in town. The kids look forward to it all year. The city brings in a big truck and makes a HUGE pile of snow right in the park that the children play on all day long and sled down and make snow men. Here in this part of the country where we hardly ever see snow, this is quite the exciting activity! The funny thing is that it is totally warm (quite possibly a good beach day!) when this was going on. After the kids got a little wet and cold, they had fun jumping in the bounce houses, going on pony rides, horse drawn carriage rides, petting zoo, Santa and the Snow Queen. (The part I love is that it's all free!) The kids have so much fun with the snow but I think this is just about all the snow I want to have. It's so pretty but also so cold! I don't know what I would do if I had to bundle up three children every day to go out in the snow!

Thankful for Family...

Unfortunately my camera was lost last weekend. Unfortunately also was the fact that it was lost because it was buried in my messy house. Someday I will have a clean house... I used to be so clean and organized... then I had kids and now I am pregnant and well... I digress. We had a great Thanksgiving at Grampa Neufeld's house with him and Tera and Jared and their family and my parents. I ordered all of my share of the meal from Whole Foods. (I'm in no position to cook!) I was able to eat however. Leif and Jen and their family were in town having thanksgiving with Jen's side of the family (her brother is serving in the military in Monterey). We were able to see them Friday and Saturday and Sydney got to spend the night which was the highlight of the weekend for Linnea. (I still heard them up sneaking clementine oranges when I went to bed at eleven). It's so fun to have cousins. Saturday we went to the butterfly sanctuary with them and my parents and saw all the butterflies which was pretty amazing. Of course I missed my buried camera. Then we all went out to lunch to Chinese and spent the afternoon visiting and then out again for dinner for pizza before they had to head back home. We're so glad to have their family back in the state and be able to see them more often. My family is so special to me and to my children. We were also able to visit with my oldest sister and her husband and catch up a little with them! It was very exciting--the kids were so excited at their house that they were running up and down the stairs and everywhere! Spending time with our family is such a precious time for us. Although I am sorry I don't have any pictures to post, the good news is that I did find my camera (which also means I did clean my house) and will get that to use soon.

Full of Hot Air!!

My Grama used to say we were "full of hot air"! This weekend we went to visit both grandparents and watch the annual hot air balloons. We hadn't been there for this event in at least a few years. Gavin had never seen them and Linnea didn't remember seeing them. It was very fun and the kids really enjoyed seeing so many hot air balloons. I like the fact that it's not so crowded and we could just walk across the street from Grama and Grampa's house to see them. Ever since I can remember, I remember the sound of hot air balloons early in the morning in November and being excited to watch them from the front window, even as it was still dark outside. Someday I will ride in one. There, they actually do give free rides to people who wake up early and help them set up the balloon. Maybe I'll try that next year.

Toby, the Newfie

We live down the street from a beautiful Newfoundland dog, Toby. We love to go visit him and run into him on our walks. Toby especially loves the children. When we walk by, if he sees them through the front window, he will bark and become so excited until he can go outside to play with them. He thinks they are his playmates. It's so cute. The kids love to run around and play with him and it's funny to watch because he is triple the size of them. Albert and I love his sweet nature and his beautiful show-dog look (he is only three points away from Champion and will most likely have that by Christmas). He is such a sweetie and HUGE! The picture doesn't do him justice. His owner is refurbishing his cart, in which he will be able to pull the kids in. We love Toby!

Walk Out

Gavin has been watching a lot of Wallace and Gromit these days. Do you know those movies? They are cute. Anyway, in one of them, Gromit, the dog, runs away because he feels left out and unwanted. So when Gavin is not quite getting his way around here, he thinks he needs to run away but he calls it "walking away." So the other night it was totally pitch black outside and even raining and Gavin felt abused for some reason or other, I don't even know why (maybe he wasn't sure either) and he packed up his stuff (his pillowcase filled with some halloween candy and his bear) and walked out. We were trying not to laugh at his very SERIOUS situation. He got as far as the front sidewalk when he quickly turned around to run to the safety of his own home, after thinking about the recent mountain lion spottings in our area. My sweet little boy....

Okay, I am finally getting around to posting Halloween pictures. I have been so sick and so tired! You're lucky you're not at my house. I'll admit it's a great big mess and I've been feeding my family mac and cheese most nights or Whole Foods sandwiches (that's what I can keep down). Anyway, aren't my two little spooks cute? Gavin is a ninja and Linnea is a witch for like the third year in a row. (She buys a new witch costume every year.)
Anyway, Happy Halloween (on November 10th)!

Vote Today!!

I voted! Have you? Their are only less than three hours until polls close! Vote! Vote! Vote! Pray for Prop 8.

I will be making my calls tonight reminding Prop 8 voters.