It’s that wonderful time of  year again… We love this time of year because it gives us the chance to reconnect with our family and friends.  We have a tradition of taking all of the Holiday cards we receive and taping them to the inside of our front door.  So, over the course of December we build this awesome mosaic of all our friends and their families in one view.  It’s a reminder of what great people we have in our lives.  For our part, we enjoy the creative process of choosing a theme for our Christmas card to try and sum up the past year.  Well, this year has been a bit more complicated than most.  We agreed on the theme early on and found an abandoned silver mine in Park City that was the perfect setting.  However, coming up with the right tag line was too difficult so a paragraph seems more appropriate.  Here’s our best shot at summing up 2015. 

The Mellors 2015 – Emerging From the Coal Mine.  We’re grateful for the challenges this year has brought, but man it’s been hard.  Adding our second (and final) child, selling a house, renting a house, and building a house have been more than any of us expected… and so goes life.  I’m happy to say we haven’t been bored.  Johnny has been a delight to our family but Charlotte still isn’t thrilled.  He’s happy, healthy, and huge.  So, we have warned Charlotte that she won’t be able to pick on him long, because he will soon be man-handling his way through the house.  Our new home in Park City was supposed to be finished by Halloween, then Thanksgiving, now we’re hoping for New Years.  Everyone said to be prepared for delays so this didn’t catch us totally by surprise.  But it still means a little more time living in limbo in a rental.  The good news is we finally sold our home in Lehi just a couple months ago.

So we feel like 2015 has been a year with lots of good hard work.  We compared it to working in a coal mine – the work is hard, but you’re chipping away at veins of goodness that will have big rewards some day.  As 2016 emerges, we too feel like we’re emerging.  Soon we will be settled in our permanent house, and hopefully welcoming visitors to come ski or just hang out.   In the meanwhile, we’re humbled by these experiences and embrace the struggle because it really has brought us all closer together.  John and I both come from Pioneer stock and we try to remind ourselves of what our ancestors went through to get us here today.  I mean, we have it easy.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Please don’t call us until January 😉  Xoxo

p.s. Thanks so much to Phillip (@manicproject) for your talent and creativity.