Merry Christmas!!!

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Merry Christmas from the Goodales: John & Michelle, Justin & Julia, Christopher & Brooke, Brianna, Andrew, Mark and Steven 

All of us but Justin & Julia when we went ziplining in Whistler, BC, Canada on July 15, 2013.

Merry Christmas from the Goodales! There never seem to be dull moments for our family, and 2013 proved to be no different. With missionary departures, non-stop travel, PTA to attend to, church callings, sports and everything going on, we feel richly blessed!

I (John) continue to travel like crazy, finishing up the year with 269 days on the road (206 overseas), banking about 600,000 miles on various airlines. I focused on fewer countries this year, hitting only 15 (I believe it was 19 last year). However, in 2014 Australia, New Zealand and India fall under my Asia “umbrella” and I’ll need to spread my wings a bit. The Unity Technologies Asia team numbers 75 today (up from 6 two years ago) across four offices and I love working with them.

After graduating from BSU with degrees in Social Work and French in December 2012, Michelle continued studying for her licensing exams, which she passed this year, and she’s now a licensed Social Worker. She’s also been the PTA President at our Middle School, the Scout Advancement Chair in our Boy Scout troop, and the Relief Society Activities Chair in our ward. She’s also the head wrangler of Dakota (more on that later), which probably keeps her busier than anything! And finally Chief Operations Officer at our crazy household, and I’d put her up against any Fortune 500 COO!

Justin’s wife Julia finished her Russian program at the DLI (Defense Language Institute) in Monterey, CA this Spring and they moved to the Boise area. We love having them nearby! Justin was working in a full-time National Guard position in the area until he was furloughed out of that, and is looking at re-classing in the military. We’ll be sad when they relocate out of the area this coming year.

Christopher and his wife Brooke still live in nearby Star, ID and we love having them nearby, too. Brooke is going to school studying early childhood education and enjoying that, and Christopher continues to work full-time at Gowen Field with the National Guard, on the Apache (helicopter) avionics. They have a veritable farmload of pets that are fun, and we love spending a lot of time with them.

Brianna continued her studies at Utah State University earlier this year and absolutely loved it there! She spent her summer working as a counselor for EFY (Especially For Youth, a program with the LDS church) in Provo and Atlanta. Then on August 28, 2013, she reported to the Missionary Training Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Provo, UT to prepare for full-time missionary service as a missionary in the Argentina Neuquén Mission. She has been in Argentina now since the second week of October and she is working hard and loving it! Brianna's mission blog is here (see hyperlink).

Andrew graduated from high school in May, and he also was called to missionary service. He entered the Provo MTC on September 4th (a week after Brianna), and they did get a chance to see each other there. Andrew is serving in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission and he’s loving it out there, too. While Brianna is learning Spanish and her e-mails home are getting increasingly difficult to understand, we fear that Andrew may pick up some strange foreign tongue out in the Midwest, too! Andrew's mission blog is here (see hyperlink).

Mark is a junior in high school and doing very well there. He’s involved with Student Counsel, NHS and sportsmed loving being busy, and enjoying that. He loves playing lacrosse, which is really just an excuse to run around with sticks and hit people. Mark and I had the chance to go to Japan in the Spring (2013) and had a really great time (continuing the tradition of Dad taking each kid to Japan when he/she turns 16). I’m also taking him to Korea with me over New Years at the end of 2013, and that should be good for the Seoul.

Steven is now in 8th grade in middle school and doing well there. I started 2013 by taking him to Korea with me, so I guess that’s become somewhat of a tradition.  They just shadow me at work there while on Christmas break. Steven got to sit in with me while I both fired someone and hired someone, so that’s kind of interesting.

We grew our immediate family by one this past year, as well. We adopted a lovable furball (no, I was already part of the family). Our “Dakota” is a super energetic little puppy of St. Bernard breed and weighs in at about 100 pounds these days. She and Shadow (our older huskey/malamute mix) get along great and are best friends.

We had some more fun exploring this great planet again this past year, as well. We took a family vacation to Whistler, British BC, Canada in July and really had a great time. The kids went bungee jump-ing and we went white water rafting, ATV riding, zip lining and had all kinds of fun!

Then this summer Michelle and I went to Asia. It’s hard to believe that with all of my time in Asia, I had only taken Michelle there with me once (Japan back in the mid-90s) in 25+ years of marriage (though I had been there several times with our kids). We went on a bit of a grand tour, spending nearly two weeks running around Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Jeju Island (also in Korea). It was so awesome sharing part of my world with her!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and may you enjoy the many blessings of life.