Christmas 2010

This Christmas season we are thankful for family and friends. We hope this finds you well.

Every year is an eventful year for our growing family. Mindy and her husband Jon are in the midst of living happily ever after in Utah. That’s what princesses do, right? Sarah, with her husband Aaron, is happily and capably raising the next generation. Mari is four, and Alice is one. Joey is anxiously engaged (really engaged!). Julie will join the Hogge clan soon. Heaven help her. Hilly is tearing it up in Idaho, majoring in Elementary Education. Spence is a fresh-faced freshman in Utah, with astronomical aspirations. Bringing up the rear, Bradford thinks high school is just fine, and high school thinks Bradford is just fine.

At this Christmas season, when we remember perhaps more keenly the Lord’s earthly advent and his suffering for us, our thoughts and attention are mystically drawn to family and friends.

The Lord’s gift to his mother at Calvary is an analog to his greatest gifts to us. He could have given his mother anything – riches beyond her imagination, a throne with servants to meet her every worldly need and desire, freedom from Roman oppression, . . . But he didn’t give her any of those gifts. Instead, he gave her a son and friend – John, his beloved apostle.

“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”

Riches will rust. Thrones will be thrown down. Worldly cares and oppression will eventually melt away. But family and friends are forever. That’s why we are thankful for you.

Know that we love you.

Merry Christmas.