After a lot of back and forth in my head, I've decided not to celebrate the birthdays here. It's just too hard to do justice to how special and dear and wonderful the birthday children, big and small, are. How can I express all that in a few words here? It's not possible. I feel the need to go on and on about each one, and show many pictures. My heart wants to explode in happiness and gratitude for our family today, as I remember that January day in Davis, California, when the world was new and we became the parents of our first little baby boy.

Our First Birthday of the Year

               Little Snuggle Bunny Ira is four years old today!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A new year is upon us! Thankful for the opportunity to live, to share, to grow.

This year, I plan to celebrate Happiness and Good Things in this space.

Our biggest happiness, of course, is our Faith and our Family. So I will mark each birthday with a little snippet, a picture, something from my journal, a memory or something that someone else said or wrote about the birthday person!

 I'd like to keep track of good things from 2020, so I jotted down a little list in my journal. There is more, too.

EXTRAORDINARY

 IT'S AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE

If ever there was a year that needed Christmas, this is it. Hold onto the magic and share flurries of kindness wherever you can. Spread warmth and happiness with the whole street. Light up those around you. Let's make the most of the season - however we can!

from Winter 2020 Boden clothing catalog (Britain)

(Hey, right now I'm copying inspiration and beautiful sentiments from anywhere I can - and I like this.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today, 14 July, is an important family date: it is Ursula Franziska's Birthday! 

In a family of good-looking children, she stood out as a beauty. And she had the grace and elegance to match. When she was very small, just four or so, Mom delighted in telling friends how, on a walk up to the Freinberg with the children recently, little Ursi had said to her, "Mama, you need to push the baby carriage holding your hands like this", demonstrating, "it looks more elegant!"

Of course she became our elegant Aunt Trude's favorite, and it was fine with us.

She should have been a princess, and Mom tried, but she was the middle child in a family that sometimes lacked even basics. It was a situation that was truly not fair, but Ursi shone anyway, and blazed  her own trail. 

Based in Lucerne in recent years, she became, as John said, "the Woess Family Goodwill Ambassador", (re)establishing and strengthening contacts with long-lost cousins and other dear relatives near and far. Thank you, Urs, for being a kind and generous sister, aunt and friend.

Happy, Happy Birthday to you!  You're Queen for the Day! No, let's make it A Week! Or how about A Month?

Letter

It was a beautiful, mild June. I remember it well. This letter captures the mood of the time.

John Charles, age twenty-two, was on his way home from his mission and briefly touring in Europe with some BYU students he had met in his last mission area, Salzburg. (This was permitted at the time.)
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