Ten Physical Things:
- We had a healthy year
- The girls grew a lot, learned a ton, and got both more mature and more sassy(!)
- Kathryn and Juliana both have eight adult front teeth grown in. Their smiles no longer resemble jack-o-lanterns
- The girls are learning to sing in harmony
- Steven ran a personal best marathon this year in 2:58:53
- Steven loves to run and bike as fast and as far as time allows
- The girls ran a 5K and a bunch of mile runs this year, including a family Turkey Trot in La Verkin
- Megan ran a PR on a 5K this year
- Kathryn and Juliana passed two levels of swim lessons. Now they are little dolphins!
- Our fingernails grew, and so did our hairs
- We enjoyed many healthy foods from our garden
Ten Foods:
- Chocolate!
- Peanut butter!
- Megan's homemade bread with freshly-ground wheat!
- Potstickers!
- Barbecue chicken!
- Jerk seasoned turkey burgers!
- Garden tomato salad with balsamic vinaigrette!
- Homemade Neapolitan pizzas!
- Nectarines!
- Falafel!
- Molten chocolate cakes!
Ten Things about Nature:
- Our fresh-cut Christmas tree (bringing nature indoors)
- Fall colors in the mountains
- Mt. Timpanogos
- Wood--because it makes most of the things we live in, on, and with
- Steven enjoyed riding his bike on the Alpine Loop. Majestic!
- Running the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (only one mile from home)
- The beach in California
- Birdsong
- The miracle that delicious fruits and vegetables actually grow in our garden with only a little effort
- Snow (Steven takes issue with this one, as he is the one who has to shovel it all winter long)
Ten Material Possessions:- Our new dresser
- Running shoes and road bike
- Our piano
- Kathryn's Bear-bie and Juliana's Dolly
- Books (look for our favorite books read in 2011 soon)
- A warm, water-tight, secure home
- Our beds
- A water heater
- Our new computer
- Megan: prescription sunglasses
Ten Places:
- France and Switzerland
- Nashville, TN
- Granny's House in Rancho Cucamonga, CA
- The United States
- The Provo Temple (Megan's favorite)
- Edgemont neighborhood (where most of our friends live)
- Zion National Park
- Provo, UT
- The library
- Kathryn and Juliana's bedroom
Ten Modern Inventions:
- Phones, email, and Skype
- Computers, the Internet
- Electricity
- GPS watches (for running and cycling)
- Vaccinations
- Digital cameras
- Flushing toilets
- mp3 players
- Automobiles (because as much as Steven likes to bike, sometimes you gotta have a car!)
- Potable water and plumbing
Ten Living People:
- Grandparents Nordstrom and Burdette
- Cousins, aunts, uncles
- Kathryn: Jimmer Fredette (why? I don't know; we saw him play once this year, though)
- Megan: Maryann Jackson
- Juliana: Sister Judd (Activity Days leader), Sister Smith (piano teacher)
- Kathryn: Mme Budge and Ms. Quinn (school teachers)
- Steven: Myrna Layton
- Steven: John Dehlin, Joanna Brooks, Marcus Borg, Harvey Cox, Bart Ehrman
- Adele
- Marilyn Webb
- Tina Fey
Ten Deceased People:- Emma Green Bull (Megan's ancestor)
- Charlotte Blake Humphries (Megan's grandmother; passed away late last year)
- Delta Cox Blake (Kathryn did a biography report on her great-great-grandmother)
- Mohandas Gandhi
- Fritz Nordstrom (long lost ancestor)
- Stella Lundquist Nordstrom (Steven's grandmother)
- John Lennon
- Jane Austen
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Mother Teresa
Ten Milestones:
- Kathryn and Juliana got baptized in June
- Steven passed his third year review at work
- Megan renewed her teaching license
- The girls read over 150 books each, over 20,000 pages each
- We read the New Testament as a family
- We canned and froze apricots, nectarines, pears, plums, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and grapes in many forms. It took the whole month of October
- Steven ran over 1,000 miles, and biked over 2,000 miles, burning something like 250,000 calories in around 300 hours of exercise
- Juliana and Kathryn memorized addition and subtraction facts, 0-12
- Megan scrapbooked 3 years of our memories (now we're only 3 years behind!)
- We didn't go crazy
Ten Spiritual Things:
- Being able to go to church every Sunday
- Teachings of life after death
- The Holy Ghost as comfort and guide
- Jesus' teachings of radical love and peaceful resistance against domination systems through personal compassionate action
- Singing in choir
- Attending Primary (we're all there!)
- Forgiveness
- Nature
- Prayer
- The birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ
There are many more things and people we are thankful for that couldn't be listed here. We hope you're having a wonderful holiday season. What 100 things are YOU grateful for?
