Many of you will receive our family letter with our Christmas Card this year, but I thought I would post the letter here, too.

COOK FAMILY NEWS 2008

Scott (17) is living up his senior year at Hilliard Davidson HS. He is busy singing in 3 performance groups: Senior Choir, Madrigals and Boys in Blue. He serves diligently as Student Council Co-President and enjoys writing and performing songs with his friends. Other activities include Chamber Orchestra, performing in the school plays, early morning Seminary and activities with his Priest Quorum. He was chosen as Homecoming King and is looking forward to college next year. He is a caring brother and son.

Andrew (15), a sophomore, is also busy with high school life. He performs with Scott in Senior Choir and Chamber Orchestra and serves on Student Council. He and Scott played “Come Sail Away” with their band for the Homecoming pep rally and Variety Show. He plays on the JV basketball team and was selected for the OCC Honors Choir. He really enjoys his early morning Seminary teachers and currently serves as the Teachers Quorum President. He is excited to drive with his temps and continues to bring fun and laughter into our family.

Claire (13) enjoys 7th grade and middle school life. She played soccer on the school team and enjoys being goalie. She plays violin in two school orchestras and enjoys all her teachers. She is in the Beehive class presidency and loves the Young Women’s program at church. Her reputation as a great babysitter has gotten around so she earns lots of money! She has another year to go with braces…hurray! For her 13th birthday she got a tabby kitten, Bailey, which we are all enjoying. She is a great big sister to Spencer and Ian and is a great helper for Mindy at home. Having grown 6” in the last 2 years her graceful presence is a blessing in our home!

Ian (9) is in 4th grade. This brought new friends, teachers and homework responsibilities for him at school. One day a week he attends a FOCUS program for gifted children at the 6th grade school. He loves to play soccer and also enjoyed baseball this past summer, especially when he got to be catcher. He takes piano lessons and sings in the Columbus Children’s Nina Choir. He is a Bear in Cub scouts. He loves to read and play with Spencer on Webkins or with their friends on our court. He keeps us on our toes and makes family life fun and lively.

Spencer (6) is in 1st grade and loves his teacher, Mrs. Clifford. He has excelled in reading and writing and enjoys recess where he can collect bugs, spiders and other living things. He has started piano lessons and loves to sing Primary songs from the church website. He is often found singing, humming or whistling a tune of his own creation around the house. He is just starting to play T-ball, soccer and basketball…we’ll see how he likes sports! He is a smiley, social boy who brings joy and smiles to those around him.

Mindy turned the big 4-0 this year and was spoiled by a gift a week from Dave for the big count down. The demands of home and family take much of her time but she does make time for reading, knitting, and supporting community recycling projects. She serves in the Primary presidency in our ward and enjoys teaching and interacting with the children. She is the Drama Boosters Secretary for the high school and PTO Vice President at the elementary school.

Dave continues to successfully balance work, family and church responsibilities. His efforts serving in the Stake Presidency culminated this fall when our new Stake Center was completed and dedicated. He travels often with his legal immigration work but also took the family on some fun trips this year. We visited NYC for Spring Break and the Outer Banks of North Carolina over the summer. He and Mindy celebrated their 20th anniversary with a cruise to the Bahamas.
Although life is demanding we count our many blessings at this joyful time of year. LOVE AND GREETINGS TO ALL!

Christmas Traditions

I am going to be lazy. Each month a member of our Stake Presidency writes a message for the Stake Newsletter. I was assigned to write the message for December. Later this month I will update you on the "family happenings," but for now I thought I would share the message I wrote for the newsletter.

Stake Presidency Message
December 2008

Brothers and Sisters:

We are entering a wonderful time of the year. I love the Holiday Season. I enjoy recalling family traditions from when I was young. We often decorated two trees…one real tree and one silver aluminum tree. We would place a “color” light wheel next to the silver tree and watch it turn from blue, to yellow, to green, and to red. Often our natural tree would be “flocked” or decorated with tinsel. Only my father had the patience to place the tinsel on correctly, strand by strand. Another tradition the kids enjoyed was selecting one present from under the tree and opening it on Christmas Eve, following our reading of the Nativity story from the New Testament. One of the prized gifts we received each year was a “Book” of Lifesavers. We also enjoyed watching my mother look for a hidden gift placed in the tree by my father.

Other traditions involved visiting neighbors and friends. I grew up with three sisters and one brother. We would visit families on Christmas Eve and each of us would be allowed to carry in and delivery a carrier with six bottles of soda for our friends and neighbors.

In our family now, we are working to develop family traditions. When I served as a Bishop, our family invited the members of the Ward to join us for a Family Home Evenings in December. These Family Home Evenings have provided us rich memories to reflect on. We make an effort to go caroling each year. We have started a practice of donating food to the Mid’ Ohio Food Bank and shopping for Secret Santa gifts. We often gather with extended family for an enjoyable dinner on Christmas Eve, followed by a reading of the Christmas Story from the New Testament. Another family of close friends often joins us late on Christmas Eve to assist with important tasks, after which we may watch a movie. Finally, much to the consternation of our kids, no one is allowed to open a present on Christmas morning until everyone is awake and gathered around the Christmas Tree.

President James E. Faust taught that family traditions can enrich family life. He stated:

Some of the great strengths of families can be found in their own traditions, which may consist of many things: making special occasions of the blessing of children, baptisms, ordinations to the priesthood, birthdays, fishing trips, skits on Christmas Eve, family home evening, and so forth.

Underlying these traditions, is a desire to gather with family and friends to feel the Spirit of the Season. It is the opportunity to contemplate and recall the life and teachings of our elder brother, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. It is my hope that each of us may remember the true meaning behind this wonderful season as we carryon or establish traditions:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

I know and testify that as we remember the true meaning, we will receive His gift of peace.

Merry Christmas!

Our New Addition - Bailey

After trying our hand over the years with three dogs, we are now officially a cat family. Claire adopted "Bailey" on October 22, 2008. She is a five-month old tabby. So far, her favorite spots seem to be under mom and dad's bed and on Claire's bed. She is in danger of being "cuddled" to death. I don't think she knows what to make of all the attention she receives...mom is trying to teach Spencer how to hold a kitty.

Scott is busy preparing for a school production, "The Man Who Came to Dinner." Ian has a small part as a choir boy, together with a number of other young boys. As I noted in my last entry, Scott was also selected as Homecoming King for Hilliard Davidson High School (below is a picture of the future king and his mother on the track, just before learning he was selected as King).

Andrew and I had a fun time running in our 50-mile relay in Pennsylvania. However, the funnest part was golfing on the afternoon before the race. Andrew is excited to get out and play again.



Claire is the newest teenager in our family. We celebrated her birthday with a run to her favorite restaurant - Chipotle. She and her mom have worked very hard to redo her room (a prerequisite to adopting Bailey). They did an expert job painting her room and are moving on to the accessories.



Ian is enjoying flag football after school once a week and is learning to play the cello. He had a fun Halloween and dressed as Robin Hood.



Spencer was Dash (from the Incredibles) for Halloween. He and I had an enjoyable visit to the main downtown library in Columbus yesterday.



Mindy continues to be busy with the kids' activities and hosted a baby shower on Saturday afternoon. She was especially busy this month with Claire's birthday and other activities since I traveled each week this month.



I traveled to State College in Pennsylvania with Andrew to run the distance relay. Then I traveled to New York City for a Conference and client meetings. The next week I traveled to Philly...and was there for the first day of the World Series. Even though the first game was in Florida, the city was fired up. All of the buildings were decorated and everyone seemed to be wearing Phillies hats, shirts and gear. Then, this past week I traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska for meetings with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services as a member of the American Immigration Lawyers' Liaison Committee.



November should bring less travel for me, but Mindy and Scott will travel to Utah for an official visit to BYU.


Last Sunday night while I was talking with Mom and Dad, they asked who I was voting for. At that time, I was undecided. I really don't care for either McCain or Obama. Yesterday, I went for a slow 5 mile run and Claire kept me company on her bike as I ran. It gave us a nice time to visit about school, church and politics. It occured to me as she and I talked...if I can't bring myself to vote for either of the candidates, maybe I'll write in Romney. We'll see.


Take care everyone.

Hmmm...Does this work?

Since there seems to be so much happening all the time with our family (and I do a poor job of communicating to our extended family), I thought I'd try a blog.

Scott was selected as Hilliard Davidson H.S. Homecoming King this past week.

Andrew continues to prepare for basketball season and will join me (and five other runners on our team) in running the Tussey 50 mile relay this next weekend.

Claire just completed a successful year on her middle school soccer team. She played on the "A" team which consisted of both 7th and 8th graders.

Ian is totally into the Buckeyes this year. It's been an interesting transition to see his interest in sports grow exponentially over the past year. He is playing soccer now, and is much more "active" than in past years.

Spencer is our "whistler." He loves to whistle, hum, sing and has now started piano lessons. He, too, is playing soccer. His current strategy is to simply stand in front of the opponent's goal and call his team mates names continually...hoping for a well-placed pass.

Mindy is incredibly busy doing good...as always. She is Secretary for the High School Drama Boosters, Vice President of the elementary school PTO (she'll be President next year), and 1st Counselor in the ward primary. She does a great job of keeping up with all the kids activities and still finds time for many charitable projects.

Me? I like to ride my motorcycle (when I have time).

Let me know what you think of this whole blogging idea!