Our Christmas Newsletter

The Oman Family

Christmas Newsletter

2011

Well, here we are, another year, another picture I guess. This is our crew minus Becki’s husband Kyle, he had to work the day this photo was taken; we will get him next year I guess. The first row is Weston, Greg, Joyce and Elijah, the back row Melissa, Ben, Becki and Adelaide, or Addie as we call her.

The big event from last Christmas was the arrival of Addie on Dec 29, 2010. Boy oh boy has she brought some class and happiness to the operation here. Everybody seems to love her just fine. She doesn’t have a shortage of personal attention.

Becki and Kyle have their hands full with the two boys and the new infant. Kyle puts in long and irregular hours while he finishes his Family Practice Residency at the University of Utah. Becki is go, go, go, with the kids, her part time employment as a Speech Pathologist plus she teaches some exercise classes at a local gym.

Ben and Melissa are finishing school at Utah State--He in Electrical Engineering and she in Psychology. They purchased a new home last July and are settling in. Their hearts belong to Nana their boxer dog who has a Class III malocclusion and a unilateral cross bite from my way of looking at her.

We did some wandering around this year. February took us to Arizona for golfing and visiting with our dear friends The Westergard’s. Some dental conferences to Washington DC and San Antonio, a trip to England last July and a Dental Humanitarian trip to Panama gave us some air miles. We kayaked the Panama Canal and had a great experience in that country. England was wonderful. We visited Leeds where Joyce’s brother and his wife were serving a mission. We trained on down to London and saw some of the sights. There we met a dear friend from our humanitarian trips over the years, Dr. Rawa Hassan who graciously showed us around for a day or so.

Somehow we always seem to find something to do. If there isn’t work here on the plantation in Farmington there is always something else happening. Summer seems to take us up to Bear Lake quite often and we enjoyed a wonderful week the end of July. Ben’s in-laws were there the same time our family was so we were able to intermingle and have a lot of fun. We love this time of our life.

The earth continues to rotate and revolve—that means the years pass and we are all getting older. Sometimes we have some aches and sometimes we don’t but it is becoming more common to wonder inside if our legs and arms are going to move fast enough and in the right direction.

This Thanksgiving Season has given us cause as usually happens to ponder our blessings, our freedom and our liberty—what it is, what it should be and in some ways what we have lost. In the whole scheme of things we are all blessed and grateful for the circumstances we find ourselves in; we are grateful for the degree of health we enjoy; we look forward to the future with an eye towards an increased devotion to our Eternal Judge and His continued blessings upon this land. Our hopes are that your sentiments are congruent with that.

Merry, Merry Christmas to You, And a Happy and Content New Year

Greg and Joyce

Wind or War

Just last week we had a devastating wind event that destroyed property, damaged homes, altered landscapes and gave opportunity to serve. Today, 70 years ago there was another wind that came to our land from the west. It was an attack on what was then U.S. Territory at Pearl Harbor. Much has been written about the beginning of our country's participation in World War II, precipitated by that event. It has been revealed by diligent research that quite possibly this was the only way the Japanese government and military could respond to sanctions and restrictions that were placed upon it. In all honesty too, there is every indication that in Washington DC there were some that knew the attack was imminent from intelligence gathered through intercepted Japanese communiques.

No matter. The attack was abrupt, the destruction was great; even so Providence did look down on this nation. The might of the Naval Forces was out at sea, the carriers which were supposed to be in Pearl Harbor were not there. The battleships were damaged and destroyed, young lives were taken and for the next three and three quarters years nary a person in this country was not affected by the war.

In Europe there had been war already for 2 years. Devastation, death, destroyed and divided families lived day by day. Some were occupied by foreign soldiers, others had to withstand air assault and constant bombings. Homes, businesses, roads, utilities were all destroyed sometimes in just an instant.

Looking about our landscape from our wind event it is obvious that this was a minor inconvenience. As I think of what the world was like 70 years ago, very few of us can relate to the Wind of War. As I stood at one time on the deck of the USS Missouri where the Surrender was signed to end the war in the Pacific; there I could look and see the buried hulk of the USS Arizona; I could imagine the incredible chaos that comes from an organized attack. There in the Punchbowl Cemetery as well as other military cemeteries I have visited one thought comes to my mind: "Walk softly, this is sacred ground, Fallen Warriors are here"

Hannan Rides Again

Here is an offering from the brilliant and witty Daniel Hannan.

East Wind

We had a big east wind blowing last night, through the morning and it is finally settling down a little this afternoon. Hundreds of trees are down, power has been out and even one house fire that I saw that started after a tree fell on the house in Bountiful, Ut. My dad lost most of his barn roof, power is still off in most of Centerville, UT. A big spruce in Farmington, UT that has been decorated every Christmastime for years by the Neumann family near the Farmington Cemetery came down.

Driving on I-15 in Davis County I saw about a dozen big rigs on their sides. They are starting to clean that up as I type this out. This area is known for some big east wind events from time to time. You get high pressure to the north and east of Utah and low pressure in the Four Corners area and happens. We're not alone though, it looks like California and all parts between here and there have had some strong winds with damage.