Christmas Letter

Has it been a year already? So much has been going on at the Mecham house that we don't know if we can fit it all in one letter.

Dallin turned 5 and started kindergarten in August and is doing really well. While his classmates are busy learning the alphabet, he is reading! He amazes us every day by what he can comprehend. Forget Dr. Seuss. He likes reading the more challenging stuff, like cereal boxes, billboards, and warning labels. Dallin loves Batman (he was Batman for Halloween). He also has been showing more of an interest in music. We love it! He asked Cheryl to teach him the "Monsters vs. Aliens president song" (Axel F). He learned it in one day and plays it over and over now. He has also been singing more as well.

Alyssa will turn 4 in February and is still our little girly girl. She was Belle for Halloween and made a point to twirl for anyone that would look her way. She constantly asks if she can wear makeup and she's only truly happy when she is wearing a dress. She started preschool in September and has loved it. She is also really smart. She has been writing her name with ease for some time now and has better handwriting than Dallin. She is very artistic and loves to color and draw all the time. She's really into Barbies and Polly Pockets and princess movies.

Brian has had an interesting year. He lost his job in July but ended up getting it back in September with the condition that he be willing to take on the assignment to oversee a job in Fillmore (2 ½ hours away). He is now out of town weekly from Monday to Thursday until next August. Working in Fillmore is better than no job at all and it's guaranteed employment until August, so we can't complain too much. But needless to say, it's very hard on him and we miss him terribly. At church, he was called earlier this year as the executive secretary to the Bishop. It's been really hard for him to keep it up from Fillmore, but he's determined to make it work.

Cheryl started a job in August as an editorial assistant for the Deseret News and Church News downtown. This is the first job she has had in 5 years and it's a huge adjustment from her stay-at-home mom life. We thought it would take a while for Brian to get a job in his field, so we thought Cheryl better get a job to cover things until he did. His work called him to come back one week after Cheryl started her job. Talk about terrible timing. Cheryl promised 6 months to her new employers so they would feel they weren't wasting their time on her, so she's stuck for a while. She is still the pianist in Relief Society and the unofficial advertising specialist for the enrichment committee.

So, what's happening with the kids while we are both working, you ask? Cheryl's sister Julie and her family moved in with us in August. They sold their house in Tooele and were planning on staying with us for a few weeks while they found a new house. As luck would have it, they couldn't find anything they liked right away, so they have stuck around and Julie has become the most wonderful second mother to the kids. It's still really difficult for everyone involved, but we are trying to make the most of it. And it's only temporary. We feel so blessed that Cheryl can quit around February and doesn't have to continue to work, especially since she is pregnant with our third child. Surprise! We are so excited. We have waited a long time for this newest member of our family to join us and we can hardly wait to meet HER in May. (We had the ultrasound this morning and we are having a girl!)

If you made it through this whole novel, you are a real trooper. We wanted to let everyone know that through all our trials this past year, we truly feel blessed. We have been protected and cared for in ways that can only be attributed to Heavenly Father's hand in our lives. This season, we hope we can all focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

Love, Brian, Cheryl, Dallin, Alyssa, and Baby Mecham

Be smart this holiday season

It makes me really sad to see so much greed and overspending going on all around me. It seems as if everyone around me has all the money in the world to spend on their children at Christmas. At Walmart (in West Valley, I might add), I see parents with carts overflowing with expensive toys. I don't know of many neighborhoods in West Valley that are filled with people rich enough to be spending so extravagantly. These are people that have probably lost their jobs in the past year or survived a layoff. At the very least they have probably had someone close to them affected by the economy. Doesn't it make them a little nervous to be spending all their money, or more likely, racking up their credit cards, when their future is unsure? Doesn't it make them feel guilty that they are surrounded by people that are less fortunate? Doesn't it make them worried that their kids, with such an abundant choice of toys, will choose to play with the discarded wrapping paper instead? Or forget about these toys in a month and start demanding more from their indulgent parents?

Having gone through Brian's job loss this past year has really opened our eyes on wasteful spending. It hasn't cured us completely, and we are far from perfect, but we also realize how important it is to save. We could have lost our house if his unemployment had continued a few more months. I feel like with Brian and I both working right now, we are better off that we ever have been, but most of the abundance is going straight into savings. In this economy we can't afford NOT to save. Unemployment could happen to us again at any time. You never know what the future holds, but we are going to be as prepared as possible. Our kids are only getting 3 or 4 presents each, none costing more than $35 each and most costing around $10 each. And I'm positive that they will both be thrilled with their presents and not notice anything lacking.

I know there's a lot of pressure from kids to get them what they want. There's also the pressure of keeping up with the Joneses, or the pressure on your kids from schoolmates to trump each other with the presents they received ("I got more than you!" or "My presents were more expensive/bigger than yours!") But what are we really teaching our children by giving them big expensive things or way too many things? Children these days could really use a lesson in responsibility and humility. They need to be aware that there are so many that can't even afford food, let alone presents.

They also need to be aware of money and what it takes to earn it. We've started giving our kids a little allowance every week, and I've been very proud of their decisions. When they ask for something at the store, I ask them if they want to buy it with their own money. Every time, Dallin has said, "No, I want to save it for something else." If he didn't have his own money, he would have whined the whole way through the store that we didn't buy it, but when it comes down to his own money, he would rather not waste it on frivolous purchases. He's trying to save up for something that is worth it, and I'm proud of him.

I hope we can all humble ourselves this season and look around us. So many people are suffering, yet so many people are indulging. I hope we aren't on either side of that spectrum, and that we are sitting happily somewhere in the middle, having a great holiday season that isn't all about material goods. Presents are not the reason for the season! Merry Christmas everyone!