Merry Christmas To All!

Dear Family and Friends,

After a couple of years vacation from writing Christmas cards, I thought that maybe I would lay to rest the rumor that the Mielke Family was abducted by aliens and teaching Do-It-Yourself home projects to fellow humans living on other planets. This is false, as they are teaching us. Regardless, we are extremely busy in our ongoing remodel job and are very happy with the results as of yet.

Heath changed companies this year and now works for Black & Veatch, which is an engineering firm. He is currently working in Hastings, Nebraska as Safety Manager for the construction of a coal fired power plant. He makes the twelve hour trip home to Wisconsin every two weeks, usually on a Thursday night, only to return back to Hastings on Sunday afternoons. As difficult as this lifestyle is, our hearts are full of gratitude for this employment. We all live for the weekends that he is home, when we work hard on the house and PLAY hard with the kids.

I am forever working on the house and usually thoroughly enjoying it. This year we finish our kitchen, laundry room, kids bedrooms, and formal dining room. We are currently working on our entry, family room, and breakfast nook. Heath has installed new doors, crown moldings and new baseboard in all rooms. We are really enjoying the transformation. When I am not busy with the house, I enjoy trying to keep up with our five beautiful and ever growing children.

Nicholas is fourteen, tall, and handsome. He is attending his first year of early morning Seminary at our church, where they are studying the New Testament. He is always ready to go and never once has had to be prodded out of bed. He loves this class. When he has free time, he is either working on scouting, planning a paint ball activity with his friends, and here lately, he has been skiing at our local ski hill, Granite Peak. He just got his first job working for this ski hill.

Hayden is a hard working, self driven, young man. With mom driving Nick to Seminary in the morning and waiting the 45 minutes for his class to get out, Hayden is completely responsible for his morning routine. Never once has his mother had to run him to school because he missed the bus. Hayden, after years of skiing, decided to buy a snowboard this year. On his third time on the hill, you would have thought he had been snowboarding for years. Hayden also enjoys scouting, friends, and helping with the home improvement jobs.

Dylan is our happy, rule following child. He works hard in school and is already planning a career in medicine. He wanted to be a surgeon for Halloween and Heath talked him into telling the neighbors that he was a plastic surgeon. One of the neighbors even told him that she was in need of his services. He was very pleased with himself until mom informed him what the procedure was. So now he will still be a plastic surgeon, but he will specialize in eyelids.

Megan is nine going on nineteen. She loves Achievement Days, dancing, and singing. She is very nurturing and after the young women in our ward taught the Achievement Days Girls what was involved in babysitting, she was very disappointed that she has to wait three years until she can pass around a babysitting sign-up sheet to the moms in our ward. Megan, like all the kids, loves to ski, and looks forward to her time on the ski hill.

Seth keeps the Mielke Solar System spinning. He knows how to have a good time, how to make everyone laugh, and how to keep up with everyone else. He loves to ski, fish, swim, play in the forest, work hard and help in the kitchen when it involves something yummy.

We wish you all the happiness and joy this season has to offer. May you know that we count you among our richest blessings. As we reflect on the birth, life, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, may we all experience the peace, hope, and joy for the reality of these events.

Merry Christmas, The Mielke Family