Merī Kurisumasu!

Dear Family, 
What follows is our Christmas letter 2012. 
Love, Mom and Dad

Christmas  2012

Dear Family and Friends, This yule season finds us in Fukuoka, Japan - far from home and from most of our family and loved ones.  Not that we are homesick or anything, but the tabulated family looks like this…

Family	City	miles away & direction	Times zones away
Naylors, Heidi and family, oldest daughter – empty nest	Boise, ID	4900 E	-16
Karl and family, oldest son – empty nest	Cleveland, OH	6175 E	-14
Siebachs, Natasha and family, middle daughter	Dallas, TX	6170 E	-15
Brimhalls, Betsy and family, youngest daughter	Portland, OR	4560 E	-17
Daniel and family, middle son	Tosu, Japan	20 S	0
Jeremy and family, youngest son	Kennewick, WA	4675 E	-17
Spencer Siebach, nearest grandchild - missionary	Hong Kong	2000 SW	-1
Matthew Naylor, furthest grandchild - Coast Guard Academy cadet	Groton, CT	6415* E	-14
Megan Beus, close second, Harvard student	Boston, MA	6375* E	-14

·       In the other direction: 10,465 miles W

Seven of our grandchildren have now entered the ranks of the Young Single Adults, living away from home and not yet married. We have 16 great grandchildren but no great-grandchildren as yet.  We miss them all except Dan’s family whom we see almost weekly. They left our apartment just a few hours ago after a lovely dinner, a family Christmas program featuring Raiden and Anika as Joseph and Mary, and the building of a gingerbread house, an architectural marvel.  Tomorrow after a day’s work at the office, we will drive to their home to spend Christmas eve and morning with them.  We’re playing catch-up after many years of being far away.  We figure since Santa doesn’t know where we are anyway, why stay at home and wait for him.

We marvel at how time flies in missionary service and how many ways our lives are being blessed. We feel a renewed and enhanced closeness to the Spirit and sense a deeper understanding of the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We are possessed of stronger testimonies and increased faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.   We have greater love for each other than ever before and a determined striving for an eternal togetherness with those we love.  Most of all this season we have a deep and abiding sense of gratitude. And not least, we find it ever more difficult to exclude anyone from the circle we generally refer to as our “loved ones.”  It calls to mind the old poetic expression of Edwin Markham that mother Beus often quoted…

“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In !”

 As part of the legacy mother left us when she departed this life 48 years ago, we could do hardly better than to apply it in our own lives and bequeath it to our posterity as well.  May a loving Heavenly Father bless each of you with those things you need most and may you draw closer to him. 

Love, The Fukuoka Beuses