Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Photo Credits-Ashley Mae Photography

Finlay Family 2014

Happy Holidays!  As the year comes to a close we love this opportunity to reflect about how blessed we are to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives. 

Here is a short summary of our lives this year:

James-Is in his last year of his Ph.D./Residency program at City of Hope in Laboratory Animal Medicine. Very soon it will be time to job hunt.  He is the Elder’s Quorum President for our Church. He also continues to put thousands of miles on his road bike commuting to and from work each day, going for longer rides on the weekend when he gets a chance.

Megan-Volunteers at the elementary school and as secretary for the Relief Society, our church women's organization. She still enjoys running, and completed a half marathon last month.

Brielle-(7) Enjoys life as a 2nd grader.  She broke her arm roughhousing with her brother.  She is in piano and volleyball also has her nose stuck in a book at any opportunity and always has a good story to share.

Ethan-(5) Started kindergarten this year and loves it.  He has a lot of energy and a smile to brighten everyone's day. He loves life and creating accidental messes and mischief of all kinds.

Preston-(1) Learned to crawl, walk, run, climb and talk, so he has had a very productive year. J He loves to be the center of attention and is happiest when he gets plenty of sleep.

We did get a few chances to travel with a few local trips this year to Morro Bay, Newport Beach and San Diego (multiple times with season passes to SeaWorld) and out of state visits to Utah, Massachusetts and Texas.

In Utah we got together with Megan's family (all of her 10 siblings with spouses and kids) before her parents and youngest sister left to serve a mission for our church for 3 years in Quito, Ecuador.

During the summer we went to Cape Cod with all of the extended Finlay side.  We couldn't get enough beach time and searching for clams.  The time passed by much too quickly.

A work conference for James brought us to Texas and the chance to explore San Antonio in December.

We hope you have had a good year as well, and love to hear from you.  Good wishes in the year to come!