With Anastasiya in the Bellagio conservatory
Merry Christmas from the Rawhouser’s
It seems that there is never enough time for everything, but we wanted to take the time to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We have been so blessed in the last year. May we remember Christ at Christmas & commit ourselves to be more like Him in the coming year.
Anastasiya Khokhlova
Anastasiya is our 15 year-old foreign exchange student from Bor, Russia (you know, the suburb of Nizhny Novgorod, somewhere between Moscow and China). She arrived in August, will be here until June, & is studying hard at L.V. Academy, a magnet high school for fine arts and languages. She has earned straight A’s in her many hard classes, which include French, Spanish, and German (Japanese was full). She’s an accomplished pianist, loves to read, and has enjoyed having siblings for the first time.
Hans
Hans is still working in land development, “designing gutters or something,” as Monica would say. He had fun on the family vacation to the Black Hills & Yellowstone. We stayed at KOA campgrounds & slept in tents (We thought it was the best way to welcome Anastasiya to US, & at the same time make sure she’d make it through the year). As you see from the return address, we have a new condo. Hans acted as foreman for most of the remodeling done before we moved in. The house looks nice, but we won’t be starting any new construction projects soon.
Monica
Monica is halfway through the sixth round of the 10-round boxing match we call college. Her eye is a little swollen, but she keeps saying, “Let me at him coach.” We’ll see the scorecard in a couple more years (we hope). In between rounds, she reads (Lord of the Rings trilogy & the Hobbit), plays Iron Chef in the kitchen, and serves in the Young Women (in October she helped the 12 year-olds make pajama-bottoms). She also decorated our new condo (she was at Home Depot every day buying materials as well). She went to the tamale festival in Indio California.
Conrad
Conrad He loves horses, including neighing, galloping, looking, and smelling (so he says) like a horse. He even got to tell everyone at church in the primary program how he feeds Wayne Newton’s horses carrots, apples & sugar cubes (he also sang all the songs quite loudly and memorized 3 scriptures this year). We think that Conrad will be a good veterinarian when he grows up. If not, karaoke is his back up gig. His repertoire includes “Dancing Queen” by ABBA & “Rock Lobster” by The B52’s. Thanks to Monica, he also knows the top 40.
Riley
Riley is so happy – happy to color on the walls & ride like a sultan on his loyal elephant (that would be Hans). He has grown in the last year, weighing 10 lbs less then Conrad, & learning to say Mama, Dada, Uh-oh. He was the cutest punk rocker for Halloween, with spiked blonde hair & a dog collar. He’s pretty athletic (he loves to throw things), although he walks like he’s always on the verge of falling. Anastisiya says that he would be perfect for the KGB, although there is no KGB, there never was any KGB, and if anyone asks about the KGB “we know nothing.”