I must be getting rusty as the editor pretty much said “I wouldn’t want to read all of that about someone else’s kids,” (please send your letters anyway😉) just because the 2 pages lacked a coherent theme or humor. In reality this letter begins that way every year and might end that way this year. Back to the drawing board. Let’s see…our kids are growing up, check. According to his friend group poll, Andrew glowed up (more poll results and new teenager vocab to follow!). Instead of COVID we have World Cup Fever whose tell-tale sign is listening to playlists of past World Cup Theme Songs. Wavin’ Flag is our favorite but the unofficial youtube World Cup song is living rent free in our brains. We’ll celebrate US game days with foods from our opponent countries of Wales, England, and Iran. Italy took out its frustrations from not qualifying for the World Cup by trying to sabotage our spring break trip as we had to spend a night in Denver on the way overseas which meant missing the Last Supper despite buying tickets twice. I might have bought tickets for the Vatican on the wrong day but still made it in, and Lisa’s purse and phone were stolen in Rome (at least her passport wasn’t in it). We are still trying to figure out how to fill out a bracket for a tournament with group stages and games that can end in a draw, but we’ve come to love the beautiful game.
Natali (20), aka Hermana (Sister) Easton, or at times Hermana Beaston (as dubbed by her mission friends “so it means I’m cool”) will love the people of Argentina for the rest of her life after serving, teaching, and learning from them for the past year. Will her love for mate (hot grass water) last as long? For the first 12 months away we enjoyed her novel length emails and only occasionally teased her about their length then for the last 6 months we missed the additional detail but were thrilled she was too busy to spend so much time writing. What did she learn and do? In her words, “technology specialist for 9 months means you may find her stalking you on social media or she can help you with internet marketing, chef, cleaning woman, disciple of Christ, Espanol, registering for college from halfway around the world, I'm the new number 1 fan of the FSY/EFY 2023 album of music. I look forward to seasonings and condiments beyond salt, pepper, and mayo (‘to dad’s horror and disgust’). The native missionaries no longer answer my questions about Spanish cus I find the exceptions to the rules and show how illogical a grammar rule is.... or I stump them and they can't answer jajaja. Can officially do a pushup (like real, not knee pushups) for every month that I've been in Argentina. Knee push-ups I can do as many as the number of miles I've walked in the last 16 months jajajajaja.” That may have been funnier in Spanish😉. She’ll have some work to do post mission on her rizz. She’s hoping to bring the Albiceleste good luck as her mission homecoming address will be given immediately after the World Cup Final—if it goes to extra time her brothers might miss her talk. Rosario is the hometown of Messi so you know who she’s rooting for, and if you don’t (face palm), that would be Argentina.
Mack (19) mistakenly thought high school ended last year when soccer season ended in October. By the time he realized school was still going and real life was shortly to follow he’d missed application deadlines to a number of schools but his average bowling score had improved dramatically. Lisa found out at the final Madrigals’ choir concert that Mack had a major solo in Gaelic. Glad we happened to attend! For months we hoped someone else would ask him about his post-graduation plans as we were in the dark. In hopes of inspiring educational goals Dad took him on a work trip to the southeast where he toured lots of moulding plants, stayed awake during lots of meetings, and added 4 states to reach 49—two more than Natali! He waited until the end of June to apply to college and until the last week of July to decide to attend the University of Idaho. He was so excited to go to college (or move out) in a town he had never visited (Moscow, ID) that he had Lisa drop him off two days before he could move into the dorms—sus. After mistakenly ordering fish egg pasta in Rome, Mack summed it up best when he told Lisa, “If you made that for dinner at home, I’d have stayed upstairs.” Misses Lily and Ditten and beating dad in ping pong. Lisa found an entire bag of trash—mostly candy wrappers under the bed after Mack’s departure—He told Andrew just to push it further under the bed when he moved out…A semester worth of his texts don’t add up to one of Natali’s emails for word count, but we are grateful for each of them. One day we hope he will initiate the dialog. We believe he's been going to class but are sure that he’s been playing multiple intramural sports and hitting the gym frequently enough to show off his six-pack shirtless at a UofI football game with an I painted on his chest. Attentive readers may remember his favorite team from letters past—Germany, ouch, another group stage fail.
Andrew (17), apparently called Andy by his friends earned his driver’s license after consenting to follow the instructor’s rules, managed to be sick on test day for the ACT twice, finally saw a cougar on his 4th time tracking cats in the winter, but will he be a BYU Cougar? We are hoping he applies a little earlier than Mack. Had a W finish to complete an assist from Mack in the last bro to bro soccer link-up during the spring club season. Didn’t tire of pasta, gelato—bussin, or art—mid during a spring break trip to Italy with Mack, Mom, and Dad. Ok, well maybe he was more excited about seeing a deer from the train than the Sistine Chapel ceiling or the David—pretty meh, but someday he’ll appreciate the effort we made—right? Attending an Inter-Milan futbol game was unquestionably his highlight. Might have bumped his forehead on the glass covering Da Vinci’s Annunciation at the Uffizi while getting a closer look. Don’t tell him how tired his dad was on the 31-mile backpacking trip in Yellowstone. He endured a challenging senior soccer season as his high school transitioned from 4A to 5A, has developed a habit of bouncing his curls with an uplifting hand motion, to make sure they are still there or because the girls think it’s drippin—if I were more tech savvy, or 30 years younger, I’d figure out how to include a GIF of his hair bounce. Editor’s note: Andrew applied to college in November with a 4.0 GPA and chopped his locks in December! USA…
Kate (15) loves to make us wince while showing us how she can go past 180 degrees on her splits—totally cracked, indexed over 1300 names in 2 days to help people find their ancestors, wasn’t sure it was fair to miss Italy, but enjoyed spring break with her sisters at Grandma & Grandpa Dame’s in Arizona. Invited an aunt and cousin to join her 15-year-old trip on a cruise to the Bahamas, earned her driver’s permit, attended Dear Evan Hansen in Boise, served as her class president at church, and put on a craft camp for a couple dozen kids this summer to earn money. Danced 4 times a week in preparation to play Sneezy in the Snow White ballet performance, worked hard to maintain her grades, was more than happy to return to Florida over Labor Day to visit cousins in Tampa, made her own Wonder Woman Halloween costume, and texted Papa Randy regularly to make sure he’s doing well in his recovery from Leukemia. She’s a loyal friend, sensitive to those around her, and said she made everyone laugh but can’t remember why or when…don’t ask (hoping that’s normal for a teenage girl). France
Emily (12) stole the show with her ballet performance as Grumpy in Snow White, though she was initially offended at being offered that role as she thought it was an L. Her instructor must have known that the red hair was finally coming out in her personality. Attends the temple monthly with names of ancestors she’s found, but depending on the day she’s our sweet, adorable daughter or a soon to be teen. For her 12-year-old trip she accompanied Dad to New England for his MBA class reunion where highlights included the Freedom Trail in Boston, whale watching in Gloucester, holding an original Book of Mormon at the Dartmouth Library, and visiting the colonial era Dame Garrison in Dover, NH. But the trip was summed up best by her memorable quote “The only good thing about the smell is that if you fart in the car the windows are already down.” You’ll have to read to the end for that to make sense…sorry. Makes mom happy by cleaning up the cats’ frequent mice casualties left in the dining room and will have her braces off by the time you read this letter! Argentina
Lily (9)—tried to adopt a Sand Cat after an up close experience at the Boise Zoo, missed having Mack and Lisa coach her soccer team this fall, scored a goal and was the only player with a parent who took pictures with a bazooka lens, finally got to fly in Grandpa Dame’s small plane and even more important it was to visit Mack on a quick day trip to Moscow because life isn’t the same without her daily Mack snuggles. She’s challenging Emily for most books read this year, working on 5th grade math as a 4th grader, finna sell 11” of hair for a 9-year-old fortune, keeps Mack from getting too homesick by sending regular selfies with Ditten, can barely find space in her bed to sleep with all of her Squishmallows. Mack’s been indoctrinating her for years on Saturday mornings—Germany.
Lisa—can’t believe she took a 6-hour detour so the three girls could check off North Dakota, even more surprised that the detour was worth it. Never tired of the dunes and beach at the Outer Banks but will have to take Greg up on the rain check for the hang-gliding lesson, took Mack to college by herself, considered Natali’s return from Argentina on 12/14 as the best Christmas present ever. Earned top marks for her pizza in the cooking class in Florence—she ate that but decided too late that you should never eat dinner in Venice at a restaurant where the kitchen isn’t visible and there’s a microwave behind the counter. Finally took the time on a road trip to stop in Filmore, UT and learn more about her ancestors recognized at the original Utah State Capitol. After 15 months with an unpainted white garage door, she picked new colors and had the house painted dark gray. She’s tired of Andrew sharing his friends’ World Cup playlists with her but was flattered/weirded out to be voted hottest mom in another of Andrew’s friend group polls—of course I agree, but still not sure how I feel about that😉. Argentina
Greg—in Animal House style, arrived at his Dartmouth reunion in a car rented from Turo that reeked strongly of weed—good thing he didn’t get pulled over. He caught his first fish in many years, a Striped Marlin in Cabo and hit the jackpot with 2 new mammal species sightings—one of the only 300 remaining North Atlantic Right Whales, and one of the only 25 Red Wolves, but somehow the target list never gets shorter. Decided Italy is better when you can actually enter the museums and churches rather than just admiring from the outside as he did when he last visited Italy on an 18-year-old’s budget. Gladly attended a BYU football game (well maybe 3) after 2 seasons off. Helped start new millwork plants in GA and VA just in time for the housing market to slow dramatically, spent nights in 20 states and 3 countries, will miss taking high school soccer pictures, picked 156 peaches—no capping, from his single tree, is grateful that going to chemo and getting a buzz cut were acts of support not consolation after Papa Randy’s successful bone marrow transplant. Excited for a full family photo in 2023. AFC Richmond?
Books: Leonardo da Vinci, Invisible Women, Anxious People, mammalwatching.com (making an exception for a website due to relevant subject matter), and from Lisa, Emperor of All Maladies and The Choice
While there are very real global problems, we know that there remains a single cure and reason for hope—the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I will forever remember standing in reverent awe in front of Michelangelo’s La Pieta at St. Peter’s in Rome. Thoughts and prayers for the families and classmates of the victims in Moscow, ID
Merry Christmas, The Eastons (Greg, Lisa, Natali, Mack, Andrew, Kate, Emily, Lily, Perdita, & Ditten)
