Happy Holidays 2019

Dear family and friends,
2019 has been a year of change for our family. Best wishes for the new year.

	This year I was asked to serve as Vice President of Public Affairs in the Washington DC Temple Choir to arrange choir venues.  Megan's graduation provided a great springboard to our family reunion in Maryland.  We were able to accompany Megan to Utah to help her prepare for college.  Then within two months of returning home, we now have the unique privilege to taking care of Li-Fang's parents in our home.  Then recently Li-Fang and I were assigned to serve on the Washington DC Temple Open House and Rededication Committee to help with Asian Opinion Leader Outreach.  2019 has been a year of many new opportunities to learn and grow for me.
	In 2019, I returned to Taiwan twice to help my father recover from his stroke in late 2018.  I also had the opportunity to help my daughter with her second baby.  I graduated again from Montgomery College in May with an Associate degree in Art.  I look forward to my starting classes at the University of Maryland in 2020. I am so happy that Ben and I finally received notice that we have been approved to participate in the last year of the Hill Cumorah Pageant 2020 performance. Church is no longer going to sponsor a large event like this Pageant. We have been seen this out door Pageant so many years and so many times. I personally never got tired of it. Wish you all can come to see this magnificent event.
	What a year of unexpected blessings! We found out earlier in the year that we were expecting, which is just a complete miracle as we didn't do anything different- it was just all according to God's timing!  Good thing we had planned all these trips earlier in the year rather than later, so we were able to enjoy our time together with family before baby Grace came.  We were able to go to Taiwan, Disneyland, and Maryland all in the first half of the year. Grace En-Yu Lin was born on October 29 at 5:10 pm, 6 lb 14 oz, 19.5 inches.  We are all enjoying snuggling her and just so grateful for God's love for us and for always answering our prayers.
	This past year has been one of introspection for me. A lot of trying out new things. I've continued my work at Pratt & Whitney, but have started working on new projects and learning new technologies. And while I didn't have the opportunity to travel internationally this year, I did quite a bit of domestic travel (and even went to Disneyland for the first time). I'm grateful that I got to spend much more time with family and friends this year. Happy Holidays to all and Happy New Year!
	This year I continued through my second year of grad school at BYU. I've learned a lot through this experience. It's rough at times, but along the way I've achieved some things here and there. I've lost at least 40 pounds, ran my first half marathon along with some other fun runs, and have generally been trying to retain a healthy lifestyle. Mostly just working to get the job done so I can graduate within the next year and head onto new things.
	We loved watching Sara Sofia grow this year. She went from a small baby to a full-on toddler! She can sleep through the night, say "I love you" in Chinese and Spanish (along with "mama", "papa", "baby", "nana" (for banana), "agua", "xie xie", and many other words), dance, climb, run around, laugh, high five and fist bump, wave hello and goodbye, and most importantly give us hugs! We had a lot of fun visiting Javier's family in Colombia earlier this year to show Sofia off to his family. We were also excited to be there when baby cousin Grace was born. Javier got promoted as a Business Analyst at DealerOn and has been working on the side on creating a company for Artificial Intelligence Consulting. We are very grateful for his success so far and that he lives so close so he can spend lunchtime with Melinda and Sofia most days! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
	Love, love, love college! The stress of high school AP's and college applications have been traded for living in campus and dealing with my amazing roommates. It's also cool being able to see the other half of my family that I did not see often now that I live in Utah. Getting around campus, going to activities, and shopping for myself has given me a new thrill in life. I have had so much fun in the BYU Marching Band, hiking the Y, driving up to Provo Canyon, and seeing the SLC temple lights. It's finally Christmas and I am relieved that finals are almost over! Happy Holidays!

We wish each of you prosperity and happiness and peace throughout this coming year.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!
The Tsai family,
Ben & Li-Fang, Jessica & Henry & Blake & Grace, Jonathan, Joshua, Melinda & Javi & Sara Sofia, and Megan