Bill had lots of goals for cleaning and reorganizing his work space this year. But, first he had to work on our bedroom making room for new adjustable beds. (Which Renee felt we needed very badly.) He awoke one morning and stood by his new bed, only to feel something slip in his lower back. All his other plans were put to the wayside. He was hospitalized, then spent two months in bed, and finally had back surgery in November. The healing has been an amazing blessing. The adjustable beds came in very handy during this whole event, even if it might have been the cause of him getting hurt in the first place. Bill is finding joy in family & personal scripture study.  He is currently learning Hebrew.

Renee works full-time at home for RootsMagic, a genealogy software company. She continues to blog. She is the author of "Renee's Genealogy Blog" and was a RootsTech Ambassador for the 6th year in a row. She will be an ambassador again in 2017. Her "Renee's Christian Life Blog" means even more to her. Daily she posts her favorite scripture verse and reflections. Sharing the gospel is important to her, and she hopes it is blessing others. Renee also changed the way our family is eating and our health has been improving. She has gotten back into food storage and has enjoyed this change of focus in her life. Bill has joked that he is afraid he'll wake up one morning to find his arm cut off and dehydrated, since she has experimented with everything else.

Philip was finally awarded his Social Security Disability this year, after a four year wait. He still struggles with his energy and will be taking things slowly as he figures out this new stage in his life. He currently serves as a Elder's Quorum secretary and teacher. He spends most of his day digitizing our collection of books and records. This is an extremely helpful and needed project. We do enjoy all his insightful comments during our family scripture reading time.

Marie is teaching us what it is like to be prodigal parents.
We wish her nothing but the best in life.

Garrett is now working full-time at Alphagraphics. He left OfficeMax/OfficeDepot after nearly ten years. It gave him great experience for his new position. He is enjoying the steady hours and a Monday-Friday work week. He no longer works part-time at the Salt Lake City & County building as the City Council Master-at-Arms. He is attending Utah Valley University's flight training program. He obtained his pilot license and is working to become a commercial pilot. He is working on his life-long dreams.

This coming year on September 26, 2017 we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Harris family being sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple as an eternal family.  Philip, Alice, James, Brenda. Randy, Renee & Steven made the long 3,000 mile trek by car from their home in New York state. At the time the Salt Lake Temple was closest temple to us. We feel so blessed that many more temples now dot the earth. The blessings of the temple have strengthen us as a family.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!