Bill hasn't been on as many trips this year, but has been working lots of long hours. During the summer he was called as a counselor in the lay leadership of our local branch of our church which has meant more meetings and that he has to sit up front during our Sunday meeting. Bill still had a few trips including a week at Youth Conference for our church, a week in Hawaii, and a week in China for work and then ended out the year with a 5 ½ week trip to a school in the U.S. Luckily for him he was close to Wendy's brother in Arizona, so he was able to spend Thanksgiving with them and several other weekends. He did a lot of shopping for Wendy while he was in the States as well. He made the kids jealous when he watched Harry Potter the first week it was out and we didn't even know when it would make it to us over in Japan. (They did get to go with friends when it came in mid Dec., so only Mom is really left out now.) He made it home from his 'field trip' (as Sariah calls all trips), just in time for Christmas. It was wonderful to have the family back together again and enjoy the Season together. We all really missed him and hope he doesn't have to go away for a long time again. His other big accomplishment for the year was to climb Mt. Fuji. It was a hard climb, he never wants to do it again (Unfortunately Rebekah wants to go so he may have to.), but they made it for the sunrise at the top.