Christmas Letter Circa 2003

Hello and holiday greetings…

Can you believe it’s that time of year already? Yes, thank-you, we realize that we didn’t send anything out last year. See, now we can see who our friends really are by who still sends us cards/greetings in spite of not getting anything from us. Besides, were you truly expecting anything from us given our past record? I mean why break with tradition? Getting a holiday letter from us is kinda like a comet sighting… rare, but not unheard of. What was that zip code again…? The kid’s tongues dried out from licking all the stamps so they couldn’t finish the envelopes… When did they move the post office…? Hey, the letter was written, just never made it to press. But, since you acted so quickly and opened this… today only, we’ve included at no additional cost to you the reader… last year’s letter as our special gift to you. So now you can be bored twice as long.

2003’s been a quiet year really, but as with every year, it’s been a roller coaster ride. The “downs”, though few in number, have carried some weight with them. Without question, the biggest down would have to be the passing of my father this past June. Suddenly I’m the oldest male in the family at 38. His passing was sudden and he is greatly missed by all of us… he was only 60. It’s been a rough ride for me… and Julie… she’s had to put up with me and my vacillating emotions. Some days are better than others and I know time will soften the edge, but some days just ain’t worth the time of day. I’m grateful to have the kids and Julie to help get me through the uphill, wind in my face days. We also lost one of our cats recently too. But hey… on the upside, we’ve managed to keep the boat afloat without steady income now for almost a whole year… which has called for some creative accounting on Julie’s part.

It seems we’re announcing a baby or something whenever we finally get around to getting a letter out. Though this may be no secret for most of you, we do have another one… as in child… as in last. Rachael, was born September 20^th 2002, and is a walking, getting into every little thing, and I mean every little thing, 15 month old girl. She seems to like whatever her little big brother Jake has, though Jake can plunder with the best of ‘em too. Jake’s got the “Rachael NO!” or “Gimmie Rachael, mine!” down pat. With all the things that go along with six people living under one roof, like kid’s clothes and toys… add to that two new kittens, Nemo and Dory (hey, Bullseye needed a mate or two after losing his pal Mr. Socks) and suddenly our house becomes spatially challenged. We to need to buy a second house just so all our stuff has somewhere to live… who needs reality shows? For those of you keeping score at home… Rachael makes four. There’s Emmahlene… AKA-Emmah, who turns eight in March. Nicholaus… AKA-Nick, who turned five this past August. Jakob… AKA-Jake AKA Jakey, who turned two this past May and Rachael… AKA-Rachael bringing up the rear at 15 months of age.

Julie’s still busy with Creative Memories and is also working a temporary job. This isn’t exactly what we were hoping for (her staying home and me working was the idea) but it’s better than relying on finding buried treasure as your means for survival. They really like her, what’s not to like, and have discussed the option of full time status… they’ve even given her an email address, so it’s big time over there. She’s gone from slappin’ labels on packages in the shipping department to running checks in the accounting department. So, there’s more money, but it’s no longer the “mindless” work Julie was longing for.

I have been talking and talking about starting a handy man biz, so no time like the present. I went out to North Carolina to help my best friend and his wife fix their storage barn after Hurricane Isabel knocked a tree into the middle of it, almost cutting it in half. Tip of the cap to Steve and Debbie to say thanks for the royal treatment while I was there … thanks. Driving 16+ hours ain’t exactly joyriding, but at least I didn’t have to deal with the strange phenomena of kids and the radio. Radio’s playing, kids want to talk … turn radio off, they stop, so wait a few, figuring they’re done, turn the radio back on … suddenly they’ve got more to say. And so it goes. It was nice to get a break from the kids and the house, not to mention getting away from everything in general… you know… to be responsible for just me, which is a stretch within itself for me. I will say this, Steve was very generous as I was treated to some winning round of golf… yet again.

Speaking of treated, we were treated to a trip to Florida and Disney by Julie’s parents, a 40^th anniversary thing … for them obviously. So we got to spend a week in semi-sunny, but hot and drippingly humid Florida with Julie’s mom and dad, as well as Julie’s sisters who also made the trip. The kids had a grand time, as did all. The week went by fast and it seemed like we didn’t get to see and do everything we would’ve liked … but that happens when you’re trying to get ten people organized and moving in the same direction. I would like to give a personal shout out to the parents-in-law and say thanks for including us in your anniversary plans. Where are we going for 41? My calendar is pretty much open next year. I hear Montana in the fall is nice …

Emmah’s in second grade, and like last year, she’s advanced into the next grade’s curriculum… she loves it and is doing very well. She’s taking an after school art class, Young Rembrandts, and enjoys that very much too. She’s also a girl scout. And so begins the social engagement schedule. She likes playing with the neighborhood boys, though there’s not much of a choice… she’s the only girl ‘cept for her sister… okay, the only girl her age… gotta see about moving before the dating starts. She’s experiencing the pains of being the oldest and doesn’t care much for us expecting a little more from her… she tries and that’s all we can ask for. I tell ya though, there’s no substitute for getting some of our own sage advice tossed back at you by your kid.

Nick’s in kindergarten and enjoys it as well, no broken arms to report this time around. He broke his arm not this past summer, but the summer before. (Of course all of you would have known that had we gotten our letter out last year) Finally got him on his two wheel bike this past summer, though he isn’t “alley hill” ready and can’t run with the pack yet. He’s a bean pole and is almost as tall as Emmah, which means closing in on Julie too. He and Emmah like to play tag in the yard (when I can manage to keep them in it) and have been spotted kicking the soccer ball around together. He’s dumb like a fox and tries to pull a fast one every now and then. He loves to draw and build contraptions with anything he can get his hands on.

Jake, or Jakey as he’s called around here is the clown of the family thus far… kinda reminds me of me, poor lad. When he’s happy, he’s great, but when he’s not… he’s not so great. He’s a boy of many hats, big into Bob the Builder and Buzz Lightyear. Loves to strap on the tool belt and load it up with tools (chip off the old block) slaps on the hard hat and he’s good to go. He also loves to cannonball you… he’ll step back and run head on at you and jump into/on you and shout “cannonball” as he does it. He exists on chicken nuggets, fries, chocolate milk, pop-tarts, cheetos, yogurt, goldfish and juice… not exactly the epitome of nutrition that we were hoping for.

Rachael… Rachael is the twinkle in mom’s eye; she’s also the food stains, drool marks and crusted boogers on our clothes… (we’re like human kleenex) but she’s not the zzz’s in our sleep. Though, first to walk, around 10mos, she’s the last to sleep through the night. Isn’t sleeping supposed to be easy? It is for me… time to start spikin’ the juice. She’s also learning the value of the fake cry and that by dropping all her food off the tray she can make an awful mess.

As always, the house projects multiply around here when we’re not looking. There’s always something to fix, improve, redo, clean or clean again around here … pride of ownership as my friend’s dad used to say. I’ve strategically enlarged the flower beds to take up more lawn space in order to spend less quality time with my mower… hey, it cuts down on emissions.

Well, that just about does it, kudos to those of you who actually took the time to read all the way down and dared to flip the paper over. We are nothing but white bread here, plain, soft in the middle and crusty around the edges… and you wonder why we don’t send one of these things every year.

Wishing you a healthfully happy holiday and nothing but the best for you and yours for 2004…

Peace