Merry Christmas!

photo from www.countryliving.com.

Merry Christmas! Although my regular readers probably know all of this already thanks to my propensity for oversharing, I thought I would still share our somewhat edited family Christmas letter with you. You probably already knew I wouldn't write the typical Christmas letter and this one has been judged not up to my usual standards by my ever discerning husband and mother, but apparently we were fairly boring this year. No matter, I still want to wish all of my readers a vrey happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.

January: Since we moved to the sunny South, there was snow this month. Lots of it. And snow days off of school. More of them than ever before in recorded history. (Okay, I made that up but it might actually be true.) Sort of entertaining to see the kids sledding down hills that are mostly mud slicks with a few stubborn, off-white patches of snow scattered around. Well, entertaining until K. went to do the laundry and discovered that the red clay mud permanently stains clothing.

February: D. had surgery to repair a hernia this month. He claims it was a result of K. making him carry and move heavy furniture. Such a delicate flower. ;-) But the hutch in the dining room looks great! We had a phone meeting with the school to discuss some of the issues that W. continued to face with bullying. If it can’t disappear, it’s at least marginally comforting to know the school is being active in dealing with it.

March: This month saw the advent of dance competitions for R.. Traveling to each of these offered insight into the South as we passed “concealed carry class” and “deer processing done here” signs as we drove through the back of beyond. Also this month, R. started her stint on safety patrol for school. Don’t be fooled. This is not an honor. It meant that she had to be at school a full 45 minutes earlier than usual and since that made riding the bus not an option, we all had to drag ourselves out of bed at an insanely early hour of the late night (note: it was so early it wasn’t even morning).

April: Spring sports ramped up with soccer (T.), baseball (T.), tennis (W.), and dance (R.) all claiming demands on our time. Too bad you can’t earn frequent flier miles in the car or we’d be entitled to all the perks around! Also this month K. cooked her very first Easter meal. She sort of overestimated how much ham to cook and we were eating it for months and months and months. Thank heavens for freezers! W. turned 12 this month, promptly moving from the back into the front seat of the car. This upset K.’s apple cart as the passenger seat was formerly considered her office and now must actually stay free from clutter.

May: We had a proud day this month when T. brought home a note from his teacher requesting that he change his clothes daily because he was smelly and dirty. I think she was actually slightly more diplomatic than this but we’re good at reading between the lines. K. is clearly up for mother of the year, never having noticed that T., despite his closet *full* of clothing, was recycling the same outfit daily for a week at a time. Perhaps he was just trying to reduce his carbon footprint and save on energy and water for laundry. In any case, green he was: mossy, grungy green.

June: As is the case every year, this month found us spinning like gerbils on wheels wrapping up the school year, finishing up sports seasons, and planning the logistics of getting from NC to MI and back and forth and back again the following month. Meanwhile, D. continued to drive all over North Carolina, South Carolina, and occasionally even Georgia for work so that we rarely saw him for longer than a few minutes at a stretch.

July: Summer was rather wet and drippy for us this year. And it rained a lot too. On the way from the mainland to the cottage, with all our luggage, all five of us, and the dog, we sank K.’s parents’ boat. It’s amazing how fast a boat goes down and K. refuses to believe that the 75-80 books she had on board hastened the watery demise. The only thing to stay dry on the boat? T.’s bathing suit. Please try to refrain from hysterical laughing when you picture a panicky D. out on the bow of the boat trying to keep his work laptop from getting wet, with nary a thought of his family going down with the ship.

August: R. started middle school this year so we now have two children living through some of the most miserable years known to childhood. I mean they’re thriving as they head into young adulthood. But you knew what I meant, right?!

September: The kids had a real life demonstration of why sneaking food and stashing it in their rooms is a bad idea aside from the fact that it makes K.’s head spin alarmingly. Daisy found chocolate and proceeded to need much medication and time at the vet’s to recover from her bout of bloody chocolate vomiting. This science experiment on the effects of poisoning is not recommended. (Hey, at least it wasn’t a result of the Easter ham, which we were still eating this month.)

October: Because K. doesn’t read enough on her own initiative, she volunteered to be on the WNBA National Reading Group Month panel which chose a selection of books to designate as Great Group Reads for the month.

November: R. danced in her very first Nutcracker ever. Well, danced is perhaps a bit of a misnomer, since she ran across the stage as a party boy, marched across as a soldier, and stood around looking darling as a sweet. All that entertainment was provided for the very low price of about a zillion dollars. She enjoyed herself so much that we are all refraining from mentioning the lack of dancing on her part. But we do have it on DVD for anyone visiting and wanting to suck up to Miss R.

And that’s 2009 in hindsight. As another year comes to a close, we hope that all of you are surrounded by family, peace, love, and happiness now and throughout the coming year.