Happy Holidays!

December 20, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

I thought I'd try something new this year to help me get my holiday greetings out in a timely manner. I've been writing our family blog since September 2006 and it's been a fun way to express some creativity while sharing our lives with our loved ones. I've linked to some of my past posts throughout this letter if you're interested in details and pictures.

Much of our lives have remained the same this year, with a couple notable exceptions. Kathryn turned 7 in February and continues to be our tomboy. She still enjoys soccer and is currently in a winter league. Nate coaches her fall and spring teams and she has gotten better about taking instruction from him. (This was a bit of a challenge last year.) She is in the 2nd grade and loves school. She is an excellent student and is a superb reader. She just started the fifth book of the Chronicles of Narnia series. She enjoys her Brownie troop and she and Nate had a great time at the 1st Grade Hoe Down in April. They're already looking forward to the 2nd Grade Sock Hop in January.

Juliana turned 5 in July and chose to have a Princess theme for the second year in a row complete with another castle cake. She took dance and gymnastics at The Little Gym through June and decided to focus on gymnastics for this last session. She loves it partly (mostly?) because her good friend is in the class with her. They're two peas in a pod and the class usually morphs into a play date once we return home. In stark contrast to her sister, there's nothing too girlie for Juliana; the pinker, the better. She likes her nails painted any chance she finds me in an agreeable mood and she loves to wear dresses. She is doing well in kindergarten and is working hard to learn to read.

Alexander has changed the most this past year. He began pre-school at the Montessori school in September just before turning 3. With potty training as a pre-requisite, we started in earnest during his summer orientation class in July and he has very few accidents at this point. He was actually easier to train than I anticipated, although, there were a few days I didn't think we'd make it... He loves his big sisters...well, antagonizing them, anyway, so he's right where he needs to be developmentally. :) He still loves his blanket and sleeps with it every night. I told Nate the other day that I think it'll be so cute when he takes it to college.

Nate is working for the same company and enjoys the combination of office and field work. He travels regularly, but usually only day trips. He loves playing basketball on a YMCA league with guys from our neighborhood. He's also gotten into running quite a bit this past year and staged his own half-marathon in October. He's looking forward to running in an organized event now that he has a time to beat.

As for me, much is the same. I'm leading Kathryn's Brownie troop and I am very involved with our neighborhood. I had surgery on my foot in November and Nate's mom came for the week. She was tremendously helpful considering I was on crutches and couldn't drive for the first five days of recovery. It's slowly improving, but I'm not back to my regular activity level. There's a new gym opening right in front of our neighborhood so I'm looking forward to trying it out. In October, we went to MD for my 20th high school reunion. It was fun reconnecting with so many classmates and I'm enjoying staying in touch on Facebook.

We splurged this summer and took two different vacations. When the kids got out of school for the summer, we went to Orlando for a week. We went to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios, along with spending a day at Cocoa Beach. My mom joined us for the week and my step-dad came for a few days at the end of the week. We ran them ragged, but all had a great time. Nate and I even managed to find the time to enjoy a night out by ourselves, which we haven't done on a vacation in 8 years. In July, we spent a week on the island of Ocracoke on the outer banks of North Carolina. My friend, Alex, and her new husband, Mike, were there along with most of Alex's family so we had a blast hanging out with them and playing on the beach. We visited with Nate's step-sister, Aimee, her husband, Chris, and their baby, Jacob, on the way there and back. It was a perfect stopping point and we really enjoyed seeing them.

As I mentioned, a couple things have changed this year. In August, we lost our cat, Oscar, to kidney failure. My mom and I got him when he was a baby and he turned 17 this past June. The kids handled it pretty well, although Alexander just asked me recently, "Where's Oscar?" Sadly, this was a precursor to more loss as my grandmother passed away on September 5th, just five days shy of her 88th birthday. She declined quickly after a fall in June and although I miss her every day, I am trying to take solace in the fact that she's no longer suffering. Nate's dad, knowing how much music meant to my gram, sang during the service and at the gravesite, which added a very special and much appreciated touch to the day.

With so much travel under our belts throughout the summer and fall, my mom offered to visit us here for Thanksgiving this year. We joined our good neighborhood friends for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and then mom arrived on Friday morning and stayed through Monday afternoon. It was great having her here, as always, and we appreciated a relaxing break. We'll be here for Christmas and then we're heading to Maryland to ring in the New Year.

We hope this greeting finds you happy and healthy and we wish you all the best for 2009!

With much love,
Lori, Nate, Kathryn, Juliana and Alexander