Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2012 Christmas Letter & Photo



P Family Christmas 2012 Update

MISTER(9 ½): Spent 2012 playing basketball, golf, flag football, and piano. So far, Mister seems to have gotten the raw end of J and my combined gene pool, as this year he donned his first pair of glasses and endured 2 more crowns and another root canal. Mister is our resident math maven; he’s one of seven kids in his grade who tested into the advanced learning program in math.

SWEETIE (7 ½): Spent 2012 thinking she is The Boss of The House, reading, tumbling, playing the piano, singing in a Broadway youth choir, attending art class, and racking up goals for her soccer team. In 2012 Sweetie traded her baby teeth for grown-up teeth (sob, sob on my part). Sweetie has recently teamed up with Mister and a neighbor boy in various engineering and entrepreneurial endeavors, including building various forts around the neighborhood with scavenged materials, constructing a “sleigh” from cardboard and skateboards, and whittling sticks into various weapons to sell to the neighborhood kids.  Her biggest sale was $10 for nun chucks until her dad made her return $9.

H (3 ½): Spent 2012 thinking he is The Boss Of The House, riding his scooter, bugging his siblings,  playing games, singing loudly, and looking at picture books (and smelling them—he loves the smell of paper, a boy after my own heart!). H is our resident dare-devil and was affronted at the fact that none of the city pools this summer would let him jump off the high dive and that there was an age restriction for the zip-lining during our family vacation to Colorado. H’s greatest 2012 accomplishment was successful completion of Potty Training 101. We love his hugs and kisses and his enthusiasm for life. We’re counting on all of his determination, energy, and stubbornness to one day finance our retirement in some way J

BABY GIRL (due 1/9/13): Spent 2012 stealing my energy so that she can kick my ribs with more force.  Loves to tumble and stretch.

C: I spent 3 months of 2012 focused on surviving morning sickness and the rest of the months engaged in the never-ending pursuit of balancing the demands of mothering, personal endeavors, church work (as the president of the children’s organization in our congregation), and my professional ambitions. I taught an online class for BYU-Idaho, presented a paper at Rhetoric Society of America, and sent off 3 journal articles (1 accepted, 1 rejected, and 1 pending).  My favorite parts of 2012 were vacationing in California and Utah with extended family, in Colorado with J and the kids, and in Kauai with J.

J: Spent 2012 working as a Senior VP in finance at Bank of America, golfing whenever possible, watching sporting events, serving as my “please bring me a treat” go-to guy, and teaching the kids all kinds of necessary skills, like Gagnam Style dancing, the art of witty comebacks (“your face is _____”), and how to achieve the perfect proportion of water to ice in his dinner glass.

We hope that you spend the remainder of 2012 enjoying the happiness and peace of this holiday season!

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