Christmas Letter 2008

After much anticipation, I'm sure, I am finally getting to our Christmas letter. My sincerest apologies if you came here numerous times in hopes to find the Christmas letter only to see it wasn't here. I hope that some of my other recent posts have provided entertainment and been informative to you on our lives over the past couple weeks. This past week has been especialy exciting with Christmas, of course, but then the snow adding an extra bit of excitement. Before I get into the letter, I want to share a family photo we took on Christmas at my sister's while the snow was really coming down.

So on with the letter. I hope that this letter finds you all well. It has been a crazy year with all the financial issues and the presidential election, but I pray that you are all healthy, happy and hopeful for the coming year. At least gas prices have come down significantly. =)

We have been so blessed that Dale has a very good job and has actually been extremely busy at work. The commute is still a pain, and unfortunately, the project that kept him closer to home one or two days a week is wrapping up, so some of those quick trips home won't be an option anymore. For the most part, though, he enjoys it. He is still playing indoor soccer and also was an assistant coach for Justin's soccer team this fall. Fortunately, I wasn't teaching an aerobics class Saturday mornings anymore, so he wasn't solely responsible for getting all the kids to soccer every Saturday.

I am still teaching fitness classes during the week and also started the year with a new fitness venture. In March, I started training for the Portland Marathon with my friend, Heather, who had already had one marathon under her belt. I'm not sure why I did this because I've never particularly liked running, but completing a marathon has always been a goal of mine. I was progressing pretty well starting from 3 miles and adding about a mile each week, and was actually starting to enjoy running, but after reaching about 8 miles, I started having knee problems that despite many trips to the chiropractor and physical therapist, did not resolve. I stuck it out though for a few months and did complete the Helvetia Half Marathon in June running 13.1 miles in just over 2 hours. It was actually an awesome run, and I'm glad that I at least had that accomplishment. I tried a few times after that to run again, but my knee pretty much bothers me all the time now, so I don't know that anymore running is in my future. I am still scrapbooking and actually made it on a design team this year for Scrapdango. What this basically means for those of you who have know idea about scrapbook design teams is that I get a kit each month that I get to work with and upload my creations to the site and help promote them. It's been great fun, and I work with an awesome bunch of women that I only know online, but it's amazing the friendships you can develop in cyberspace. I have been published in many online magazines this year and still hope to be published in a major print magazine sometime soon.

Hannah will be 8 (going on 18) in just under a month from now, and is in 2nd grade. She had a little bit of a rough start again at school this year, but has settled in well now. I think she just has a hard time transitioning each year, but once she gets used to it, she does great. She has really blossomed with her reading and is above grade level in that. She also does very well in all her other subjects with her highest marks coming in music where she has an "exceptional aptitude to music" according to her music teacher. I think we need to be getting her into piano or guitar lessons soon. She did ballet again at the beginning of the year with a recital in June in which she did great, but after that she was done with ballet. Over the summer we did 2 straight weeks of daily swim lessons and she can swim pretty well now and wanted to be in the water as much as possible, which unfortuanately wasn't very often this summer. This fall, she played soccer again with her friend, Maya, and was with the same coach as last year on an all-girl team in a coed league. Their team didn't fare so well most weeks, but Hannah had fun (or so she says). She also joined a Brownie troop this year and has really been enjoying the friendships and activities that go along with that. Next up, I think we're going to sign up for hip hop dance lessons.

Justin will be 6 in less than 2 weeks and joined his sister at the elementary school in Kindergarten. He is doing extremely well. He has a wonderful teacher and loves spending time with his friends. He is always such a popular little boy. He has started learning the building blocks to reading. He is not quite getting it, and we need to work more at home, but I know he'll be reading before we know it. He also took swimming lessons this summer and really came a long way. He isn't swimming laps across the pool yet, but he definitely enjoys the water much more and doesn't care about getting his face wet like he used to. He also played soccer this fall with our friend, Denton, as his coach and Daddy as assistant coach. He did awesome this season and even scored two goals. He is extremely good at defending the ball and has excellent ball control, and once he gets the aggressiveness, I know he will score many more goals. I have no doubt, that he will be an extremely talented little soccer player in the future. He wants to start doing karate, but also with all this snow we've been having, has gained a big interest in snowboarding. Unfortunately, his mother and father don't ski or snowboard. Someday, we'll have to get him up there on the mountain.

Owen is 2-1/2 and full of boundless energy. I'm surprised that there isn't a permanent rut in the floor between the toyroom and the family room (through the kitchen) where he and his brother contstantly run back and forth. He has such a personality and has become quite the communicator over the past year. He can speak very well and just cracks us up sometimes with the things he says. He is a very sweet, polite, loving little boy who also has an evil side that brings with it 2 year old tantrums. Thankfully they usually don't last too long. He can entertain himself very well by just sitting and playing with his cars and trucks or his latest obsession, animals--he got a whole zoo of plastic ones for Christmas. He often can be found running around with a Power Ranger mask on as well--he even rode the whole way to church with one on the other day. Thankfully he didn't throw one of his tantrums and insist on wearing it in church. Unbelievably, it is almost time for us to sign him up for preschool for the coming fall. I can't imagine him going off to school right now, but I know he'll change dramatically in the next 9 months.

Dale and I celebrated a dozen years of marriage in August. In some ways, it seems like the years have flown by, but other times, I can't remember us even being apart. We celebrated by going to the coast in Newport, OR for a weekend while Grandma Judi stayed with the kids. It was a very peaceful, relaxing and beautiful weekend and a great way to celebrate a dozen years.

As for the family activities over the year, we didn't take any big trips on a plane anywhere. We did our usual trip up to our friends' cabin on Snoqualmie Pass in WA to spend a long weekend in the snow. It was great except for when Hannah got hit in the head with a snow shovel and we had to ride a snowmobile out to the car to then drive her to the emergency room for stitches in the nearest town. We will be going back up there in about 3 weeks, and I think we'll keep the kids away from the snow shovels.

In the summer we went to Sunriver, OR again with our friends, the Davisons, but we extended our trip from a long weekend last summer to a full week. It was just the right amount of time to be able to take in many of the activities they have there and still be able to relax. The kids mainly just wanted to spend everyday at the pool or in the hot tub at the house we rented, but we also got in a float trip down the river (for a large portion of which Owen threw one of those aforementioned tantrums), hiking around the lava fields at Lava Butte (where Owen threw another tantrum when we tried to get a family picture), and horseback riding for the moms and daughters (Owen stayed with dad). It was fun, and the kids are already asking if we're going back there this summer. I think it may become a regular family vacation.

Well it's late, and I want to get this wrapped up before New Year's, so I'm going to leave you all. I pray that you all have a safe and happy New Year's and many blessings for the year to come.

I leave you with a slideshow of some of the highlights of the year.