Christmas Letter 2009

In case I don't have your address... Hello, everyone! We hope this Christmas season will find you healthy and happy. This year has been a funny one again – full of laughs and fun! JOEL & NATALIE got a new car (a Dodge Durango), and we’ve been enjoying making movies of our family – mostly not home movies in the traditional sense, but things such as “Parker and Stewart’s Trampoline Adventure” and “Blue Moon”. We’ve also enjoyed a lot of movies this year, including Star Trek (at the REAL movie theater) and Edward vs. Buffy (via youtube). Natalie also stopped teaching piano lessons so she could spend every minute after school with her kids. One day while we were at the store, PARKER (almost 7) did a little product endorsement. We were walking down the cleaning aisle, when all of a sudden he stopped and said, “Mama! We need Kaboom – it can clean ANYTHING!” He also had some new pets – pill bugs, which he thought should live in the pantry… Yikes! He’s starting to think his mom and dad aren’t always super-cool, because after Natalie sang a medley of songs from Junior High he said, “One of us should have left the room.” In the nicest way possible. STEWART (5) has been having a great time with Pink and Hobbie, his imaginary friends, playing knight or, more often lately, Star Wars – their adventures almost always involve light sabers these days. In fact, he is so into Star Wars that the other day just after he woke up Paige said, “Hi, Stewart!” And Stewart answered, in a stern voice, “Call me by my REAL name … JEDI KNIGHT.” Not a morning person, maybe? PAIGE (3) is our little princess. She loves playing princess dress-ups with friends, and for Halloween she was Snow White, her favorite. She even has princess pajamas, and when she wears them she tells Stewart to be either a prince or a knight (Jedi Knights are also fine). The other day, she asked this random question: “Mama, what if a piece of cake just FLEW into my mouth?” Good question, kiddo. I hope someday it happens for you! Our monster baby is KIMBALL, because he GROWLS all the time! He just turned one in November, and he is super-cute and super-fun. When he’s happy, he’s the happiest baby you’ve ever seen – and when he’s upset, everyone knows it. In fact, when he was just a few months old, he learned to really scream and Paige (who doesn’t say her “L”s) said, “Yook, Mama – Kimbo is yaffing!” Luckily, he is learning to communicate a little more each day, so he doesn’t “yaff” much anymore. He’s also toddling around and getting into EVERYTHING – he sure keeps us on our toes! Our family is so very blessed, and although we have our little troubles, we have so much to be grateful for -- we absolutely love our children and home and ward, and we also love you, our family and friends who live far away from us. We hope that your holiday season is full of joy and cheer, and that our silly stories help you to feel the Christmas spirit in your hearts. All our love,