Merry Christmas!

Christmas Letter 2011

THE BEST WAY TO SPREAD CHRISTMAS CHEER, IS SINGING LOUD FOR ALL TO HEAR!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, even in New Mexico. And once again it’s that special time of year where we ponder the reason for the season and then try not to brag about our family too much. We moved to Albuquerque just after Christmas last year where Wally accepted a position as a research chemist at Sandia National Laboratories. We’ve had a lot of time to explore our new home and catch up with extended family now that we live closer. We spent a few weekends in Denver and Ronni took the kids out to California to visit her family for a couple of weeks this summer. It’s good to know that she has the patience to drive two straight days by herself with only the 11 and under crowd to keep her company. We were reunited in Utah for a family reunion, but not before we had a little excitement. Excitement is when the brakes decide to stop working on the freeway off-ramp. Luckily, no one was hurt, though Wally scraped his knuckles the next day changing the brake pads and rotors on the van (poor baby!). We also experienced first hand the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in October and were amazed with all the balloons. We’re lucky to live right in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains and have made some great friends along the way.

Kelsie (11) is rad just like Dad, and likes to tell people every chance she gets! Kelsie discovered a new sport this year: volleyball. The Marshmallow Dragons had a great season, and she is looking forward to some great hits and nice serves when the Dragons regroup this spring. Kelsie also made her big debut on the stage in a production of “How I Became a Pirate.” A little nervous about the jump to middle school, she decided that it’s not as bad as the movies make it seem. She works so hard to do her best in all that she does and we’re so proud of her!

For Brandon, who was baptized this year, it’s great to be eight! His major obsession right now can be summed up with one word: football! Playing, watching, video-gaming, anything that involves some incarnation of the old pigskin will captivate him until he has to be pried away (literally). We try to distract him with other things like soccer, basketball, and swimming, but those only last for so long. He started Cub Scouts this year and can’t wait to get his very own pocketknife. The rest of us can.

Caleb (4) is our legomaniac, capable of spending hours building, rebuilding, and remodeling every lego star wars kit in our growing arsenal of stackable blocks. But that’s not how he broke his arm. That happened when he got going a little too fast riding his bike down our street, and ended on the pavement. After two different colored casts, he’s over it now, and can ride a two-wheeler from here to the border. He also started soccer this year and scored his first go-o-o-o-o-o-o-al!

 

Isaac (1) is our little engineer. He loves to drive the GeoTrax trains all over the amazing tracks he builds. A very polite boy, he “pleases” and “thanks you’s” with the best of them (unless he’s hungry, and then you can hear him a mile away!) and even manages an occasional “excuse me” when air leaves his body. His most recent accomplishment is coloring on paper, not the walls.

Wally started out the year biking 18 miles a day to and from work. He loves the exercise, but decided that a 1994 Toyota 4Runner was a good alternative after a few months. He took us back to the ‘90’s even more at a family reunion when he “flowed like a harpoon” as he showed off his mad (as in crazy) dancing skillz to Ice Ice Baby. As the Scoutmaster for a local troop, he is re-discovering the Great Outdoors and hoping his own kids don’t grow up too soon. He was a big supporter of the kids entering their first school Science Fair, which the kids have sworn they will never do again. Too much support? Maybe…

Ronni is the heart of our family and goes to great lengths to create memorable moments throughout the year. She volunteers at the school once a week, works with the 10-11 year old girls at Church, entertains the little boys at home, and still manages to get everyone to (insert any activity here) on time. She even squeezes in a little (not enough) time for photography, sewing, and other hobbies. She is extremely grateful for the wonderful friends that she has made this year. If she sounds completely fabulous, that’s not an accident.

Are we busy? Yes! We are! And while we manage to keep a few balls up in the air at a time, we are of course completely overwhelmed but we try to enjoy the couple of minutes of quiet time we get each day. As we reflect on the blessings of this past year and what Christmas means to us we are grateful for the gifts of family, friends, and forgiveness granted through our Savior, Jesus Christ. May this New Year be a little better than the last: with a little more peace, a little more hope, and a little more glitter. We love glitter.

Love, Wally, Ronni, and family

Card Template from Rebecca Cooper

 

Christmas Piano Recital

I started teaching piano lessons again this fall and decided to have a recital on Saturday with my students. They all worked so hard and I was so proud of all of them. Here's a couple videos of my two kids for all to enjoy!

This Is What You Get

If you ask your kids to write the Christmas letter:

Wonderland Express

Just before Christmas, our family drove to The Botanic Gardens to see the Wonderland Express exhibit. It had snowed all day so it was truly a winter wonderland throughout the gardens. We had such a fun time looking at all the different trains and seeing all the different Chicago landmarks. Caleb, who is especially fond of trains right now, was completely beside himself as to what to look at first. He got so excited each time a train came running by he would shriek real loud, point, and run towards it as fast as he could! We had a really great time and will definitely go again next year!

Christmas Carriage Ride

We are always up for new adventures and giving things a try. This year, we heard about carriage rides a couple towns north of us, so we decided to check it out. It was so much fun! There was hot chocolate and cookies for us while we waited our turn, which only was about 10 minutes. Kelsie, Brandon, and Caleb were so excited to see the horse and get on with the ride. We learned that the horse, Windance, was 2,500 pounds and loves cold weather! The driver took us around the downtown shopping district while we sang jingle bells (how couldn't we?!) and listened to the cloppity-clop of the horse's hooves. It was cold, but the blankets and sitting close together kept us warm. At the end of our ride, we were able to pet Windance and get a few extra pictures. We really enjoyed our special ride and are already looking forward for next year when we can do it again!

Sitting in the carriage.

We love this!

Petting Windance

Santa Came to Town!

The Holiday Season is not complete without a visit to Santa! Kelsie and Brandon were very excited and couldn't wait to see him. Caleb was pretty nervous and didn't want to go near him, but did keep a very close eye on him. We were the first people in line to see Santa, and got a few extra minutes with him before other kids came. It was perfect! Brandon brought a toy to show Santa what he wanted, in case he didn't know what it was. Kelsie couldn't decide on the one thing she wanted to ask for this year but gave Santa lots of good ideas!

Gingerbread House

Thanks to Wally's sister's recipe, we were able to make and amazingly easy gingerbread house from scratch this year. We had lots of fun putting it together and eating all the candy. Caleb thought all the candy was for him, and only him. Once we showed him how to put it on the house, though, he decided that was alright too. Kelsie and Brandon enjoyed decorating it and piping the frosting all over the place for the candy. We've been able to have it out for all of us to enjoy, some a little more than others, but it sure was lots of fun making it! I love all these fun traditions this time of year!

They are so proud of their work!

Caleb's favorite part of our gingerbread fun!

No house is complete without a candy cane shooter on top of it, compliments of Brandon!

Christmas Tunes 2008

Here are a couple Christmas songs that made it onto our CD this year that we thought would put you in the holiday spirit. Enjoy!

Holiday Movie Night

We always watch Miracle on 34th Street after Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season around here. This year, however, Kelsie had something to say about the man playing Santa Clause in the movie:

"He doesn't look like the real Santa. He doesn't have a mullet."

Now, for anyone who knows us, one of our favorite Christmas songs is Santa's Got a Mullet sung by Nerf Herder (an edited version, of course). I guess this song really spoke to her.

Literally.

Happy Holidays!

That Holiday Feelin'

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove out to Larson's Farm to choose and cut down our Christmas tree. Our front room has pretty high ceilings, so Wally was especially excited to get a tall tree. We looked, looked, and looked some more until we found the perfect tree. It was tall, it was beautiful, it was all we wanted. So, we cut down the tree, put it on top of the car, drove home and decorated. We didn't think about a tall tree being very (very) full at the bottom, so now it takes up about a quarter of our front room, but it sure is beautiful! We are revved up and ready for the holiday season!

Life Moves On: Part 1

We finally made it to Chicago and have started unpacking and getting our lives back in order. I have a lot to catch up on so I'll have to rewind back to Christmas.

Our highlights from Christmas:

Brandon woke up just before 6 a.m. to ask if it was time to see what Santa brought. In an effort to keep him from waking everyone else up, we told him it wasn't time to get up yet and that he had to wait until 7. So, he climbed into bed with Wally and watched the clock and announced the time, "Dad it's 6:01...dad, it's 6:02....dad, it's 6:03....". This went on for about 5 minutes and then I'm not sure what happened since I went back to sleep after that.

The kids all had a good time opening presents and were, for the most part, pleasantly surprised. Kelsie loves her new Hannah Montana microphone and scrapbooking kit. Brandon had tons of fun setting up his new hot wheels track and playing star wars with Dad's new lightsaber (a red one, which Santa brought to go along with Brandon's blue one). Caleb wasn't so sure about anything and quite frankly wanted to go back to sleep after all the commotion. We think he likes his new walker and balls that he got, but I guess only time will tell.

Wally and I had a nice Christmas too, until 12 p.m. when we took everything down and packed up the rest of our house. Unfortunately for us, it didn't feel too much like Christmas after that, but I insisted keeping the tree up for one more day just to hopefully feel like it was still Christmas (by the way, it didn't last very long and was gone the next day).

We were invited to some friends house for Christmas dinner that night which was a whole lot better than what we were going to eat (top ramen and leftover food in the fridge). We had a fun time visiting and playing a new game with them.

We had a really good Christmas and enjoyed as much of the season as we could, considering our big move. We thank all our friends and family for helping make our Christmas so special!