With Christmas merely a week away, I thought I'd share our family's Christmas letter.
G. Family Christmas Letter 2008
It is time again for the G. Christmas letter. What a year 2008 has been for us! It started out in grand style - The Boy took First Place for the Tiger Cubs in the Pinewood Derby, earning him a trip to Regionals in March. He faced some stiff competition from his fellow Tigers, coming in a respectable fifth place (sadly, trophies were only awarded through Fourth…); however he knew the Tiger who took first place - his pre-school friend Jack (whose father is a mechanic, go figure…)
April was a very busy month, with Mrs. G’s parents moving into a new home in [town name redacted]. Mrs. G was very busy helping her parents pack for the move as well as helping to clean out the former family homestead in [second town name redacted]. It was a tough job cleaning out years and years of memories (not to mention dust bunnies!) but Mrs. G and her sisters made short work of cleaning out the old house in [second town name redacted] in time for the big move.
May saw the end of an era, with BabyGirlG finishing pre-school; June saw the end of the school year and The Boy’s first summer camp. We also took our first family tenting trip, going to the Cub Scout Family Weekend at Lonetree Reservation. The Boy and BabyGirlG did actually sleep in the tent rather than just bounce off the walls… We didn’t take our camper out as much as we’d have liked to, given that gas was $4/gallon; however in August we did take a week’s vacation on Cape Cod as we’ve done for the past few years. It’s always nice to have time to just relax!
School started the week before Labor Day, and BabyGirlG went off to full-day Kindergarten! Yes, both G. children are now riding the big yellow school bus. [Name redacted] School is still adjusting to the G. Gang roaming the halls, with big brother The Boy in second grade to keep a wary eye on his little sister (and he is certain to let us know when she gets in trouble!). Both kids are doing well in school, with The Boy needing to pay closer attention to his penmanship (we have no idea where he gets that!!!) and BabyGirlG needing to be nicer to the other children (mostly not beating up the boys…).
October was a busy month, with Mrs. G getting promoted to a supervisory position. She’s now the supervisor of the laboratory assistants for [Hospital name redacted], a job that combines the glamour of phlebotomy with the challenges of herding cats, err, phlebotomists. It’s a tough job, but Mrs. G has adapted well, getting a handle on being the boss lady as well as dealing with the joys of middle management… We also had back-to-back Halloween parties for the PTA and Cub Scouts at the end of October. Mrs. G ran the Halloween Howl games for the PTA, and Jay coordinated the Halloween party and Haunted Hallway for the Cub Scouts. Busy, scary time for everyone!
The Boy and Jay froze their patookies off at the Cub Scout Overnight in November, awaking to a balmy 29ยบ morning in their tent… Thanksgiving provided a much-needed rest from the busy schedule, and Mrs. G even made it out for some Black Friday Super Special deals (and was only 45 minutes late for work!) We’re still preparing for the big visit from the Fat Guy himself, with the omnipresent “Threat of Santa” scaring the kids into behaving (well, kinda). It’s been a hectic, crazy, non-stop year for us, and we’re expecting 2009 to be just as frantic. Hope this letter finds you and yours in equally splendid shape!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Season's Greetings from the G. family to you and yours!
That is all.
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3 comments:
i notice you wrote a lot about everyone, except you.
nothing happened in the life of Jay worth mentioning in the christmas letter?
Here's mine, cut n' pasted from my Facebook page (so some of the notations pertain to links that aren't evident here):
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Among the things I've always enjoyed over the years are the various Christmas cards that we get from our families & friends. Included in such are those that have the yearly reviews, often written in the 'voice' of one of the children. Can't get enough of 'em. Back in '06 I even mentioned to my wife that it'd be a good idea for us to do one of those. As a matter of fact, I suggested that if we spent the time that is normally logged sending e-mails to friends & associates telling them what has happened & instead typed the same words into a single post at an online diary I’d created, we could easily copy n' paste at the end of the year and have a card/letter ready to send.
Twenty-five months later, the diary still stands empty. Well, until now. Told from the perspective of Princess Julia (I’m writing this, so I can use whatever voice I want…and yes, she often uses four & five syllable words in this exercise) is the West family year end review:
2008 started off with a return from Disney World, went with Pawpaw & Juju but left Daddy at home and a quick celebration of Dad's 41st birthday on the 6th, which was a quiet affair (as opposed to the blowout encountered on his 40th celebration, of which he won't speak publicly). His 'big' present was a digital camera/recorder. That thing gets plenty of usage on Jared & I. Shortly after that we celebrated Jared's 8th birthday at US Play for some bolwing & then over to his favorite restaurant, On the Border, where he downed his usual 4 cups of salsa. At the end of January, Jared was still working on extending his collection of Legos paraphernalia, since he's mastered a good portion of their existing catalog. We once again played Upwards basketball and I had a few games where I led the team in rebounding and steals and even scored 8 points in one game. That’s a pretty big leap from last year, when I once went an entire game without touching the ball!
In February the whole family was chosen to take part in a groundbreaking study headed up by Emory University (Atlanta) and the Marcus Institute. The study involves possible genetic links to autism (no evidence yet, but Daddy keeps saying that there are simply too many similarities between him & Jared to disregard), complete with blood work and a family history. Maybe something good can come from our situation. Whatever, I hate getting shots or getting blood drawn. The best news is that Jared didn’t cry. Don’t ask about me, though. Dad said something about a Frenchman happening upon a Boy Scout brandishing a Swiss Army knife, but that doesn’t make sense to me.
In late February I found a hobby to share with Mom & Dad; watching the television show "Monk". Now, instead of watching the Disney Channel and Nick (Hannah Montana, House of Mouse and Sponge Bob) with Jared, I’m moving into 'big people' tv, which Dad loves since he’s been waiting to show me some of his favorite shows and movies. I have a few more years before I’m ready for his shoot-em-up guy flicks, but he’s still counting the minutes. Within a few months time, I’d been able to catch up on all the episodes of Monk. The end of winter gave us “family night”, which kicked off watching "The Gameplan" as a family unit. The Rock rules. We also started playing Pictionary, but Daddy says it’s not fair for it to be the “boys” versus the “girls” because he says his partner uses up most of his allotted drawing time attempting to get every last detail of the portrait correct – time doesn’t matter, it MUST BE CORRECT – thus giving Jared with the perfect sketch for Daddy to use as a guide. Of course, it’s finished ninety seconds after time is up, but every pixel of the sketch looks fabulous.
April through July had Mom & Dad wrapped up in the P90X fitness program. They were obsessed. There was never anything good to eat in the fridge, everything was labeled “fat free” or “low fat”. It got so bad that I started asking if I needed to start watching what I ate (I weighed 65 pounds at the time) like they did. Thankfully, it ended on the 4th of July weekend and a party at Dad’s friend John’s house brought back the good food. Finally!
Also during this time Jared played his second season of coach-pitched baseball. For some reason, people think that all children with autism will fail at sports. Well, my little brother batted .642 (up from last season’s .400) and again was the team’s catcher. His bat is so quick that the coach has to speed up his pitches for Jared, otherwise he hits foul balls down the third base line. Dad says he’s a lot like someone named Ron Gant, but I don’t know who that is. There is a short clip of him getting a hit in the ‘videos’ section, titled Jared at the plate. Dad says Jared has a Rickey Henderson bat flip when he’s tossing his bat away, but again, I don’t know who that is. Dad was an assistant coach & mom filmed every game except one, where she had to leave halfway through in order to teach a class at church. Wouldn’t you know that ten minutes after she left, Jared blasted a three-run homerun? Yep, every at-bat is on film except the hardest hit ball of his life. Oh, well, the look on his face when he touched home plate was enough to last Daddy a lifetime. Whatever, he still throws like a girl
The end of school (June) had me winning two awards. One was for all A’s, which made my parents extremely happy, and the other was for perfect attendance. My reward for all A’s was a cell phone! Finally, I could leave mom & dad’s side at Jared’s ballgames. Jared showed everyone how it’s done and won the award for having the highest math average in his first grade class. Dad says he’s going to be a math nerd like he is. Mom & Dad spent most of the ceremony crying.
Over the summer we spent a lot of time not cleaning the house, not getting the deck ready for staining, not clearing out the bags of clothes from Dad’s exercise/weight room and not donating the bags of old clothes to charity. He gets mad, but I say that summers are for playing and fun, not work!
In August I had my yearly poolside birthday party. I got lots of presents and used the money to buy my own Ipod. Jared started his first year of playing football and it took up so much time that mom & dad enjoyed their 18th anniversary by taking us to his practice. Dad gave her nice romantic dinner made up of take-out Checker’s on the way to the football field. Drive-thru burgers & fries on your anniversary? Nice little slice of heaven mom’s carved out for herself, huh? Anyway, Jared’s football team went a perfect 10-0 and he had a wonderful time. Starting earlier this year, his supplements were tweaked and a new form of cod liver oil was added to his normal regimen and the combination allowed him to ‘recover’ to the point where he was a defensive lineman (almost made the starting squad). He even made a few tackles & almost a fumble recovery. The coaches have asked for him to play for them again next year, so apparently he improved a great deal. That month I also started middle-school. Mom says I’m growing up way too fast.
In September I was baptized at my church, Oakland Heights. Nanny & Granddad drove down to watch. Daddy introduced me to one off his & mom’s favorite TV shows, Heroes. He put the first season on my Ipod and I was able to watch it whenever he picked me up from school. I love the character Hiro. He’s funny. I get to spend more time with Daddy now that I stopped riding the bus & spending an hour at work with him at the end of the day. His boss, Mr. Tom, is very cool about that and it helps mom & dad a lot to know that they won’t have to worry about me riding the bus with a bad element.
The fall had us taking two trips to Dollywood with Pawpaw & Juju and me riding all the roller coasters about a dozen times each. Mom got to watch all her favorite gospel shows while Jared & I got to play on the rides. There’s a video labeled Dollywood 2008 that shows me, my cousin Maria & Jared doing the "chicken dance". I’ve started participating in tumbling (a lot like gymnastics) and can now do a back walkover. I’m very flexible and spend a lot of time doing backbends but it’s starting to hurt my wrist. I’m also playing my first season of recreation basketball and Daddy is serving as one of the coaches. It took a long time, but I’m finally starting to grow and am no longer the smallest person in my classes or sports teams. I’m quickly getting better at basketball. Dad says that Jared & I will start playing more golf with him next year.
Now, it’s December and it’s almost time for Christmas. In fact, I just finished my Christmas chorus presentation at school. Jared and I want a Wii, mom wants lasik eye surgery and dad wants an external hard drive w/USB port and protein powder. What a Poindexter he’s turned into.
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From the luckiest man walking the planet, and in in my own voice: Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a Happy Festivus for the Rest of us. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year and I wish everyone far away happy holidays and everyone nearby yet another safe and happy 65 degree Georgia Christmas.
amusings,
Hey, I'm a boring old married dude...
RW,
Dude, you're on facebook? Send me a request - Jay G(you know my last name).
Awesome, awesome letter BTW. LOVE it...
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