Christmas Newsletter, 2012 edition

I don't consider myself an especially wordy person with a lot to say.  But trying to condense a family of six's adventures in one year onto one sheet of printer paper (and make it interesting) I find to be a challenge.

Here's this year's edition of the infamous Christmas Newsletter (and photo).

Dear Family and Friends,
I’m assuming since you have picked up this newsletter, you are looking for the K family Christmas update.  The short version is this- we went on a camping trip in the Olympic mountains during the summer, nothing tragic has happened since last Christmas, and we survived the adventure of house selling and purchasing (again).
For those of you with more stamina, here’s the in-depth version:  In February, we finished all those projects that we’d been meaning to for the last 5 years and put our house on the market.  We received an offer the beginning of June.  And by the very end of August, when it finally closed, we were ready to lynch the buyer’s mortgage company.  We were non-home owners for exactly 24 hours before we closed on our new house (all the paperwork was done and waiting, waiting, waiting…).  It was the kind of experience that has left us with the wish to never, ever, EVER buy or sell a house again.  Ryan thinks that we should just blow up our new house the day we die so the kids will be saved the trouble of trying to sell it.  That said, we LOVE our new house.  It is over twice the size of our last home, with three full bathrooms.  (Can anyone say four soon-to-be preteen and teen girls?)  We have just enough land for Ryan to pretend he’s a farmer in his spare time.  We own 3 chickens and several chicks now, and Ryan has laid out enough land for a garden that would very easily feed us for a year solely in tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, and zucchini.  He’s got his order to Johnny’s Seeds ready for next spring.
The twins continue to amaze us.  Their sayings and antics keep things lively around here.  We hear things like, “I can’t know” (Annie), “Come quick!  Annie dead!” (Maddie), “Can I have chocolate chips for lunch?” “I the princess and mommy the bad guy,” and, “I have nothing,” while both hands are behind, very obviously holding something.  Annie and Maddie are both very sensitive about their names.  Should anyone make the mistake of calling one “Sweetie,” “Monkey,” “Angel,” or heaven-forbid, a sister’s name, you are very quickly corrected.  They are less destructive than they used to be (we didn’t lose an appliance this year), but can still create a terrific mess in record breaking time.  They love their twice a week co-op preschool.  (As does their mom.)
Elizabeth is in 2nd grade this year.  She does well in math, and loves to DO things: color, cut, tape, tie, run, jump, climb, cook, stack, build, sing, and dance.  She has really grown up this year, and we find her, on occasion, sitting still.  Elizabeth loves almost everything.  When we go around the table at dinner telling about our favorite and least favorite parts of our day, her response to the “least favorite” is almost always- nothing.  Her life is good.  She did give us a bit of a scare in September.  With all of the forest fires burning (we think was the issue), she had a very scary episode with her breathing.  Thankfully we got it under control at the doctor’s office, and didn’t need to be admitted to the hospital.  They did send us home with a boat load of medicine and a nebulizer, which I got to use myself in November.  (It was a rough autumn for our family- Elizabeth’s episode, my walking pneumonia, and Ryan’s two trips for stitches.)
Emma is our big 4th grader.  She was less excited than Elizabeth about changing schools after the move.  The good news is that her new school also does the extra-curricular SEEK (science) program, and it goes twice a week instead of only once like at her previous school.  She does very well in school, which doesn’t surprise us at all.  Emma is a great helper to her mom, so long as you can distract her from the one of 4 or 5 books she is reading at a time.  Her current favorite series is the new Percy Jackson one, and is learning the agony of waiting all year for the next book to come out.  (Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Narnia, and the 1st Percy Jackson series were all about out by the time she picked the first book up.)
Ryan and I are still plugging along.  I now have crazy skills when it comes to quoting and discussing Barbie and Disney movies, and Ryan has acquired the ability to clean up vomit in the dark.  We are very blessed, and we are thankful that our lives are good.
A Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year to you all.                     The K family