I started writing a Christmas letter this year for the first time. The brag-fest known as "Christmas Letters" have always been uncool in my humble opinion. It was on the short list of things that I thought I'd never do. Like driving a minivan, selling out and working for the MAN, and becoming my mother. And obviously, since all those other three things have come to pass (have I told you how much I love our new minivan?) and there are no signs of Armageddon that I have noticed lately, I figured why not give in and send the letter.
Actually, the more realistic reason for the Christmas letter is because I've finally reached that stage in life where my children, their activities and our family obligations have usurped enough time that I'm not getting to see dear friends as often as I'd like.. and also because I have far-flung friends and family that I get to see maybe only once a year, if at all.
Also, this was an eventful year. I had major illness (HG), a baby, 2 surgeries, and a serious car-accident. Hubby was threatened by a rogue cab driver in Amsterdam. We also traveled (with a 5 week old baby) to Germany, and then in October attended my Grandma's 80th birthday party (which doubled as a family reunion) and my genius cousin's wedding. Although no one wants to see pictures of my gallstones, I figured gratuitous baby pictures and before and after pictures of our car that got totaled in the car accident would be nice to spice up the letter.
But then I ran out of time. Between the Pre-School Christmas party, end-of-year financials at work, Christmas cookies, wrapping all the presents (that's my job -- I could let hubby do it, but I'm a control freak) and organizing the holiday potluck for our group at work (AGAIN with the control-freakishness) ..I think I'm lucky I got the cards out at all. I had a couple of late-night sessions with me sticking on the labels and rapidly signing the cards (No handwritten personal messages, just our names. I suck.)..after the kids were all in bed. After three days in a row of this I wasn't even safe to drive I was so overtired. 'Cause I still had to get up for work at 5am each morning, irregardless of how late I'd been up trying to finish up the cards the night before.
So, consider this post the Christmas Letter I meant to send. We had a busy year. Good outweighed the bad, and we certainly have nothing to brag about except the healthy arrival of our third and final child and the continued survival of our other two. Our little family is overjoyed and we've had a wonderful end to 2004. It ended much better than it started.. and I have hope that 2005 will only just get better.
In fact, the best thing to sum up 2004 is this: I have hope.
I have hope that our children will grow..remain healthy and thrive. That hubby and I will work on getting in better shape and losing our baby weight. I have hope that I will stay employed, and even have a neat opportunity to travel back to Japan in Q1.
I have hope that 2005 will find us NOT visiting the hospital so frequently. I have hope that no one in our little family will require surgery or anything more than well-child visits or antibiotics for ear infections.
I have hope that nothing bad will happen to our new vehicles and that we won't need the cars to visit a body shop. I have hope that we'll actually get out on the boat a bit more next summer than we did this past summer. I have hope that I will finally finish the baby's quilt just in time for his first birthday. I have hope that 2005 will be one of those years that we look back on some time in the distant future and say: "Man, I'd go back to 2005 anytime. That was a good year."
I hope the same for you, too.
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