Merry Christmas 2008

Well, another year, another Christmas letter – I hope this one finds you healthy and enjoying the real meaning of the holidays. Of course, if you are like us, it really finds you running around like crazy trying to get everything done! Hopefully you will find a little time for PEACE this year!

The year has really flown by, and the kids are changing by leaps and bounds. Amber, who was my shy seventh-grader last year, has lost all that shyness and is loving being an 8th grader this year. She is taking honors classes, and continues to amaze me with her musical abilities. She is still playing violin in the orchestra, but has now also learned how to play guitar and keyboards, and is constantly teaching herself how to play new songs.

Mitchell is now in junior high, too, and really likes the change from elementary school. He and Amber crack me up every day with stories about funny kids at their school. He is also taking honors classes and doing great. This year in football, he got to play quarterback in several games and was thrilled for the chance. Next season he is moving up to “real football” with pads and tackling, and can’t wait.

Dasha is having a great time in second grade. She has become an avid reader, and loves to read to me every day after school. She absolutely loves everything about school, and actually gets sad during school vacations. She has made a lot of good friends, and loves to play, sing and dance. That will come in handy when she tries her hand at ballet this year. She wanted to try something different than sports this year, and of course, chose the activity that comes with princess-like outfits! I’m sure she will make a beautiful ballerina!

Jacob is all boy, and has become a great athlete. He played Pop Warner football for the first time this year, and totally got into it. He, too, can’t wait to get to play in full pads and tackle next year. He also played coach-pitch baseball this year, and still pretty much believes that the Anaheim Angels are just keeping him on their farm team and might be ready to call him up to the Big Leagues at any time!

All of the kids’ sports have not passed by Jeff – he coached at least one team for 3 of the 4 kids this past year, sometimes more than one team at a time. He has really gotten into coaching, and it has been so fun for the kids to have him there. It is hard to tell who is having more fun at the games, Jeff or the kids! He also started with a new company this year, still in pharmaceutical research. Now he is with Allergan (he swears he can’t get free botox for me there – bummer), and is overseeing several global studies, so he is travelling more. Hopefully this will work into a few trips where I can tag along, too!

I am getting ready to make a huge change and stay home for a while. The hospital I am currently working for is closing in January, so we are going to take this opportunity to see if we can make it work with me at home. I pretty much have a full-time job just ferrying kids around to school and all of their activities already, so this will give us an opportunity to have a little bit of control in our daily chaos. After the last fourteen years of working and raising children at the same time, I am really looking forward to it. The kids are pretty excited about it, too, as long as I don’t turn into an embarrassing mom, as Amber says. Of course, to my teenager, everything I do is embarrassing, so oh well!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas season and get the opportunity to spend time really enjoying your family and friends. Merry Christmas!

Love,


Kim, Jeff, Amber, Mitchell, Dasha and Jacob