Virtual Holiday Letter: 2013 in Review

We have had a lovely cozy Christmas with just the 4 of us together in Omaha. We enjoyed an early Christmas visit from Sheri's parents and are looking forward to a New Year visit with Nathan's family in Alabama. We'll start with a few photos from the holiday season and then rewind to the rest of the year. If you just want to look at the photos, you can click on any of them to make them bigger and then scroll through them.

The beginning of 2013 was great, with a trip to Alabama and lots of fun with family there. We traveled to Utah/Idaho to visit Grandparents Nola and George and also see Angel's family. We also made several trips to Minnesota to visit Sheri's family, a highlight of which was meeting our new nephew/cousin, John, who was born in October. Dave and Susie have their hands full now with Allison (age 2 1/2) and baby John. Lucy, especially, couldn't wait to get her hands on that new baby cousin.

 

 

 

Lucy

 

Lucy finished up 1st grade in May and started 2nd in August. She loves her school and her friends, enjoys being a part of Girl Scouts there (Sheri is one of the leaders) and was excited to have a speaking part in her school's spring music program. She won a medal for being the top fundraiser among 1st graders during her school's read-a-thon.

She also won a Kindle Fire from the public library's summer reading program, though she's more likely to use the Kindle to play games than to read.

She played soccer this spring, which showed us that she continues to struggle a bit with balance and coordination as an after-effect of her illness when she was a toddler. We have spent a good bit of time in and out of different doctors' offices trying to zero in on the nature of her difficulties, but are glad to see the progress she's making through OT and PT. We also have signed her up for an awesome indoor swimming school and have been exited to see how far her swimming skills have come since August.

She is into reading chapter books (Magic Treehouse, Magic Kitty, Rainbow Magic Fairy, and American Girl books are among her favorites), pop music (Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Pink, and Lady Gaga are at the top of her list this year), American Girl dolls, Monster High dolls, Winx Club (a cartoon about fairies), H2O (a show about mermaids), wii bowling, and playing on our new backyard swingset.

She had an awesome Monster High themed 7th birthday party at the Children's Theater, where a theater educator led her group of enthusiastic friends through several Monster High theater activities and gave them a tour.

She is a creative writer, an enthusiastic artist, a witty joke teller, and is a caring and responsible big sister. She still has curly hair, but likes to straighten it most of the time. One item she was insistent about on her Christmas list this year was a dictionary, and she was thrilled when mom and dad came through.

 

 

 

 

Clara

 

Clara turned 2 in October, and is a happy and very verbal toddler who can have entire conversations with us and learns new expressions every day. She loves to sing and dance, read books, climb and slide, and play little people, picnic, and dolls with Lucy. She learned to ride a trike this year, and has already mastered making us breakfast on her kitchen from Santa.

Clara finished up at her first daycare in May and enjoyed being home with Lucy and a nanny this summer. In August, at 20 months, she started in the toddler classroom at a Montessori school and is truly thriving there. She loves her teachers and friends and enjoys going to school each day. We are thankful that her experience during the previous school year has seemed to strengthen her immune system, as we've all been much healthier this year. An exciting development is that her Montessori (which is a nonprofit parents' co-op) made the decision this fall to stop renting and to buy their first building and to move over the holiday break. Our very good luck in this new development is that the new building is literally just around the corner from our house. While we had gotten used to the 15-20 minute drive to the old location, a 3 minute walk will be a big improvement to our family's lifestyle. Clara's school goes to 6th grade, and we do fantasize about also sending Lucy there. 2 kids in private school doesn't seem possible right now, but maybe if our our MegaMillions numbers hit? : )

She enjoyed a fantastic dinosaur-themed birthday party with friends in October. For Halloween, she dressed as a bat to go along with Lucy's vampire costume. This holiday season, she was frequently heard to say, "I don't like Santa Claus." The picture up top with Nathan holding her is the closest she got to Old St. Nick this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sisters

We continue to be grateful at how much our girls love each other. Sure, they squabble sometimes. But those times are few, compared to the fun and joy they experience together. We hope this lasts! They especially like to play in the basement playroom or outside together, to wear matching outfits, to snuggle and watch TV, and to read together. Lucy enjoys teaching Clara new things, and Clara thinks her big sister is the best person in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan

After the huge transition from librarianship to directing the Big Garden program last year, 2013 brought another big change for Nathan. In July, he took over as the Executive Director of the parent organization, United Methodist Ministries. He's been busier than ever with increased travel, night, and evening obligations, fundraising, church conference politics, and worrying about the big picture of the financial health of the organization. He's enjoying the challenges, but not necessarily the stress, of being the boss. Thankfully, he's fighting stress with a faithful gym schedule and he's looking and feeling better than ever these days. This summer also brought his television debut, as the Big Garden was featured in an episode of Nebraska Public Television's Backyard Farmer show. Take a look here and let him know what you think! Nathan has also been active in connecting with other organizations in our community that do work to combat food insecurity, and graduated from the local Nonprofit Executive Institute program. With very little time off throughout the year, he's really enjoying the time away from work over the holidays.

Sheri 

2013 has marked a return to normalcy for Sheri at work, with no more "new baby" excuses to hang back, she has taken on more responsibilities again. She designed and taught her first online courses, which is a growing opportunity at Creighton, especially offered frequently in the summer months. She also designed a new course called "Princesses, Brides, and Mothers: Images of Contemporary Femininity" to teach next fall to first year students as a part of the College of Arts and Sciences brand new core curriculum. In the spring, she and Nathan published their co-authored paper about the work librarians do to manage their emotions. Maybe next, she'll move on to studying nonprofit directors... She also served on the search committee that successfully hired a new colleague to start next year. Sheri was a co-leader for Lucy's 1st grade Daisy Girl Scout troop and 2nd grade Brownie troop, which is fun but takes MUCH more energy than teaching college students. At church, she is active on the Justice and Mercy Committee, successfully coordinating the Alternative Christmas Mall that brought in nearly $3500 in donations to charitable organizations this year.

Family love

Like all families, we are constantly running here and there and trying to find some balance in our busy lives. We find ourselves juggling work, school, family playtime, travel, lazy days, face to face interaction, and smart phones. Just as we started to establish a better sleep schedule and the kids were becoming more independent, work got busier for both of us. In 2014, we hope to entertain more and reconnect with old and new friends, to put down our smart phones more, to cook more, to have more date nights, and to get a better handle on household organization and budgeting. We hope that your year has been a good one, and we really do hope we can visit with each of you in the coming year.


 

Happy New Year and may God bless you richly in 2014. Please be in touch!