Christmas in July... er, maybe August

Every year I make a good faith effort to write a Christmas letter to send out. I don't know why this is so hard. Some years, I have gotten the letter copied, and even gathered the address labels, but didn't get it out until after the holidays.. which is really not a big deal, I mean what do you have to look forward to in January anyway?
Well, I wrote the letter for last Christmas ( of 2007), and I had it copied, I had good intentions to send it out around New Years, then in January, then for Valentines Day... well, it still here, copied, even folded in thirds, but the envelopes are not addressed. So, much to my husband's chagrin ,I'm going to post it here, for all of you. Then I can start with a clean slate for this coming holiday. I told him otherwise, I felt I might send the 2007 letter with 2008.... ( no comment from him).

December 2007 Christmas letter....

December 2007~ Northam FamilyI’m not really sure if last year’s letter even got sent out! I read over it and is says I sent it out in January. Hopefully that happened. Well, it’s the first of December and if I’m working on the letter already, there are hopes of getting it out before Christmas. We have friends and family spread far and wide and I personally love getting Christmas letters ( it’s the voyeur in me), my family might say I’m just nosy and want to know what everyone is doing. I also like the reflection part, because I’m not a scrapbooker or journal keeper so hopefully this will suffice for a bit of family history for now.We have had an eventful year. We are blessed to not have an tragedies or unfortunate events( that I can remember at least).Because my memory is shot, the crazy moments that have happened just recently are fresh in my mind. If you know me at all, when I tell you that “you know who” is bringing Grace and Grant a PET you will think that “Oh my, HELL has actually frozen over”. Well folks, that may be the truth. When Ryan and I got married, we had a informal ( but serious) pre-nup stating that we would not have pets. I was the creator and enforcer of the pre-nup if you’re curious who Cruella is at our house. My children will often even tell others that we can’t have pets ( we do conveniently have allergies to dogs and cats, we did try fish when Grace was a baby but they quickly died). So, we have up until now been a “NO PET” family. We had Grace’s classroom hedgehog home for a weekend visit and over the course of 3 days, I decided that this might just be the perfect pet- it doesn’t have hair, its quiet, you can leave it for days on end without anyone needing to come in and “feed” your pet, and the quills make it so that your kids won’t maul the poor thing, but it is interactive- somewhat.I started checking into where to find a hedgehog, and found a breeder online in Eugene (PETCO does not carry hedgehogs I found out). I had to fill out an application just to “apply’ for a hedgehog which included a 200 word essay on what I knew about hedgehogs, how I was going to take care of it etc. I lied of course. I had done a ton of research before moving in this direction, so I had all the right answers or so I thought. After several emails, I found out I was REJECTED! The breeder felt it was not a good fit for our family!!! So, I started calling around, found a great little pet shop in Newberg ( 45 minutes away) that carried small exotic pets. So on a Saturday, I drove to Critter Cabana to check out a hedgehog. My neighbor had agreed to keep it until the grand unveiling on Christmas Day. The pet shop asked if I wanted to hold each one to get a feel, I said “I don’t want to touch it, I just need a male”( so we can breed it with the class pet). They found a male, put in a very small box and after picking out all cage and paraphernalia, I was on my way. I got out without touching it.The hedgehog got carsick on the way home over the mountain and threw up in the box. This should have been bad sign #1. My neighbor called me about 4 days later. “The hedgehog hasn’t been moving, and he’s not eating, and we think he’s having seizures”. She had already called the petshop and they wanted to take a look at it. The pet shop owner thought it might have brain damage ( didn’t even know there were special-ed hedgehogs) So I made trip #2 back to Newberg. They nicely agreed to keep the hedgehog and have the vet look at it later that week. I was told to call back every few days to check on it. A week and a half later, it was finally ready to be released after the entire litter was put on antibiotics. At this point I know all the employees at the pet shop because of the frequent status reports. So, finally, I drive back to Newberg #3 and pick up the hedgehog. This time the ride home is much better, but I swear the little bugger is going to get out of the box and we are both going to die if it gets loose in my car. We made it home and all seems well at the neighbors until next week. I’ve managed to get away with not holding the hedgehog yet….
Grace: Grace is in 1st grade this year. She has so far lost 2 teeth with more on the way. She personally pulled out the first one ( do we have a future dentist here?) much to her mother’s chagrin. She continues to have a very creative streak with a perfectionist side which makes for a very interesting combination. She has started to read and enjoys it very much- the other day I discovered a down side to being able to read- we were in a public women’s bathroom and she started to read the labels on the “dispensers”. I held my breath as she sounded out “napkin” and “tampon”. Wishing it would end, she then proceeded to ask questions, I tried to downplay it and give a vague explanation- of course this didn’t work, she then countered with various “theories” on what these things were for… some of which were surprisingly close. Is this the conversation I’m really having with my 6 year old? Grace continues to make us laugh, she is a very observant child with a gift of logic- we find ourselves having to logically debate with her on various issues daily. At this point, we’re feeling like the brainwashing of “finish high school, go to college for a very long time and graduate, then consider getting married” might actually be working.
(Page 2- Christmas 2007 letter)
Grant: I don’t know if our children could be more different in personality. Grant continues to be a happy go lucky child, but he is starting to show some independent streaks and asserting his own free will at times. For some reason, Grant does not need much sleep- which makes his parents crazy. As a baby he was a fabulous sleeper, but now as a 3 year old, he might actually fall asleep by 9:30 or 10, and be up at 6am asking for breakfast NOW! The doctor assures us, this might be the sign of a brilliant mind, I think that might be just to pacify us. We’ve recently discovered that Grant is allergic to his own hair.—after fighting to get his hair cut, I took off his shirt immediately afterwards and discovered welts all over his chest and back. Any suggestions would be well received….. Grant is in preschool this year, and loves it. He is very social and outgoing, and seems to be taking a bit of a class clown role, which is concerning….
Ryan: Ryan has been able to travel a bit this year. He has been to Geneva, Switzerland twice since October. He has a few more trips to make in the new year. Under the guise of these “business trips” for Intel, he has been able to travel to Paris, Milan, Germany and other parts of Switzerland. I told him to stop telling me what he’s eating for dinner. He did bring home the quota allowed in Chocolate though to ease the tension.
Ashley: This would be the debut of my “Ugly Betty” year. Ryan actually asked if I was turning into her. I got braces this year, and more regular reading glasses. So I am on my way. I just need a poncho. The braces are on for a year, they are coming off in June if I have to take them off myself. The dentist said I could have braces or dentures… so I chose braces. They are much more of challenge than I thought, and I now have very little credibility with my stuttering and speech clients as I too have a speech disorder for the time being. I’m still enjoying my work as an SLP and teaching at Chemeketa CC. On a personal note, we were fortunate enough to do some fun traveling this year. In August, the kids and I went to Yellowstone National Park with my extended family, we had a great time and it was an adventure! We saw lots of animals and had some crazy problems with the rental car, so I had to drive back halfway through the visit and exchange the car, hoping it wouldn’t overheat. As a family, we went to DisneyWorld in September ending with a 3 day cruise on the Disney Cruise line to the Bahamas and Disney’s Island. It was a fabulous vacation; we all had a wonderful time and felt very relaxed. We have been very blessed this year, we are grateful for the support of family and friends. We hope all is well with you and your family and that the new year brings you a renewed focus in your life with joy and peace.

There. Now I feel better. Maybe if I start now on the letter, there is some hope.

Update: I still have the blasted braces, they are supposed to come off this month! Grace has lost even more teeth ( its kind of painful to look at the gigantic teeth mixed in with the petite baby teeth- there is a baby tooth stuck behind one of the very large central incisors.. I hope that comes out soon)

I hope this means we now might be eligible to be on your Christmas letter list.....