Christmas, 1999
Well, it’s beginning to feel a bit like Christmas! After going to mid-December without so much as a single evening that qualified as ‘cool’, we have finally found a small chunk of cold air to justify the term winter. I’m beginning to think there might be some truth to this ‘global warming’ thing the TV news guys bring up when ever the District doesn’t provide enough murder and mayhem to fill up the spaces between “The GAP” commercials. To add to the holiday spirit, I finally relented and let Grass buy a real Christmas tree. I’d forgotten how good they smell.
In case you haven’t already guessed, this is my annual holiday letter. I know that some of you hate newspaper length articles that masquerade as Christmas cards. But what the heck, you are already a third of the way through this one, you might as well finish it!
Jim and Bill had the most interesting trip of the year, with a two week Boy Scout trip to the Rocky Mountain National Forest in Colorado. Besides eating their weight in freeze-dried food, they hiked, camped, hiked, rode horses, hiked, white-water rafted, hiked,… you get the idea. The trip ended with a visit to the Air Force Academy. Both said that they might be interested in pursuing an Academy appointment. Needless to say, I was thrilled! Any scholarship thrills me!! Grass, on the other hand, was less than enthusiastic. Do you think it is the baby-blue pastel uniforms?
All of this talk of college may seem premature if you haven’t seen Jim recently. He has grown into a strapping young man, just a bit taller than his mother. (OK! So he’s several inches taller!! It doesn’t bother me! Really!! Can we move on here!!!) We have just completed the “High School Search.” For those of you without teens (count your blessings!), finding the right High School is more work than I remember doing to find myself a college. We went to countless open houses, talked to zillions of students, parents, teachers and school administrators. And we had the easy job. Jim had to take all of the entrance exams which, to his horror, include essay questions.
As a Sixth grader, Bill is two years away from this trauma. In the interim, he has been keeping himself busy with Ice Hockey, school and music. He is doing very well on the ice, even if the only ice time he seems to get is 5:30 Sunday morning. Off the ice, he is taking lessons on the piano, trumpet and guitar. (Thanks Uncle Chuck! We needed another instrument!!) As if that weren’t enough, he is talking about the tuba. It seems that the school’s current tubaist(?) is about to graduate and Billy wants to take over. No denying who the father is on this kid!
Allison is about to turn 6 (going on 13)! She is enjoying Kindergarten and has developed quite the little social life. I think that I take her to more events than both of the boys combined. She is a Daisy Girl Scout. (And I managed to get roped in as one of her leaders!) In addition, she is taking gymnastics and ice skating lessons. When she is not in tights, she is attending one of her friends birthday parties. If only I could charge by the mile! I could retire next year.
Mom and Aunt Winnie are both fine. It is great having both of them here for the holidays since I can ask them to do some of the shopping for me. Winnie is moving around quite well for someone with no natural joints. She is a walking advertisement for knee and hip replacement surgery! Nanny gave us a thrill a
few months ago when she tried to come down the stairs using the new ‘forward roll’ technique. Although garnering many style points, the Rumanian judge gave her a low score for breaking her collar bone during the event.
Jon is still Jon. He decided to leave QSI after five years. He didn’t like working in the city. I think the real reason is that he didn’t like having to get to work at 6:30 in the city. He gave up a management position for a programming job. He is currently slinging Fortran and Java around (or is it ‘pouring’ Java?) In any event, he seems pretty happy about it. The client recently sent him to Norway to install some code that he wrote. When I asked him how he liked it, he said it was cold and dark. (Then tells me about all the tall, blonde, buxom women he saw. No wonder he likes this job!) When he is not traveling, he still plays hockey two nights a week and seems to be doing OK. None of his teams have sent him down to the minors yet. Although he still loves to fly, his time with the Civil Air Patrol has been limited recently by his work schedule.
As for me, I too have left a long time job at Vienna Baptist Children’s Center. Now that Allison has graduated to Kindergarten, it seemed like a good time for me to move on as well. I still have my part-time consulting work and I am spending more time helping out at St. Leo’s. As a Room Mother, I have had the honor of setting up a Halloween pumpkin carving, helping with the book fair and planning several field trips.
In my copious spare time, I am attempting to train our new puppy. Before you get any ideas, ‘puppy’ is not exactly the right word for this animal. She is about a year old, and when she is jumping up on her hind legs (almost all the time) she is taller than I am. (Hey! I heard that!! I am not that short, this dog is big!!!) We decided to find a replacement dog since Sandy is now blind as a bat. There is some real irony that I am a seeing-eye person for a dog! We found the new dog at a homeless shelter whose address is on ‘Good Puppy Lane.” Talk about false advertising. She looks (and acts) just like a fox! (Absolutely wild!) We were originally going to call her Arty (for RD, Replacement Dog), but since she was a redhead, the kids started calling her Lucy (as in “Lucy, I’m home!” when they walked through the door!) Unfortunately, the dog should have been called “Satan’s little helper” since she has a habit of “helping herself” to anything that looks or tastes like food, regardless of where it is (on the table, counter, in a cabinet, etc.). She has even eaten two disposable razors and a bar of soap! Basically, I’m ready to kill her, but the kids (Jon included!) love her. So, we compromised on a name: “Lucy Furr”. I think it pretty well fits her, don’t you?
Well, you made it through another of my holiday letters! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoy reading yours. (What!?! You haven’t written yours yet?) In any event I hope that you have a joyous holiday and a fun new year. If you are in DC over the New Year holiday, I am planning to have a Y2K bash to celebrate Jon’s birthday. This is as close as I’m going to get with a formal invitation. If you can attend, give us a call!
Happy holidays!
Maria