Christmas, 2002
It is time once again for my annual Holiday Letter. As always, if you don’t care for these, please use this as an excuse to take out your holiday frustrations by crumpling this up into a teeny-tiny ball and pitching it into the fireplace. However, if you do like holiday letters, please take this opportunity to fix your self a nice hot cup of coffee and find a comfortable chair to sit back and share a holiday moment with my family. Go ahead, get your coffee, we’ll wait. [I won’t tell if you want to use Bailey’s Irish Crème to sweeten your coffee; after all, I’m half Irish myself!]
Well, the big news from us is that we bought a “Crack” house. [I bet that of all the holiday letters ever written, I am the only person to have ever written that!!]
Actually, we bought a waterfront lot, five doors down from Jack & Kathy’s place in Colonial Beach. It is about a half acre of weeds with a beautiful little beach overlooking a 100 foot dock and a beautiful view. Oh, and a one-bedroom shack that the local high-school kids have been using as a ‘clubhouse.’ Those friendly kids have helpfully labeled the fridge as “munchies” and the freezer as “frozen munchies.” I don’t even want to start to describe how they labeled the bathroom! If you are bored, take a look at the www.grasmeder.com/Crack House web site.
This all started because Jon decided to change jobs. Over the summer he spent many weeks on the road, including five straight in Denver. As the schedule was working out, it looked like he would be spending the fall and early winter in Denver, Australia and England. As much as he enjoyed the work, he decided it would be better to spend more time with us. [Thank you honey!]
Since he had been one of the original members of the company he owned a fair amount of stock. They bought it back when he left which gave us the money to buy the lot. [It wasn’t like we were going to put it into the stock market!]
We close on our Crack House in December. I suspect that the first order of business is to knock down the cottage before one of the neighborhood kids burns it down. After that, God only knows what we are going to do. The kids, of course, have all sorts of plans. The boys want to bring the Scout troop down for a big campout. Allison thinks ‘our’ beach is better than Pop-pop’s and wants to collect all of the best shells. Jon is making plans for a huge summer home, and I am just trying to figure out how I got roped into this mess…
Speaking of the kids, Jim is speeding through high school. I can’t believe he is already a junior. He has just finished taking the SATs (730 verbal, 650 math) although he does not have a clue what college he wants to attend, let alone what he wants to do when he grows up. The last time I asked him what he wanted to do with his life he said “either a Microbiologist or a Pirate.” I guess that is better than last year when his answer was always “a clown.”
Bill is a freshman at O’Connell with Jim. I’m not sure that Bill likes going to the same school as Jim, but I love it! For once, they are on the same schedule (including hockey teams!). B (as he prefers to call himself) is doing well in school; I think he made the transition from middle school without a hitch. He has finished all of the required Merit Badges for Eagle Scout and has started to look for a service project that interests him.
Allison is a very tall third grader. [I’m hoping that I will still be taller than her at the end of the year!] Needless to say, she is playing basketball and is very well liked by her coach. Al is very athletic and enjoys soccer, baseball and basketball. When her teacher asked the class to write a report on what they would be the patron saint for, she wrote that she would become the patron saint of baseball. [And here I thought Joe DiMaggio already had that job!]
Nanny is doing great! She helped us move her sister, Aunt Winnie, down from her house near Philadelphia to a one-bedroom apartment less than a mile away. Making the move was painful, but it is nice to have the whole family within jogging distance, although they are not jogging much at their age. Jim/Mom’s taxi service shuttles them back and forth and to various appointments. Fortunately, both Nanny and Aunt Winnie are healthy and happy.
You know, there is something interesting about sitting down to write this letter. I always start feeling like the holidays are a million years away. But, by the time I finish, I am humming Christmas carols and thinking about fresh baked cookies. This year, the feeling is even stronger since the first real snow of the season is just beginning to fall. What a beautiful sight!
I hope your holiday is as beautiful as a fresh snow fall and I hope you and yours are healthy and happy! If you have a moment, drop me a note at maria@gras.org or give a call at (703) 255-5056.
Happy Holidays from the Grasmeders!