Virtual Christmas Cards

We gave up on sending out real Christmas cards in 2005. In addition to lacking the time and energy to address all those envelopes, we also hated to think of forcing our friends and family to decide how long they should keep a picture of our family before tossing it into the trash. We did pretty well sending electronic Christmas cards over the internet, but this year we're not even doing that. We ran out of time. But here are the two versions I considered sending out:

Merry Christmas!
Hello, friends and family! We hope you are having a wonderful holiday season. We have been very blessed this year and are excited to catch you up on our lives. Nope, you didn't count wrong! We had another beautiful baby girl this year. We love our darling Tessa ever so much and have had so much fun watching her and her sisters grow.

Chloe started first grade this year. She finally got a visit from the Tooth Fairy this year (two, in fact!) and couldn't be more thrilled. Her favorite thing in the world is doing artwork. She managed to win an honorable mention in her school's Reflections contest. She is developing her reading skills and her favorite book is Melrose and Croc.

Piper is now four. She loves ballet and coming up with fashionable ensembles to wear. She is incredibly kind and sweet to her family. She loves to hold her baby sister. She is proud of the fact that she can write her name.

Sadie at two is full of energy. She has a lot of enthusiasm. She loves to read books (especially ones about her personal hero, Dora the Explorer) and coloring with crayons. She gives the best butterfly and Eskimo kisses I have ever received.

Our sweet little Tessa was born May 13 and weighed 8lbs 2ozs (19 inches long). She is a dream baby who eats well, sleeps well, and smiles constantly. She recently took her first plane ride to visit her grandparents in Kauai. We are so glad she is part of our family.

Carter is still working at Imagine Learning and is loving every second of it. He continues to enjoy singing with The Utah Chamber Artists and is currently cheering on the Jazz every chance he gets! Kelly loves being home with her girls and reads just about everything she can get her hands on. Her trip to Kauai to celebrate her 30th birthday was definitely a highlight!

Again, we hope you have the merriest of Christmases and that 2010 brings you great joy and prosperity!

love,
Carter, Kelly, Chloe, Piper, Sadie, and Little Tessa

(Gagging Sounds) A little too sweet, isn't it? Part of me always wants to rebel against form and send out a more realistic picture of our family. Here's the card I would have loved to have sent to balance out the treacly brag-a-thon above:

Chloe is in first grade, but begs her mother to send Piper in her stead almost every day. When that doesn't work, she argues over her clothes and hair in an effort to miss the bus. She hates doing her reading homework and keeps checking this weird book (that has definite homosexual undertones) out of the library at school every week. I think just to bug me.

Piper will do just about anything that Chloe tells her to do. Including dumping sand all over her head. If you don't let her wear the crazy outfits she picks out, she cries like you chopped off her arm. She can write her name, but the "e" is almost always upside down.

Sadie is the poster child for 2-year-olds everywhere. She ignores just about everything I say and throws fabulously dramatic tantrums. Her favorite pastimes include getting into any type of lotion she can find (see picture) and coloring. Not on paper. She likes to find stray crayons or markers (the more permanent, the better!) and tag walls, furniture, and the grout in our tiled kitchen floor that is impossible to clean. Also, she got to have a surgery (that didn't work) to clear a blocked tear duct in October.

Here is Tessa right after the horrific forceps delivery that broke her mother's tailbone (and it still smarts seven months after the fact, thank you very much). You can tell by her misshapen head that she got really, really stuck. Her new favorite tricks are using her two new teeth to bite and gagging on every new type of baby food introduced to her.

Carter does love his job (there are no little girls begging for gummies there). His wife made him sit out of the UCA Christmas Concert this year and the Jazz lost again last night. Kelly really does love being home with the girls most of the time. But wow, four kids under seven can really take a lot out of a person. In addition to desperately trying to work off the 50 lbs she gained during Tessa's pregnancy, she cleans up a lot of messes (see pictures above). Also, she is old now. It's a good thing she took that trip because she was about to lose it.

We hope you realize that every Christmas card with shiny, happy families has stories like these behind the braggy ones they tell. We're trying hard and we hope you are, too. Happy Holidays!

love,
Us