Christmas Letter

I spent the day yesterday designing my Christmas photo cards and writing my Christmas letter.  Today I will spend the day folding letters, addressing envelopes, and sticking stamps. 


Dear Family and Friends,


It’s that time again for the annual Christmas letter. I recently heard a morning radio show making fun of annual Christmas letters. There are people out there who despise the Christmas letter tradition. Who knew? Not me apparently. I hope that none of you make that list. If you do however, please disregard this lengthy letter from your southernmost relatives and have a happy holiday.

Now, for those of you still reading… I hope this finds you all in warm houses and in good health. 2010 has been interesting, but I predict 2011 will be the year of change. Scott will be transitioning into a new area at Fed Ex, I will be venturing into a new project at work, and for the first time in what seems to be forever, I am NOT pregnant with a little boy. Not pregnant at all for that matter. Without further ado, here is the latest from our noisy household.

I spent the year trudging through the nursing program and graduated (actually there’s a little more to it than that, but for all intensive purposes, I’m done). I went to school five days a week and worked the other two. It was an exhausting schedule that left little room to study and do optional tasks like laundry and dishes. I continue to work in the ICU but will be transitioning to a new job in February. I was nominated to work with a team on a new electronic medical record system that will be rolling out to all of our hospital campuses. I will be a credentialed trainer (or so my new job title says) on the clin doc team and will be training all of the hospital employees how to use the new computer system. Each nurse needs 24 hours of training to be competent, so I imagine the training is fairly intense. In an effort to make the training more tolerable, I’m already planning my standup comedy act that I will perform to my captive audience. I do take time out to play with the boys, blog and garden whenever I have the chance.

Scott continued to run his Fed Ex Ground route this year, but recently sold it in order to buy a Fed Ex Home delivery route. Lots of changes and politics over at Fed Ex Ground made this a better fit for us. He should be starting with Home Delivery (where Tom and Annette currently own routes) in January. It means better hours and more time with us. Scott has had to work extra hard this year to pick up the tasks that I no longer had time to do. He has always been a great help with housework and the kids, but this year has been extra hard. Most mornings, Scott would dress four sleeping boys (with the clothes he laid out for them) and tuck them into the van still sleeping. He could pack and unpack the diaper bag better than I could. He picked up all of the dishes and laundry and I still couldn’t tell you where we keep our mop these days or if we even own one. More and more I watch the boys gravitate toward him and bond over manly (I have no desire to join) activities. Last week they went to a WWE wrestling event (fight, match, show, whatever). Hmmm… no thanks, why don’t you just make it a boys night!

Gavin is my glorious eight year old now. I love love love eight year olds. He’s developing this really clever sense of humor which is such a change from the serious boy he’s been since birth. Gavin is thriving in school, mastering multiplication and leading his class in Accelerated Reader points. He loves school and socializing with friends. It’s important to look cool in third grade so he plans his outfits more carefully than the other boys. Gavin loves to skateboarding, scootering (what do you mean this isn’t a word? spell check must not be raising a house full of boys), and swim. He can also spend an entire afternoon on YouTube or with his nose buried in a chapter book. Did I mention I love eight year olds?!?

Six year olds, not so much. Tommy is still a challenge, although not my biggest challenge anymore. Tommy is either wonderful or horrible, the best or the worst. He never falls anywhere in between. When he’s wonderful, Tommy will be my best friend and offer to give me a back massage. He loves to cook with me in the kitchen and he will always try new foods. Tommy loves to help me in the garden. He spends a lot of time riding his bike and loves to socialize with anyone, preferably strangers. He’s my cheerleader when the two of us go jogging. Actually he rides his bike with a light strapped to his forehead and leads the way. “Great enthusiasm Mom, is that all the faster you can run though?” On the horrible side Tommy still stays at my side (he prefers the front seat in the van right next to me) so we can debate and argue and disagree. He spends a fair amount of his time in Time Out, doing punishment jobs and walking the last ¼ mile home while the rest of us ride in the van. He gets crabby and irritable and usually still falls asleep on the way home from school. Even though he can drive me crazy at home, his Kindergarten teacher loves him. Tommy loves school as well. He particularly likes hot lunch.

Finn is a little bit harder to appreciate these days. His speech isn’t growing as fast as he is and this has left him frustrated with the world, along with his stubbornness, persistence and determination. When Finn wants something, he wants it NOW. He won’t take no for an answer, ever. He also insists on being Petey’s manager. Finn holds Petey’s sippy cup and allows him a drink only when he feels necessary. Finn picks out what toys Petey will play with and takes them away without notice. He tells Petey where to sit, what to do and how to do it. When we walk in a store or in the library, he holds Petey’s hand and will not let me get too far ahead. It’s sweet that he cares so much, but it’s smothering for Petey. Sometimes, I will put Finn to bed and wake Petey up just so he can have some free play without his handler. Finn tries to run our household and doesn’t get discouraged when someone bigger than him wins a battle. Finn is a persistent little schemer that will stop at nothing to get his way. If any of you out there need a manager or an overbearing personal assistant for your small children he is available for loan. It’s a little tough to think of a great personality trait for Finn right now, I’m at a loss. He has nice hair? Does that count? Actually, it’s just like too much of a good personality trait. Finn’s caring, just too caring. He’s protective, just too protective, he’s determined, just too determined. All joking aside, we do love him sooooo much, the terrible twos and threes are just exhausting. I’m sure this will settle down and soon he’ll be able to express himself better as his speech improves, but until then, Lord, grant me patience please.

Petey is the child I’m most excited to wake up in the morning. Even though he’s pretty serious most of the time, he melts my heart. He’s pretty laid back and tolerant of most everything the bigger boys do to him. He’s a man of few words and is happy as long as he has his sipper cup and a snack. He spends most of his day trying to get away from Finn. Petey is my only boy who loves animals. He’s the only one that gets excited when the cat jumps up by us or when we see people walking dogs. He’s a huge eater and is willing to try anything. Petey finally started to walk at 15 months and has been unstoppable since then. He’s pretty easygoing but dislikes the camera, his car seat and Finn. Unfortunately, he spends a good portion of his day scowling (he even has scowling tan lines) because these things are a part of most of our days.

We all look forward to 2011 and the changes that are in the air. As usual, I have more ideas than time or money, but we all agree that this year we need to focus more on spending family time together. Look out; we could be visiting any one of you this year with our little troupe of gentlemen.

Until then,

Stay Warm, Stay Healthy and Stay in Touch,
Erin, Scott, Gavin, Tommy, Finn, and Petey