Blessings to you this Christmas season.
I googled “how to write a Christmas letter” and the internet had many ideas. One suggestion, that I thought was rather good at first, was that I write a Christmas letter in verse. Doesn’t that idea sound festive and fun? It totally does. If anyone would attempt this, I thought, it would be me. I eat novelty up. To use Philadelphia speak: novelty is my jawn!
As I was walking to the bus stop to pick up the boys, I began composing.
“In January we wished for snow”. . . .
Then, I couldn’t come up with a second rhyming part that rhymed with snow and accurately represented what January was like for us this year.
I entertained the idea of a Christmas letter in verse for a few more minutes, but then I remembered that I have never written a poem in life.
[Note to self: I might have to pay more attention in the future and figure out what words exactly represent the months of the year and what corresponding words could rhyme with them in the future.]
Perhaps, a Christmas letter in verse could be a fun challenge for myself for 2024! Let’s see what 2024 brings.
Also coming in 2024 (and this is hopefully true) a parody of the song “Like a G6” about my favorite model of pen the Pilot G2. It is really is my favorite pen. Ever since having to write three pages every day, I only buy Pilot G2’s now. Check it out, I am a person with pen preferences now.
I digress. . . . Here is my real Christmas letter. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dear Friends and Family, Merry Christmas to you all. Thank you for taking the time to read about my year. 2023 has proved to be an exciting one in the rich tapestry that is life. Katie is primarily working as a stay-at-home mom in the home and outside the home as part-time librarian at the Indian Valley Public Library and the branch campus of Bucks County Community College. Not to be outdone, this past year Mr. Katie celebrated his tenth year at the Secant Group in Telford, PA as a Lead Scientist in Analytical Services department. As for the boys, Mr. Man is eight and is in 2nd grade and Kindergarten Nugget is five and is in kindergarten, both at Liberty Bell Elementary School. Here are some updates from the past year: Kindergarten Nugget started the year being known as Preschool Nugget on this blog. However, he got a name change on this blog sometime this summer. You see in May, he graduated from Assumption Preschool. Then in August he started kindergarten at Liberty Bell Elementary. We are excited to see how much he has grown both physically and scholastically. In early in the 2023, I had some trepidation about whether we should register him for kindergarten in the fall or have him wait another year to start. I am glad that we ultimately decided to send him because he has just blossomed this year. In May, he rode a two wheel bike for the first time and recently he learned how to write his name. He attends speech therapy and occupational therapy both in and outside of school and his speech skills have taken off this year. He also seems to really enjoy his teachers and his classmates at school. His favorite part of attending school is riding the bus though. He favorite things continue to be cars, trucks, and tractors and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. He enjoys music and singing along to the radio. Mr. Man finished first grade this past year and started 2nd grade in late August. While he liked being in 1st grade, he likes 2nd grade better. He tried swimming lessons and touch football this past spring. Over the summer he has a lot of fun playing with his friends at the local Coopersburg pool. This school year we signed him up for the local Cub Scout den. He is a wolf and really likes hanging out with the boys in his pack. His favorite past times though are playing video games and learning about science and engineering. Over the summer he attended a one week day camp called Camp Invention at a local elementary school where he made inventions with other campers. He also loves hearing Goosebumps books and thinking about scary stories. For Halloween, he chose to create up as a paranormal investigator costume for himself. He also likes singing along to the radio. His favorite children's musician is Parry Gripp. Mr. Katie and I found some time to do a little bit of running this year. In April, Mr. Katie ran in the St. Luke's Half Marathon in Allentown and we met him at the finish line to help him celebrate. Not to be outdone, in early April I ran a 9 mile race in the Poconos called The Hair of the Bear. We also celebrated our wedding anniversary by running together in a 10 miler called the Philadelphia Broad Street Run. We also had some time to do some dining out in Philadelphia the night before the race. It was a very special experience to run this race together. There were also some ups and downs this year. In June, we reconnected with friends old and new when we attended the Well Festival at Camp Sequanota, the camp I attended and worked at as a young person. Then, before we headed home, we had a nice time visiting with some of our family. However, not long after we returned home, Mr. Katie's appendix ruptured and he had emergency surgery and spent six nights in the hospital. Following this, he spent about six weeks healing and recovering. Luckily, he healed in time for our mid-August trip to Chincoteague Island in Virginia. We have done some camping this year and in October had a lot of fun visiting family while staying in the cottages a Laurel Hill State Park. We enjoyed our annual October family reunion there too. Thanks to Pap for the nice weekend! Katie loves hosting her monthly, in-person trivia night at the library where she works and in June joined a book club at her local public library. She really gets a lot of out of this group. Mr. Katie has been enjoying taking a circuit class at the Quakertown YMCA this year on Wednesday nights. He has also been working his way through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time book series. Kindergarten Nugget has started taking swimming lessons this fall also at the YMCA. Both boys have been playing basketball at our church on Saturday mornings this winter. We hope to do more camping, swimming, reading and socializing in the new year. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope to share more of our life with you in 2024. Love, Katie
