Christmas '06 letter

Dear Friends,

We have had a wonderful 2006. James has stayed busy juggling the Churches. He is still working on his masters in ministry. This year’s new responsibilities include being on the Board of Directors for the Library and restarting the ministerial alliance for one of the towns. His time is occupied with community service projects from putting lights on a windmill at the famous windmill park, to setting up 5th quarters after football games. He is in charge of the Christmas benevolence programs in both towns so the last couple of weeks has been about making a list and changing it a lot more than twice. Santa will find lots of families in our county because of his elf James. When I asked what he wanted me to write about him he said, “He’s a good man who loves his children.” So there it is.

Kathy is still staying very busy as a “not always at home Mom”. She spends a lot of time volunteering at the School in the kid’s classrooms or picking stickers on the playground. As usual, she made most of her Christmas presents. She even helped Josh sew a purse for his girlfriend. Her jewelry business is still going well and she keeps all of the kid’s scrapbooks up to date. She has enjoyed planning everyone’s big birthday parties. This was the fourth year for her to coordinate Ladies’ Day and she was the speaker. The Bunco group she started is growing and has been a great blessing to all of the young moms. We spent Thanksgiving in her new favorite way by staying with Tricia and camping out at Best Buy. She calls it her ‘parking lot slumber party’. The best part of it was re-establishing an old friendship with Michelle who also helped us get the $250 laptop computer. It was a special and priceless memory! Thanks Michelle!

Josh (7 yrs) is a high-watered, athletic kid with oversized new front teeth. This year when Kathy was helping him pull his front tooth he shouted, “I don’t even believe in the tooth fairy or Santa”. We quickly sat down and discussed the rule of ‘if you don’t believe, you don’t receive’ and how sad it would be if he no longer received presents. His response was, “Well, I do know there is a Santa because you guys are too cheap to buy me what he does!” Josh did well in his last year of t-ball and is now in wrestling for his second year. James and Josh have again enjoyed going to all of the football games. This is the fourth year they won state and the 56th strait win. (If you go back a couple of years their record is like 66-1, and 75-2, but whose counting?) Josh was a big help with our 5th Quarters. He is still an absolute Star Wars nut. He loved the movie “Cars” so we took an exciting Oklahoma Route 66 Road trip and went to two Route 66 museums. The kids loved it. (James loved the end of the trip because we bought him a new Toyota Yaris.) Josh is in first grade and does 2nd grade reading and still scores very high on all his tests and report cards. About two months ago, he reported that he was ‘in love’ with his girlfriend Rinda. James took them on their first date to a football game. In spite of her freezing, they are still a couple. They were crowned Prince and Princess of the Fall Carnival. As one of the highest honors to be received here, it comes with a great crown that the girls are just dying to get their hands on.

Kobi (3 yrs) is still Princess of Quite –a – Lot. She is in the 3 year old program at school. Although she is the youngest student, she has proven that she is ‘boss of all of us’ by taking charge and telling even the big kids how to play on the play ground. They wisely listen. We have decided that she will either be a fashion designer or a construction foreman because of her talent in fashion, demolition, reconstruction, and assertiveness. She has an incredible teacher who lets Kathy and Kyli be part of the class on a regular basis. Kobi loves to play dress up and has worn the Strawberry Shortcake off of her tutu from Aunt Dwana. Strawberry Shortcake, Dora and the Disney Princesses are all her friends. She too has a boyfriend and received her first kiss at a football game. Caleb is the cute 4 year old son of the doctor that delivered Kyli and Josh’s wrestling coach. Kobi enjoys dancing and wrestling as well, although they are often difficult to distinguish. She may be tall and petite, but, as Ma Ma describes her, she is “tough as a boot”.

Kyli (2yr) is still our joker, pistol, character, Queen of All-the-Rest… She talks all the time and enjoys being ‘the privileged’ while the others are at school. When we help at school, she blends in and is able to answer the questions like a big kid. MaMa says “she’ll go to any dog that’ll hunt”. She hugs and kisses her way into everyone’s heart. Last Sunday, she swallowed her offering. We were relieved when there was a big gulp and the choking stopped. Her response was, “My money’s in my tummy!” The ER nurse said they all think it is precious and that we should dig it out and put it in a baby book. I think I’ll use another dime. Various other comments included, “this too shall pass.” There is never a dull moment with the girls around. One day as Kathy turned around to scold Kobi, Kyli sprinkled fish food into the shortening for the cookie dough intended for Kobi’s class. What would you have done?

Speaking of Fishy, our 2 ½ year old beta, has gone to be with Nemo where all drains lead to. James was cleaning his tank when he decided to take a leap down the drain. James was babysitting so he had to tell the kids of their lost friend who took the plunge. They took it well, but we’ll acquire another one for Christmas. Hopefully it too will have a long life.

We are still living in our ‘900 square feet of family love’ home. It has truly been a blessing as it helps us to grow closer and pay off lots of bills. We hope you have enjoyed this year as much as we have and pray that your 2007 is full of great memories and good health. May God bless you and keep you!

Merry Christmas,
James, Kathy, Josh, Kobi & Kyli