Christmas Letter 2008

December 2008/January 2009

Greetings of the Season, Dear Friends and Family!

We’re still writing from Colorado, and it’s hard to imagine a place we’d rather be. The sun, the mountains…with some more of you and a large body of water, it’d be perfect. We’re excited that the kids can do a bit more on their own, and last summer we enjoyed some hikes and swims at Bear Creek Lake Park. A few weeks ago, we even went to so far as to purchase a four-pack of ski tickets for Scott and me to use. It’s been a years since we’ve really threaded the slopes, so this little toe-dip back in is pretty exciting.

We feel blessed that 2008 was rich with visits to and from family. We greeted the New Year in balmy Fargo celebrating my cousin’s nuptials. The youngest guest at the wedding was my sister’s one-month-old baby, Kacie Clair, sweet girl! Then both sets of grandparents visited Denver in February, March, and April, able to help us celebrate Olivia’s big, first birthday and Zach’s Spiderman cupcake third. In July, we drove back to MN for Olivia and Kacie’s joint baptism at the church where my grandma served coffee for 30 years. The kids (and we ‘rents) enjoyed time at the lake, and Zach caught his first fish. We should have just kept the car packed because in August we headed up to Montana to see Scott’s uncle, grandma and parents. Again, Zach was thrilled to operate the hay-baler. We welcomed Nana and Pop back to Denver as they headed west in October and back through in November. The kids love all the time they get to be spoiled by grandparents!

It seems impossible, but Zach is going to be four in March. He continues to amaze us with his learning. He must be the smartest child on the planet! He played in a fall soccer league and started at a new T/Th morning preschool up the hill from us. Trucks and outdoor play remain high on his list of favorite things, but he enjoys “projrecks” like painting and making potato stamps. It’s hard to find him happier than when he gets to spend time “working” with Daddy, but he sure does love to play with Olivia and celebrate her new words, “She said ‘bus!’ Mama, she said ‘bus!’”

As you’d imagine, Olivia remains fascinated with her big brother and everything he does. She started a morning daycare program one day a week, and I love to read her report cards, which usually mention cars and trucks. She’s at “that active stage,” and every once in a while we can spy the little horns sprouting out of her bean. It’s been a big year for Olivia, as she learned to walk, or rather run, at about 14 months. She’s definitely our climber, and has so far focused most of her energy into the physical development, though recently she’s started speaking two-word sentences. We know, too soon, we’ll be wishing she were a little less verbose. We’ll enjoy it all as it comes!

And what of the parents? Scott continues to find (not enough) time for his two-wheeled pursuits. The big rides this year were the Triple By-Pass (120 road miles over 3 mtn. passes) and the Breck 67 (67 miles of beautiful but grueling off-road terrain), which he finished like a champ. His job with Square D takes him to Phoenix almost every month, but not for too long. We’ve set up a great babysitting exchange with some neighbors, so we even get some date nights in.

I remain entertained by and committed to book club, shuttling kids, and various crafty projects. I ran the Bolder Boulder 10K with some friends in May and tried to play some softball until I had a season-ending ankle sprain. As I managed to procrastinate on this letter long enough to take us into the new year, I can share that I “plunged” into 2009 via the Evergreen Polar Plunge! What a fantastic cleansing moment it was. We’re thankful that Scott is still employed and I’m able to stay home with the kiddoes.

Though our house doesn’t have lavish guest bedrooms, we always welcome visitors and would love to show off our haunts and hikes. In the mean time, you can keep up (sort of) with our daily stuff via our blog: http://thewallacesonline.blogspot.com. Please keep in touch!

Much love to you,
Kjirsten, Scott, Zach & Olivia

Cookies

Yummmmm.

Life is flying, was this the 6th annual cookie exchange?

Going-for-Coffee French Toast

Okay, if I'm going to be really, really honest, this is called:

Going-for-Starbucks-Because-I-Was-Up-WAY-Too-Late-Reading-Twilight-Last-Night French Toast.
Here it is:

• 3 slices of bread, on-its-way-out-the-door bread is great for French Toast, especially if it's a Caffeine Now! Morning and you haven't had a chance to go grocery shopping in a while.
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/2 - 1 c milk, or more, if you want to make more toast
• 1 teaspoon vanilla, that's probably more than you need, but I always like a lot of vanilla
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 dash cinnamon - do you like how I use these technical terms? It's because I never measure any of this except maybe the egg and the bread.
  

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Butter or Spray-Pam a smallish baking pan with 1-inch sides. Place the bread in the pan. Depending on the number of pieces I cook, or my concern about the appearance for guests, I tear the bread in half, so I can smoosh it all in there.

Mix all the remaining ingredients together, and pour over the bread in the pan. It will seem, unless you've really whacked it out of proportion (coming from one who's never had to add a little milk on top), like there is much more liquid than you need. But just be patient, and the coffee trip will do its magic. In fact, if you're adept enough at delaying your departure with where-is-that-other-boot, seriously-can-you-please-not-have-just-pooped-right-now-ALL-over?, and what's-wrong-with-the-d*&$-garage-door-that-makes-it-necessary-for-me-to-be-pulling-out-of-the-driveway-before-realizing-it's-just-not-going-to-close-from-the-car-and-I'll-have-to-go-back-in-and-come-out-the-front-door-s, you may get an extra trip or two inside the house, and you'll see that the way too much liquid has, in fact, already been sopped up by the thirsty bread!

Now, you deserve it, go get a BIG cup-o-joe. Go through the drive-through, because you haven't gotten out of your PJs yet, though you may have put on jeans over them, and a scarf. Oh, and the kids are barely clothed, unless pre-heating the car and putting boots on them counts as clothing.

Come home to find the cat sequestered in the basement because the timer you set for 30 minutes was already 10 minutes down before you came back in the house to head out the front door before someone drove off with your kids in the car you left running so they didn't freeze, and it's been going off for about 15 minutes because everyone else in the neighborhood apparently stayed up reading Twilight too long last night too, so the drive-through line lasted long enough for you to hear just the lead-ups to several interesting NPR stories before one of the kids started screaming about something or another. Turn off that timer. Thank goodness for high altitude and low temperatures.

Pull out the pan of French Toast. It may look a little brown on top, but brown's okay because underneath that brown is a moist, egg-y piece of toast, begging for some syrup and butter.

Slather it up, slice it, and suck it down with your cup-o-Ahhhhhhh...

Let me know if you have any questions while trying this. I tried to put in a few tips, but you never know when someone might need a little extra direction.

Women

There are so many women with whom I'd like to

*and with whom I get to* do this.
Thank you to all of you!

Text on the art reads:

Each year the women gathered to renew their spirit,

nourish their souls,

and earn their laugh lines."

Item found: http://www.femailcreations.com/products/sku-143702.html

Charitable Giving

We've been talking about wanting to do some volunteering as a family. Mostly as a note to myself, below are some ideas listed in Colorado Parent magazine.

We're hopeful that giving time can help as much as giving resources. Some of the challenge will be to find a place or organization that will allow us all to participate in some fashion. Have you heard where they might need the assistance of a LittleCrazyGirl? Or a Yackety Zach? Before I saw this list, I thought maybe we could make cookies and sing carols for the folks at the assisted living center near us. I'd love to have helped with a dinner at the Ronald McDonald house too, but I don't think bringing our germies in there would be much help. We'll see.

1. Brookdale Senior Living http://www.brookdaleliving.com/
2. Dumb Friends League http://www.ddfl.org/
3. Food Bank of the Rockies http://www.foodbankrockies.org/
4. The Gathering Place http://www.the-gatheringplace.org/
5. Goodwill Industries http://www.goodwill.org/
6. Mercy Corp http://www.mercycorps.org/
7. Metro Volunteers http://www.metrovolunteers.org/
8. Sacred Heart House http://www.sacredhearthouse.org/
9. Samaritan House http://www.samaritanhouse.com/

Some more ideas from CO Parent:

1. Host a Potluck with a Purpose - Invite friends and neighbors to a potluck, and ask them to also bring a nonperishable food item and two personal care items. Deliver these to an agency in need.
2. Hands-on Help - Volunteer at a local retirement community: set up movie hour, play board-games, or just visit residents. Make a "grand-friend."
3. Mercy Kits - Make a global impact, sending out a mercy kit that fits your budget ($20, meals for children, $35 grow a garden, $40 help women start a business, $ 100 provide farmers with goats to suppport their families, all the way up to $1000) http://www.mercycorps.org/mercykits

Do you have any ideas? Places you've always wanted to, or have volunteered? Please post suggestions!

Love to you all this holiday season!

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a wonderful day! The Ives came up and the Meinerts walked over. It was so fun to have a couple of full tables.

A little bit late, way too much food was served. Lucy whispered our grace, and we forgot to recite what we were thankful for. But we all know we're thankful for friends and food and family and safe homes.

The kids played, for the most part, well together. Katie practiced her cartwheels. Zach played the Star Wars theme a few hundred times. Quinn and Tommy and Gracie played some computer games. Olivia buzzed around like a little bee. Lucy was a super trooper.

Oh yeah, and later the booze came out. And the pictures of Sarah Palin. And the wedding video...gosh, then it was about time to send people home before we really got rowdy.

Pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=4ntipq5.700ub115&x=0&y=-3ca8b3&localeid=en_US