Christmas Letter, 2011

I did it.  I got Crimmas cards mailed.  Well, not really cards, but Crimmas bundles.  

Family Picture + Closeup of Fern + Letter = Christmas bundle.

Each bundle was wrapped with a strip of burlap.  Ok, not real burlap.  Just some cool paper that looks like burlap.  I hope everyone who received these took a moment of silence to enjoy them.  Or, rather, a moment of silence to morn the loss of the quality time I gave up with the kids to make them.  Kidding.  Most of it was done while they were sleeping.  Or watching Sesame Street.  

After the moment passed, the burlap removed, this is what my friends and family got:

 the pictures and the letter:  

This year we are excited to announce that we had a baby girl.  Charlotte Fern Day was born on November 6, weighing in at 9 pounds, 12 ounces.  Once again, we had a baby too big for the diapers at the hospital, sending the nurses on a hunt for anything bigger than newborn.  All they could find were size 3 diapers.  True story.

With Fern here, we are learning the ropes of raising two children.  Learning the ropes is the nicer way of saying what we really call it-feeling the growing pains.  If we stayed home all the time, then things would be fine and normal.  However, we’re not the stay-at-home people. 

We like to go places, and that’s when the chaos starts.  That’s when we run around like crazy people, getting the four of us ready.  Excitement about going to a party turns into frantic scrambling to get us out the door.  Kind words are forgotten, sweet tones are tossed to the side.  Instead, we’re yelling back and forth to each other while getting both kids dressed and ourselves ready.  “Did you get Fern’s paci?” “Should we let Burl take his hammer to this?” “Flossing your teeth is a luxury that we don’t have time for!”

Please, don’t show concern.  We’ve got a plan.  We no longer see ourselves as a family.  Now, we’re a team, where the parents are the coaches and the children are the players.  It’s working well.  We’re operating on a man-on-man defense - one parent per child.  When we go places, we have a pep talk that looks something like a team huddling up and picking a play from the playbook.  Things go one of two ways:  Either chaos wins, we find ourselves in the midst of disaster, and we are in the car trading apologies -or- the planets align, we thrive, and we are ready on time with everyone dressed and happy.  When that happens, we hop in the car, smiling and high-fiving and scream out loud, “we doin’ it!”

And that’s what it’s all about for us this year: Celebrating the wins and learning from the losses.  We hope you do as well.  Merry Christmas and happy 2012! 

There it is.  Merry Crimmas, everyone!