Family Christmas Letter 2023

Merry Christmas Friends!

As I write this, we are happily a few days away from Christmas break, eating leftover Santa Lucia Day buns, and loading the harp up for a bunch of dress rehearsals and children’s Christmas performances at school and church and our local nursing home.

We are happy to report that this school year has found us feeling a little more at ease–fewer sicknesses, more friends, enjoying school kids life.

This year both kids started riding two wheelers (a few days apart, Lily would not be left behind!), attending Sunday school (at first together, but this Fall in separate classes), and got to go crabbing in Maryland for the first time.

The highlight of our year was getting to see so many friends and family over our summer trips out to Maryland and up north to Amery, Wisconsin. It had been several years since we had been able to give each grandparent a hug in person, and we did not take that for granted this year.

We also started hosting a small group at church this Fall and we have really enjoyed the other families making our little living room burst with song and toddlers and life.

Lily age 5 1/2

Lily is in Kindergarten! Or as she would be quick to inform you, “5K.” She started swimming lessons this Fall. She lost her first tooth after Thanksgiving.

And she also managed to break both her elbows on her 5th birthday, the greatest sadness of which was that she had to delay putting on her new long-sleeved Queen Elsa dress a few weeks.

Lily is fun and expressive, nurturing and fierce. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Dama, who she talks about often and fondly. She has lots of friends at school, and we are told she’s quick to help out her classmates. Also, fortunately for Lily, many of the boys on Jackson’s soccer team have little sisters just about her age, so it’s hard to tell who looked forward to soccer games more–Jackson or Lily!

Lily’s reading is coming along; we are working on long-vowel words these days. She started to play piano songs on the white keys this Fall. And she was delighted to be “a motions leader” for the Christmas program and a bumblebee for the Musical.

Lily’s favorite books this year have been various kinds of classic princess fairytales like those illustrated by Paul O Zelinksy (Rapunzel), Francesca Rossi, (Cinderella), Kinuko Y. Craft (Twelve Dancing Princesses) and collections like Classic Stories to Share by Ladybird Tales and The Golden Book of Fairy Tales translated by Marie Ponsot and illustrated by Adrienne Segur. For a list of Lily’s favorites right before her birthday, check out this post. We are deeply grateful that after being sick nearly constantly with colds from school and church last year from Thanksgiving to Mothers’ Day, we have had a much healthier Fall and a much happier, calmer Liliana June.

Jackson age 8

Jackson is in second grade! He has a small, but mighty (and awfully kind and sweet) class of four kids. He has a new bigger (and wilder) soccer team–now with goalie and off-sides rules.

He still loves games of all kinds, board games in particular. His piano is coming along great, and his teachers (Mom and Grandma Debbie) are very proud of him.

He (as Lily does) continues to adore his cousins and any time we get to spend with them–playing chess with Jonny, or soccer with Uncle Jon (or Uncle Joran if we’re seeing Evan’s cousins), and generally loving the big, warm houses filled with kids and toys and love. For his 8th birthday last month, we had another “Hiking Family Birthday party” at a local state park. 10 families (40 people!) came and hiked up to the observation tower in one of the first real snows of the season. There were a lot of snowballs thrown.

Jackson is always up for a game or a good book. This year he reported that his favorite series included the Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary, Heartwood Hotel books by Kallie George and illustrated by Stephanie Graegin, Ken Jennings’ Junior Genius Guides, Diary of a Disciple books by Gemma Willis, Third Grade Detectives books by George E. Stanley and illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca, Thirteen Story Treehouse series by Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton, and of course, once again this year, Hardy Boys.

Evan

This is Evan’s 9th year teaching social studies at CELA (Christian Educational Leadership Academy in Pewaukee, WI) along with the many other hats (leading chapel, teaching electives, doing various administrative tasks) he wears there, perhaps the most important of which to Lily and Jackson is that of “Dad” who checks on them at lunch time.

Evan’s working on getting some soccer coaching certifications this Fall so he can keep moving up with Jackson’s soccer team. He continued with having board game guy nights with some men from church, online book club with friends throughout the country, and has enjoyed getting to know the dads in small group.

He got to see several cousins this year and close friends during our trip to Maryland and the Chicago Fire soccer team play (Messi, unfortunately, was injured).

And he deep in plans for a big 40 year birthday get together with college friends next year.

Evan’s favorite books from this year were Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M. T. Anderson, Everything Sad Is Untrue: (a true story) by Daniel Nayeri, Dreaming the Beatles: A Love Story of One Band and the Whole World by Rob Sheffield, Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, 44 Years With The Same Bird: A Liverpudlian Love Affair by Brian Reade, and Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane.

Amy

My year has in many ways been quiet, but also included some fun milestones. I finished my first full draft of my novel! It clocked in at 150,000 words (that’s like a 15 hour audio book, or 500 pages), which is likely much too long to get published for the age level I’m targeting. So I set to work editing, made some really strong edits…but the word count wasn’t budging. (Ok ok, it had gotten longer.) So while I always said I couldn’t split the novel into two, that is in fact what I’m doing. It’s great. I get to write MORE. I’m having a lovely time rewriting and planning out the rest of the series.

I also started two substitute roles. The first is as a substitute leader for our church women’s Bible study (it’s called Tapestries and many of the pictures above are from there) and the other is as a substitute teacher at the kids’ and Evan’s school. So far I have been a gym teacher (exhausting but amazing step counts for the day), a 5th grade teacher (kind of the best) and a middle school English teacher (parts of speech! great pieces of literature!). It’s been a great fit. I really enjoy my days at school, and the next day in the quiet house is also amazing.

My weeks also get filled up with volunteering at the school library on Wednesday afternoons, preparing and leading small group on Fridays, getting ready for the weekly Bible study on Wednesday mornings, teaching Jackson and Lily piano after school and on the weekends, doing phonics with Lily, and generally trying to keep the kids in good books by walking to the library most days.

I also played more harp this year than I have since college. In the summer I got to play for my high school best friend Kelli’s wedding. It was such a beautiful day, and it was so special to get to play as Kelli walked down the aisle.

Some of my favorite books from the year were The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and “Women’s Work” (Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality) by Kathleen Norris, Which Witch by Eva Ibboston, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Although it is hard to narrow them down, look for my upcoming post of my 39 books of this year!

It was a lighter year in terms of publishing blog posts (although I have nearly half a dozen that I’m working on, so perhaps this winter will balance things out if I don’t get called in to substitute teach very often.) But below are some of the posts I did do this year.

1. A Simple Home Christmas Pageant Script
2. Books & Boots for Saint Nicholas Day: A List of our Family’s Favorite Christmas Picture and Read Aloud Books
3. 40 Great Picture Books for 4 Year Olds
4. The Best Children’s Bibles: 30+ suggestions from Board Book Bibles to Illustrated Study Bibles
5. An Epiphany Liturgy for Children and Families
6. 38 Books for My 38th Birthday: A 2022 Reading List

Evan and I celebrated our 16th anniversary this spring. And thanks to our kind friends Pat and Jane, we even got a date in at Valentine’s day!

As we close out this year, we are so grateful for the summer travels we had, soaking up sun and hugs from friends and family. We counted it up and we spent over 40 nights away from home this summer! What a blessing the teacher schedule is for fitting in long trips (and one long puppy-bunny-worm-baby tree-farm-house sitting stint for my brother.)

We’re already planning a trip next year to West Coast, driving all the way to San Diego and Santa Barbara to see my family. We are especially hoping that it will work out to see my Grandma Katie, and we are praying that she responds well to the immuno-therapy treatments she has started for tumors in her lungs. I’m planning on going out myself in January to see her along with my mom (solo dad time for Evan!).

We’ll close with pictures of some of the many people we got to spend time with this summer. (Although, on several visits we were too busy talking to get photographic evidence!)

Summer Travels Photos

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! May these last few days of wrapping presents find you wrapped up in God’s love for you. May moments of joy sneak up on you, may you laugh when you do not expect it, and cry over the beauty of Christ’s incarnation and coming to be with us, dwelling among us, and making his home with us, strike you anew.

All our love,

Amy, Evan, Jackson & Lily