Merry Christmas Friends!
We are writing from the middle of a week filled with Christmas concerts at school, pageants at church, and caroling at the nursing home. We’re also in the middle of an early cold snap in Wisconsin as we remember our big 3 1/2 week road trip out to California last summer and look forward to spending Christmas with my parents in southern Arizona next week.
This year we have mostly settled into life with bigger kids: double soccer practices, lots of wiggly teeth, nightly homework, piano practice, and Spanish Duolingo.
Evan and I took on a few bigger projects at school and church–Evan is teaching social studies AND science this year. I was the long-term art sub for 8 weeks last Spring and early this Fall. At church, we’ve continued to lead a neighborhood community group, and I’ve started leading a discussion group for women’s Bible study. Also, I’m helping with this year’s children’s Christmas pageant. Our church is using the script I made for our family.
But the highlight of our year was our big out west trip! It was filled with friends, family, and natural beauty. Above is a picture of us at the Grand Canyon. We had meals or stayed with over 14 sets of friends and family–great Aunts and Uncles and cousins, college roommates, and DC church friends. It was particularly sweet for Lily to get to meet her Great Grandma Katie.
Here are highlights, and of course, favorite books for each of us:
Lily Age 6
Lily is first grader this year. She tried ballet over the summer and soccer in the Fall and enjoyed and was great at both. She enjoyed the fancy hair-dos for each, the special outfits, and seeing friends at practice and class.
In soccer on the Mallards, she was remarkably aggressive and loved to try and make goals. It was a joy to watch her run and run (and run).
Here she is (#3) huddled up with the Mallards before one of their last games.
She’s also coming along great in piano and reading. Some of her favorite books this year were ones that she read herself! The Fox books by James Marshall, Henry & Mudge (or Annie & Snowball) by Cynthia Rylant, The Oliver and Amanda books by Jean Van Leeuwen, The Young Cam Jansen books by David A. Adler, and the Dodsworth books by Tim Egan. One series that she read all on her own even when it wasn’t “reading time” was Narwhal and Jelly by Ben Clanton which she describes as “cute, funny, and filled with creature facts.” We were delighted that she wanted to read on her own, and that we didn’t have to read books that we would describe more as “silly, confusing, and filled with made-up words.” It was a win-win.
Her literary goals for this coming year are to read the American Girl book Meet Kirsten and inherit my classic American Girl Doll Kirsten. She also loves all things fairytales, and I am working on a post of her favorites.
It was particularly sweet for me to have Lily get to meet some of the really important women in my life this summer: my Aunt Karen, my godmother Heidi, and my cousins Katie and Danielle. It really was such a gift to spend time with each of them this summer.
Lily is a beautiful mixture of silly and tender, fierce and nurturing. She loves her friends, her brother, her stuffed animals, and especially her cousins.
Earlier this year, I wrote about 40 of her favorite picture books and 5 of her favorite board games. She taught the card game Love Letter (pictured below) to many people this summer. There really are a handful of games now that we can play as a family in which Lily can hold her own, needs very little extra help, and we all genuinely enjoy.
A highlight of Lily’s year was getting to go on a special outing with Dad to Chick-fil-A.
Also, she loved dog-sitting my brother’s Labradoodles,
being in the Aladdin Jr. Musical at school.
and having her face painted at her friend’s birthday party.
Jackson age 9
Jackson is in third grade and turned 9 a few weeks ago. We had another birthday hike (you can see pictures of them here.) This was the first time Evan had middle school students come as friends to one of our kids’ parties! A sign that our baby is awfully big now.
Jackson played lots of soccer this year, but evidently Evan and I were too busy coaching (Evan) and cheering (me) to take any good pictures. Even though his team got crushed all the time playing against some of the best teams of his age level in SE Wisconsin, Jackson had a great attitude, always played hard, and said it was still lots of fun.
He was a pirate for Halloween. Jackson always loves a good story. We were very impressed that he slowly worked his way through Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain this summer. Jackson says his favorite books this year were Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon (again, 3rd year in a row, currently finished # 58 of the original series), Redwall series by Brian Jacques, Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing series by Judy Blume, and the I Survived Books by Lauren Tarshis. On the weekends, during after-lunch, reading rest-time, he also likes reading a little bit of one of the Indescribable devotional books by Louie Giglio, The Action Bible by Sergio Cariello, The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer and The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden.
And after three years of swimming lessons, this summer we saw a boy confident and having fun in the water! Below is a photo of Jackson at a touch pool at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium near Long Beach.
But Jackson’s greatest joy in life (right up there with playing soccer) is playing board games with Evan. He is always up for playing and loves to learn new and complicated ones. (Here are five of his favorites.) The only sadness around this is that Daddy’s board game night is too late for him to stay and play. (Although he has gotten to play the first game a few times.)
We also tried to incorporate a few more nightshades, non-gluten grains and legumes into our diet. That meant the kids got to try pizza for the first time. Jackson was a big fan. So far no one is having any eczema flairs, and Lily and Jackson say one the best parts of the summer trip was tacos and gluten-free toast.
Jackson is bright and kind. He always is always humming or tapping (or whistling!) a song. He’s doing great in piano and school. He loves gym class and Spanish (his Duolingo streak with Dad is over a thousand days!). If you stop by, Jackson will be ready to teach you a game!
Evan Age 40
Evan’s days are filled with quickly learning new science that he has to teach (thermal dynamics! cellular respiration! orbital planes!), coaching logistics (practice schedules, substitutes playing, indoor leagues), helping the kids with Spanish, and listening to board game podcasts on top of the usual teacher-dad-church member responsibilities.
Evan and the super moon at soccer practice this Fall.
A highlight on the out west trip was getting to see two good college friends–Matt and Danny–in Denver, Colorado.
A source of fun for Evan this year has been getting deeper into the world of board games. He took Jackson to check out one of the larger board game stores in the country that’s over in Madison. He has his favorite podcasts to listen to (one of his favorites is the Game Schooler podcast.) Of course, this has also meant we have a much bigger collection of games in our basement now. And Evan also wrote a series of guest blog posts about family games!
Above you can see our “travel game container” that we took on our trip with us. Our trip had friends, games, hikes, family, and little bit of history. All the things Evan loves most.
While this year has had so much extra work with teaching science and coaching higher level soccer for Jackson, between board game night with the guys, his bi-monthly online book club, our neighborhood community group, and kids who are nearly always up for playing a board game, life has a good amount of friends and fun in it too.
Evan’s favorite reads from this year were The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, and Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II by Alex Kershaw.
I’m so thankful for my hardworking, faithful, stable, and always up for a game husband!
Amy 39 (ok a few days away from 40)
I started out the year traveling by myself to California for a week to see my Grandma Katie along with my mom and her siblings. Evan and the kids survived without me (despite a snowstorm and canceled school.)
It was a lovely week of sun and spending time with my family.
I was especially grateful to get time to do one my favorite things (walking on the beach) with two of my favorite people (my Aunt Karen and cousin Danielle.)
We weren’t sure then if when we came out in the summer Grandma Katie would still be with us, so that trip was filled with sweet moments that I thought might be my last memories with my Grandma.
The last night we went to a fancy Italian restaurant and I got this great picture of me and my mom.
And I sat across from my Grandma Katie enjoying every last bite of her dessert.
The late winter and early spring were fairly quiet, and I got a lot of writing done! I am polishing up a good revised draft of my novel from that time spent working. I hope that this spring will be similar.
Late spring was very full with working as a long-term art substitute teacher at Evan’s school. I spent my days reading folk and fairy tales and teaching kids to draw animals from the story. (A hen from Henny Penny, or a duck from Ping, or a cat from Puss in Boots).
And then we embarked on our biggest road trip yet! Milwaukee to Kansas City to Denver to Santa Barbara to Long Beach to San Diego to Flagstaff and then home through Grand Junction. I got hugs from so many of my dearest friends and family this year.
College roommate Diane in Kansas City
Cousin Danielle in Little Italy San Diego
College roommate Alicia in El Cajon
Cousin Katie in Oceanside
College roommates Liz and Heidi in Flagstaff
And Highschool Best friend Kelli in Sussex (back in Wisconsin).
My favorite books from this year were The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt, The Shaping of a Life: A Spiritual Landscape by Phyllis Tickle, Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten, It Wasn’t Roaring it Was Weeping by Lisa Jo-Baker, and The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.
My day-to-day life this year also has included a lot of studying the book of Genesis for our church’s women’s Bible study. This year I’m a discussion group leader, and in January I am giving a large group talk. (On Sodom and Gomorrah of all things.) I’ve been reading lots of commentaries (John Walton‘s and John Goldengay‘s are my favorites) and taking online Bible Project Bible classes which I’d highly recommend. I love the women in my group (especially my wonderful co-leader Linda!). Wednesday mornings are a highlight of my week.
I’ve also started to do a little bit of work for my dad and his website JackRogersFineArt.com. I’m still volunteering on at the school library on Wednesday afternoons, and I substitute teach once or twice a month on average.
I also keep learning a lot about lifting weights and all things stretching, range of motion, mobility, and rehabilitation work. I’ve been loving the free ROM coach app, the wonderful work of physical therapists videos on youtube, and reading books like Forever Strong: A New, Science-Based Strategy for Aging Well by Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, ROAR: Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong Body for Life by Stacy T. Sims and Rethink Your Position: Reshape Your Exercise, Yoga, and Everyday Movement, One Part at a Time by Katy Bowman. (You can see more of my favorites on the Move Page on my blog).
Looking back on the year, our life really has been bursting with friends and travel, good books and games, deepening community ties here at school and church, and the sweetness of long time friends and extended family who we get to talk with and visit with in person.
And a special birthday wish to Great-Grandma Katie who turns 89 today! What a blessing to get to have two different trips to California to see her this year.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours.
I’ll let you go with more pictures of our out west trip!
