Crashing Into Christmas

I know, I know, I have neglected the blog writing again and for that I apologize. I couldn't believe it when I clicked on the site and it said my last post was October. Like many of you experience, it seems our life continues to get busier and more complex the older we get. I guess we're pretty lucky to get several days off in a row here at Christmas for some much needed down time. I'll take it and I thought I would also take this opportunity to catch up here. In years past I have always been pretty good about getting greeting cards out to family and friends at Christmas. They would always, well almost always, have our family Christmas letter in them. Several years ago I didn't get the letter in our cards and boy did I hear about it. {I wont mention any names here, but we're all still friends}
As most of you know, we lost our older brother Mike unexpectedly a couple years ago in November. Those first couple of Christmases were pretty rough. In fact, they sucked. We didn't decorate our home inside or out and I didn't really feel much like sending out cards or a letter. This season I thought I would get "ahead of the game" and the weekend after Thanksgiving I began decorating outside the house. Barb got some of her collection of Nativity scenes out and her and the kids put the tree up and decorated it. The house looks somewhat festive, inside and out. But alas, I failed at getting cards and letters out this year. Baby steps, right? So I decided to do a first and use my blog as the avenue of delivery. Some may not get this but many of you will and this year it will have to do.
Overall, we've had a pretty good 2011. When you're a parent of three or however many, your life is pretty much set on their schedules so we've kind of rolled with it. We do try to get a night out from time to time for adult time, usually with a lot less noise than what's at home. I thought in this letter I would try not to bore you with a month to month run down of our activities. {Yes, we have lots of room for activities} Instead, I thought I would share a few "firsts" with you. First, let's start with DJ.

DJ turned 11 last month. He's still a big "gamer" on the video games but this year he decided to play tackle football for the first time for an Optimist Club team. He was put on the "Barons" team which had 24 kids, half of them playing for the first time. He hated conditioning and wanted to quit, but when game time came around he started to really have a good time. I'll never forget one practice where the coach had given the boys a water break and these coaches worked the boys pretty hard. As the boys were returning to the huddle the coach says, "DJ, why are you always one of the last guys hustling back from a water break?" Without missing a beat DJ says, "I'm saving myself for the game, Coach!" That immediately reminded me of Bill Murray in "Stripes" and I was sliding down in the seat of my truck trying to stifle my laugh. He was one of the smaller guys on the team of 11-13 yr. olds, but was playing offense and defensive line and doing a pretty good job playing with a lot of heart. Their team finished the season undefeated and each player was awarded a trophy and given a t-shirt that said "League Champions" on it. The Monday after the awards banquet I asked Deej if he was going to wear his new shirt to school and his answer surprised me. He said, "Wearing that shirt is bragging and it makes all my friends mad. {He was on a team with no kids from his school} So I'll just wear it on the weekends." He didn't care so much about the wins, he just loved to play. And furthermore, he was sincere and humble, giving us a look at his growing, 11 year old, kind heart. That made us more proud than all the wins too!

Mariah is going to be 13 in February, although, she seems to think she's 16. She has a flare for the drama all day, every day. She's not happy unless she's yelling at her younger brother for something as simple as breathing to loud. Ahh..teenage girls. This year Mariah was very excited to get a part in the middle school musical, "Annie Jr." Man, did those kids put on a great presentation for 7th and 8th graders. Mariah was one of the "bratty orphans" so she really didn't have to get much out of character. She has a beautiful voice and did an outstanding job and surprised us with a cartwheel to our corner of the stage the night we had front row seats. She loves to sing, dance and act, in fact, she has a part in the school play coming in February. Earlier this year Barb took Mariah to the American Idol Tour Show that featured the top 12 Idol contestants. Prior to the concert, they had a karaoke stage outside the venue and Mariah got on stage and rocked the audience of a couple thousand people with the "Grenade" song. She received a tour poster signed by the 12 Idol contestants. We tell her that Uncle Eddie and I are going to sign her to the "Smoking Dog Records" label and make her a star. In our eyes, she already is!

Abby will be 19 in January. She started her first year of college and that was a big change not having her around the house. Not that she spent all that much time at home anyway, but we knew we weren't going to see her much when she went to school. One of the things we really missed was having that extra driver to help get the kids to where they needed to be. I've taken up about 90% of those duties. {Another reason I havent had much time to write on the blog} When she gets her year of general studies out of the way, she plans on studying International Business with a secondary in the Chinese Language. When she was in HS she went on a 20 day student leadership trip to China just before the Olympics. She really enjoyed the culture and history of that country. Abby did her first semester at Bowling Green and decided BG was not for her. So she returned home and will finish the year at Columbus State. This allows her to return to her job she had all last summer and attend a school only 25 minutes from home. We say we're "undecided" on whether we like her being back home. Her siblings don't seem to be wild about it, but the truth is, her Mom is glad she's back. {Insert evil smile here}

Barb and I have kept pretty busy with our jobs with some of the extra duties that we've been assigned. IGS is getting into the electric business to go with their natural gas business so things are pretty crazy but busy for her. We've had a few changes at Alpha the last few months that has required me to take on a lot more responsibility but nothing I cant handle. Last month Barb celebrated her 1 year anniversary of her knee replacement surgery with a 100% recovery. She's not tap dancing like Mom Paxton, but she's very pleased with the results. After the first of the year I will be having the same surgery on my left knee and I'm hoping for similar results. Because Barb had to be off work for an extended time for her recovery we really didn't get a family vacation this past summer. So, we're really looking forward to going somewhere special this next summer with the kids. {They remind us regularly that they were "jipped" out of a vaction} They have such a rough life.
We continue to be amazed at all the blessings in our lives. We have great family, awesome friends, we both get to work with some pretty incredibly good people, and we thank God for all those things. With the struggling economy and unemployment, marital and relationship problems that so many people we know are dealing with, I think it's important to share this thought I had about 2:30 this morning with you, especially this time of the year: This Christmas do something different. Go to the room your tree is in and turn off all the lights except the ones on the tree. As you sit quietly, remember that the blessings in your life way outnumber the bulbs on the tree. See how bright that tree is? Yeah, that's what others see in you. The message of Christmas: "No matter how tough the journey gets, you're never alone."
Merry Christmas and the best and brightest New Year to each of you. That's the view from my stand!