A Christmas Letter with a Twist of Russell

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” -Charles Dickens

If this letter is brief, we apologize. We should have started earlier, but there just wasn’t time. There has been at least one bug living in our home all year. A dozen colds, 2-3 flu bugs and one case of Vertigo. We even had two possible cases of Whooping Cough (which resulted in seven or eight calls from the Health Department and 20-30 letters sent to parents of classmates and 40-50 parent notifications at the church). The number of antibiotics prescribed as a direct result of this one incident will keep the struggling pharmaceutical industry in the black for another year. Oh yeah, no one actually ever tested positive, but it was fun while it lasted. Kip had something that lasted a couple months but they never figured it out. At one point the docs were afraid he had a condition caused by taking too many antibiotics. The treatment for which, was another antibiotic.

“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana” -Groucho Marx

Kim tried to free up some time to get started on the letter, but her amazing accumulation of home-based businesses… crafts, linens, beauty products, et al. have really required a lot of attention. Not that we really plan on making any money on these ventures, but with the stuff you get just for signing up… “well, it would be silly not to”

Baseball player: “What time is it?” Yogi Berra: “You mean now?”

In addition, time was hard to come by with Hayden and Gillian both in school now and us trying to figure out how to support the 127 mandatory annual fundraisers without going broke, losing all our friends, or both. And even though Kip started a new job this year and works much closer to home, most of his time was spent running home to let the new dog (Bennett) outside while Kim spent her days running Gillian to ballet or preschool, driving Hayden to Kindergarden or T-ball, or both kids to swim lessons. We saved a little time (and money) by having a diaper/pull-up-free home for the first time in 6 years, although Bennett did the best to keep ‘waste’ in the forefront of our lives by running around pooping and marking chairs and walls and vacuum cleaners. He even marked the new hamster’s (Hammy) cage once or twice. We hope that didn’t have anything to do with Hammy becoming the old (dead) hamster.

“Those who make best use of their time have none to spare.” – Some famous person

Yes, it’s been a long, great, crazy year and, as always, we find ourselves strapped for time, and a bit more stressed than we probably should be. After all when all is said and done, 2007 was just another painful and wonderful year during which we found ourselves buried in blessings and having the time of our lives.