Lamenting the Christmas Letter

So yesterday I sent out our Christmas cards. On December 7th! Definitely a personal best. I am now, however, lamenting the loss of our Christmas letter. In the drive to get the cards out, I chose to create them online - a single picture with two lines of text - and then have them mailed directly to each of the recipients. How efficient!

How sad. Normally, I spend days agonizing over my letter, reviewing the pictures and events of the previous year, and working my best to come up with a holiday letter that won't end up on one of those "worst Christmas letter" websites. In the past two years, I've turned the newsletter into the card itself, working on designing something that, although homemade, is presentable. We always manually signed the cards, and tried to add some personalization. That's the part that's sad - the Christmas cards received by my family and friends will literally never have been touched by me!

Now, perhaps this wouldn't bother me so much if I was better at keeping in touch with friends and family thoughout the year, but I'm not. It's not that I don't think about these people, because I do - a lot. I just don't do anything about it. I have a feeling that this issue will make an appearance on my "2009 resolutions" list.

Regarding the issue at hand, however, I've decided that I can't live without an annual Christmas letter. So, it will appear here, on my blog. I'm also going to post the previous Christmas letters, in case anyone's interested. Long live the Christmas letter, in whatever form it takes!

A Wishbone Tie??

Madilyn and Sarah pulling the wishbone.

I've never heard of this, but the bone split evenly... resulting in a wishbone tie. Hopefully, they both got their wishes!

Happy Thanksgiving

As is becoming our tradition, my parents joined us for Thanksgiving. We are truly grateful for all the blessings we have received in 2008.

Going to the Dogs (and Backyardigans)

The day after my parents arrived, we all packed into the car, and headed to the Mall of America, except for Gary, who had to work. MOA on a Monday is a great place to be, especially when we use Sarah's special use pass (which allows us to bypass waiting in line - a HUGE blessing for kids with autism, who completely live in the RIGHT NOW). Here are some pics of us enjoying the Nickelodeon Universe theme park.

Lunchbox

I jumped into the shower while Sarah was finishing her breakfast. When I got out, I called for her to come and get dressed, and she said "I'm busy making lunch". While the fact that she actually responded to me verbally is shocking, when I went into the kitchen, I found a perfectly packed lunch. She said "I have a protein, a grain, and a vegetable!" Sure enough, she had a roll, some grape tomatoes, a yogurt, and a PediaSure all properly wrapped up and put in her lunch box with a straw and a spoon. The only thing missing was a napkin, which I suspect was next on her list before I interrupted her. Wow! That kid is amazing.

She's eating

Well, it took 5 WEEKS, but Sarah finally overcame her fear of eating. As I write this, she is sitting nearby with a bowl of Cheerios, happily munching away. It took 2 therapists and lots of time doing things that normally wouldn't be associated with eating (like cutting pictures of food out of magazines) to make the strides, but the end result is that she now understands a lot more about nutrition and the importance of eating from all the food groups. I can't tell you how much I love her "people" and how important they are in her life!

From a Kindergarten teacher

Today was Madilyn's parent/teacher school conference. She's doing really well, and the teacher was full of praise for her abilities. When I inquired regarding her social skills, her teacher mentioned that generally she got along really well with others, but that there was a very clear distinction in (Madilyn's) mind between right and wrong, and she didn't really understand why anyone would choose to do something wrong. I believe the teacher used the phrase "there's black, and there's white, and, in her opinion, there's really no gray in between."

Welcome to our world!