Merry Christmas 2008 and Happy New Year

Dear Friends and Family,

Welcome to the first ever (maybe first annual) online Christmas letter from us! In light of the recent financial tough times that many families are facing, we have decided to forego spending money on printing and mailing Christmas cards to our loved ones, and instead will be making a donation to the Cincinnati Freestore Foodbank.

If you are reading this, consider this your annual Christmas greeting from Michael, Jennifer, Charlotte and Sarah.

Typically, I make my own digital card and send it out, sans a letter, but since we're breaking with tradition and taking our Christmas greeting online, I thought perhaps a letter would be a new tradition to start.

What would a Christmas letter be without a little recap. We'll go from youngest to oldest.

Sarah Marie. Sarah just celebrated her 2nd birthday at the end of November. She was thrilled to have a small party (even if it was just her sister, parents and grandparents), and showed off by singing "Happy Birthday" to herself. Sarah amazes us every day with how much she comprehends and how well she communicates. She tends to be very bossy and loves to tell everyone what to do. "Move out of the way!" or "Sit me on my lap!" can often be heard from her. When she's up to something mischevious and we ask, "Sarah, what are you doing?" we hear, "Nuffing," in response. That's always a sure sign that we better go investigate.

Sarah takes a tumbling class weekly with me (Mommy). She just loves it, and is quite the show off at times. She's learning how to walk across a balance beam, do a forward somersault and hang from the uneven bars. She can't wait to get there each week to see Miss "Winzee" (Lindsay) and a few other of her friends. Her favorite parts are when we play with the bells, when Miss Winzee gets out the bubble maker, and getting her hands and feet stamped at the end of class.

Sarah, like most 2 year olds, has many favorite toys. But her most favorite thing to play with is her big sister Charlotte (and whatever Charlotte happens to be playing with in particular).

Charlotte Ann. Charlotte is quite the big girl now at 4 1/2 years old. She's in her 2nd year of preschool at Lakota and doing fabulously. She likes school (finally!!) and is doing well at learning to write her letters, and she continues to amaze us with how well she reads. She's been taking piano lessons for a couple of months now (at her request) and loves it (and her teacher Miss Jenna). Next year will be a big year - starting Kindergarten!

Charlotte takes good care of her little sister, in particular she likes to reprimand Sarah for climbing on the table or trying to pull the Christmas tree down. But she also gets upset when Sarah has to go in timeout (which is not infrequent - she's 2, remember).

This past summer we took the girls on vacation to Pawley's Island, South Carolina, for their first-ever beach vacation. You can read about it and see pictures here, here, here and here. It was a lot of fun!

And what can I say about the Mom and Dad in this Family? We are simply enjoying raising our two little girls... and right now, that doesn't leave time for much else.

I update this blog often, usually once per week, so feel free to check back and see what's happening in our lives ... and mostly lots of pictures of the two cutest little girls ever.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. May God bless you richly as He has us.

Love,

Jennifer, Michael, Charlotte and Sarah