Holiday Letter 2009

Dear Friends and Family,
We would like to open this year’s letter with a song to share with you all the fun we've had this holiday season.

On the twelfth day of Christmas the season gave to us,
Twelve trips to PT, (Emery and Alice)
Eleven breathing treatments, (Maxine and Cheikh)
Ten minutes late, (All of us, all the time)
Nine A Christmas Story (s), (Bailey’s favorite movie)
Eight pets a pukin’, (Self explanatory)
Seven abdominal x-rays, (Bailey)
Six hyper children, (Also self explanatory)
Five grand in braces, (Jackson)
Four teeth extracted, (Emery)
Three MRIs, (Emery, Ruby and Cheikh)
Two school suspensions, (Our second and third children who shall remain nameless)
And a baby from Burkina Faso! (Cheikh)

So as you can see, life has been busy. We are hosting another child from West Africa. Cheikh is seven months old and from Burkina Faso. He is here due to a large lump under his right arm. He just had his MRI, so we don’t have a treatment plan yet. He is cute and sweet and it’s really fun having a baby in the house.
We hosted another child in the spring. Nine year old Grace has Spina Bifida and came to the US because both her hips were out of joint. She had her surgery at U of M Children’s hospital and recovered amazingly well. Though she was nine, she was developmentally closer to Maxine and they struck up a fast friendship. Maxine was amazing at taking care of Grace, playing with her and keeping her distracted when she was feeling homesick. Grace came speaking French but learned a bit of English while she was here. One of my favorite memories is of Maxine, Martin and Grace sitting in the van together singing along to the Mama Mia sound tract in English, not sure any of them knew what they were singing.
Martin is in his second year of pre-school and doing well. He receives help with his speech at school. He still loves basketball and has a hoop in the basement. He rarely varies from his standard outfit of basketball jersey and shorts, even in the winter. For his fourth birthday in January we are planning a outing to see the Harlem Globetrotters.
Maxine’s in Kindergarten and doing great. Reading, writing and number concepts all appear to come fairly easily to her, but her love is art. (She would like everyone to know she HATES gym). Drawing is her favorite but she loves painting, clay and oil pastels (as in, “It’s oil pastels, Mom!” when asked about her “crayon” drawings). Despite her being the second tallest five year old we’ve had, second only to Jackson, Kath can not get her interested in basketball (remember, she HATES gym!).
Ruby declined to participate in this year’s holiday letter so the following is a fictional narrative of a year in the life of a ten year old girl. Any resemblance to actual events is strictly coincidental.
Our heroine started the year playing basketball. She had another successful year and her team did well. Soccer, Lacrosse and Softball followed and she enjoyed these as well. The summer was spent in sports camps and vacationing with friends and family. Her birthday brought a long awaited trip to Michigan Adventure with eight of her closest friends. In September, she moved to a new school where she has had a stellar year, especially in Math, English and Choir. She took two of her friends to Toledo to meet Cheikh, skipping school and reporting back to her teacher about the adventure. But the highlight of the year, as any 10 year old girl would tell you, was the arrival of New Moon to the theater.
Jackson is in Middle School this year. School continues to be hard for him so we arranged that he have gym twice a day. This, along with football in the Fall, basketball in the Winter and Lacrosse in the Spring, keeps him reasonably worn out which helps both at home and school. His first love is still cars, scooters, bikes, remote control cars and anything else that moves. Christmas morning will bring an assortment of RC cars to keep him busy, at least for the day.
Emery and Bailey will update everyone below:
Hi, this is Emery with my portion of the Christmas letter. This year, besides going to new Charlevoix, I trained for football and did drivers ed. I passed segment 1 and I have a permit while I’m currently working on a license. Sadly, even though I trained hard in the summer, my football season did not go very well. We were 2-7 and one of our only two wins was a forfeit. But I wouldn’t have played in that game anyway because I have some pretty messed up knees . I am currently in physical therapy for both of my knees and it is going well. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We survived the Bush era!
Hello. This is Bailey here. I am, in general, fine. However, due to my Crohn’s disease, {or rather my colon} I am having certain troubles that I don’t wish to elaborate right now. Anyways, I am a semi-senior at East Lansing high but I still have a semester and a half left. I hope to graduate in 2011... Or sometime around then. I’m into psychology and parapsychology, mythology, folklore, fairy myths, history and anthropology. I also like role playing games on the computer like Runescape and World of Warcraft. I have recently seen the movie Avatar {by James Cameron} in 3D. It was cool. That is all. Happy Holidays!!
Kath is thrilled to be full-time parenting but she’s far more worn out than when she worked outside of the home and could get in a nap now and then. She’s had the opportunity to participate in a couple of spay/neuter clinics with a doctor from MSU for low income clients and enjoys keeping her surgical skills fresh while being a part of the effort to control the pet population. As many of you already know, she’s also ventured into fund raising for orphans with Down syndrome, having raised almost $2000 for one little guy in South America. Thanks to all of you who have supported her efforts.
And last but not least (hopefully!) Alice. I am still enjoying my “retirement” working almost full time at the blood bank. We are now Animal Blood Resources International after a merger with ABB in California. I still enjoy my 140 + cats, drawing blood weekly and caring for them takes up most of my work time. If ever you are looking for the purr-fect feline friend, PLEASE check out our Pet-finder website. All these cats have done so much to help felinekind and of course they are all fabulous!!! I still try to squeeze in sewing, crafting and gardening when I can. We wish you all a happy and peaceful new year. Much love, Kath, Alice, Bailey, Emery, Jackson, Ruby, Maxine,Martin and Cheikh