December 30th,
2012
Dear Family,
I think it is
interesting in that I keep feeling the need to write a family letter and then
when I finally make myself sit down to write it, I get nothing but writers
block. So, as you read the upcoming
paragraphs, just keep in mind “Oh, writers block.”
Grant is becoming
public enemy number one with his new laser enhanced Nerf dart gun. You never know when you’ll hear the sound of
a dart suction cup sticking to a window, door, or the ceiling followed by a
little 4-year-old exclaiming “YES!!!” I
think we’ll wait on the bebe gun until he’s 25.
When Grant isn’t hunting windows, doors, or the ceiling, he can be found
playing cars, trains, or whatever he and Julia can think of to do. He is really enjoying the snow we have. While the rest of us shovel it, Grant busts
out his lawn mower and mows it.
Sometimes I wonder about that kid.
Julia is enjoying
her new multi-colored whiteboard markers.
Her new thing is to carry her whiteboard around on the top of her head
(kind of like protesters do) with messages written to Linley and I. So, rather than answer our questions with her
mouth, she’ll go and get her whiteboard and write the response on it and parade
around the house. A rather unique way of
going about the communication process. I
hope this isn’t a sign of what is to come.
Watching the teens at Church and their texting… Of course, Julia would have to have a phone
to do that and I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I’ll start worrying if I see her walk through
the chapel doors with her whiteboard.
Meredith had the
best Christmas ever. So far that has
been true for the past several years so the pressure is really on to make each
year that way. Her craftiness and sewing
are going to the next level now that she has her own sewing kit. I’m not going to be surprised if I start
seeing the plants and various items of furniture have their own custom made
scarf or wrap. I’m pretty sure all of
her dolls and animals have multiple clothing options. Maybe I’ll have her start working on her own
clothes so by the time she’s 12 she’ll be able to make what she wants to
wear. Maybe I’ll see if Holly is taking
any apprentices.
Ever since
returning from our Thanksgiving trip to Illinois to visit Danny, Tait is really
in to Nerf wars. He has upgraded his two
handguns to a semi-automatic lots-o-dart-throwing gun and a rifle-type dart
gun. To sum it up, if you play capture
the flag with Tait, your best bet is to hide behind your buddy and while he is
being blown away, make a run for it.
Once you get to Tait’s flag, don’t bother turning around and running
back, just keep running away and eventually you’ll return to your side of the
line…eventually.
Linley is
counting down the days of Christmas vacation.
It ends this coming Thursday. She
gift-wrapped baby’s identifying pictures for the kids to open on
Christmas. Tait was first – he opened
his box to find in it another gift-wrapped box addressed to Meredith. Meredith found the same thing – a
gift-wrapped box for Julia. Julia found
a box for Grant. In Grant’s box was the
pictures. Pretty clever way of wrapping
it. Lucky for us, the lady from the
hospital wrote down the gender cause those pictures may just as well been
pictures of the moon or a close-up of my forehead. Anyway, our baby is a girl. Linley is trying to get me to commit to a
girl name. She has thrown out my
suggestions of Edweena, Gertrude, and Esmereldine. Linley’s sense of humor isn’t the same when
she’s pregnant.
I have been
trying to keep myself busy with work, family, and tithing settlement. Good times had by all! I have been thinking a lot lately about
family and priorities. I’ll spare you
the novel and just give you the brief summary:
“No other success can compensate for failure in the home” – Pres. David
O McKay. It is easy to get caught up in
the grandeur of everything around us which takes our eyes and motivations off
of those things that will bring true happiness and peace. It is easy to get preoccupied with the little
insignificant things to the point of missing what is really important. It’s like complaining and scraping mud off
your shoe and totally missing a beautiful sunset that everyone else is
enjoying. I could go on and give more
examples but I’ll stop there. I’m doing well,
despite my stuffy nose. I have a lot of
things I need to work on (spiritually and temporally) so I’ll get to work.
Love,
Kjell, Linley,
Tait, Meredith, Julia, Grant, and Snufalufagus
