Sunday, January 04, 2009

2008 Christmas Letter, Yea!

If you have been a lucky recipient of our Christmas letters in the past, you may know that we have been very late the last couple of years. Like most of our activities where we are late, we blame the kids. But, for 2008, we wrote our Christmas letter on/around Christmas and have sent most of them out. If you think we forgot you, it is possible (once again, we blame the kids for turning our memories to mush), but it may be that we are in the process of confirming your address. Give it a little bit of time. We should send the remaining letters out shortly.

Now, if you did receive a Christmas Letter from us and you had some questions, here is our 2008 Christmas Letter FAQ:

Q: How much did Alex weigh when he was born?
A: This statistic was in our 2007 "Christmas Letter." Even though Alex was born after Christmas, our letter was so late that we were able to include his birth details in that letter. While we are not sure exactly how much he weighed given that we had a fairly arbitrary fish-scale type weighing device, Dan and Mary Lou and Mary Lou's assistant came to the conclusion that he weighed 10lbs 12 oz.

Q: Other than not being a traveler and hiding things from you, how is Alex different from Will?
A: One difference is in their eating habits. While it is true that Alex will eat anything he can find, it's really about quality rather than quantity. We had to nurse Will every hour for a few months after he was born. Alex actually gave me a break. Then, we had to start Will on solids at 4 months because he was just consuming constantly. Alex we waited until 6 months old for solids. It's just nice to put Alex to bed at night not worried that he might still need more food.
A: Also a difference is that Alex started sleeping through the the night very soon (as opposed to 9 months old for Will). He has formed a bond with his "blankie" that causes him much comfort during the night.
A: Another difference is that Alex has a whole lot more hair. We didn't cut Will's hair until he was 13 months old. We cut Alex's hair when he was 10 months old. He might be due for another cut soon.

Q: Merry-Go-Round?
A: Yes, Merry-Go-Round. It has a custom built metal core and a neat, octagonal wooden frame. It's in our backyard. It's awesome.

Q: Have you LOL-Catted any other pictures of the kids?
A: Not yet, but we will. Don't worry.

Q: What other goals do you have for 2009?
A: Will is going to stop double-dipping.
A: Will is also going to learn how to do more than one thing at a time with the Nintendo controllers. Because it just doesn't work to either jump or shoot or move.
A: Will is considering learning how to video conference on his own. Fortunately Skype is free.

Q: Does Alex really only say "down"?
A: No, he says other words too, but "down" is his favorite. He uses it to get held, to get down from being held, to get out of high chair, to demonstrate throwing food off his high chair, when he throws balls or other stuff, and to get off the couch or our bed. In terms of other words, he is working on mom, blanket (which sounds like ma-ma), dad, up, ball, block, dinosaur (di-di), roar, duckie, quack, yummy, book, remote, box, bird, dog, hat, banana, melon, apple, more, snack, milk, yeah, no, bubble, hi, bye.

Q: Are there any grammetrical errors in the Christmas Letter this year?
A: Of course not. Although there is one numeric inconsistancy. And there is one arbitrary capitalization (as a throwback to old Kroboth Family christmas letters). And, the worst of all, I forgot that Alex went to Minnesota with me for work. As photographic evidence, here he is with Aunt Robin and Uncle Daniel outside the TGI Friday's outside the Mall of America.


Q: What changes will you make as you contemplate your 2009 Christmas Letter?
Ah yes, it seems as though people writing Christmas letters are raising the bar. Now we are seeing 2 different things. First, people are using Snapfish and other photo services to make their included pictures all fancy (Joanne/Steve, Diane/Mike, Cathy/Wes. Second, people are now writing "newsletters" (Angela/Phil, Kay/Gavin). And, of course, people have always been including an actual Christmas card with their letters. We will consider these "improvements" in the future.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

3 comments:

watterflower said...

yay! Minnesota Represents!

Angela said...

We have been writing the newsletter for several years (text is almost the same as our letter). It goes to all the people not lucky enough for us to spend $.42 postage + $.15 picture on them. :) We usually mail about 50 and email 200+. We'd go broke mailing all those. LOL

Joshua said...

I think we might actually go retro this year and HANDWRITE our Christmas cards. Thanks for the shout out, though! We rather liked our card. (And you should be honored to be considered "card worthy"! Those buggers were waayyyy too expensive to do again!)