Below is the most recent Family letter. I love the family letter, it goes out once a month on Chris' mother's side of the family. So it is formally, the "Darrell and Avis Porter Family Letter". It has been "published" since January of 1998, though in the printed Volume I (239 pages) there are 43 pages dedicated to 1997, which was a big year for the family and so emails between Avis (Nana) and her two kids, Sydney (Chris' mom) and Billy. When we got the hardback, printed volumes I & II, I spent hours pouring over the years when I wasn't a part of the family yet and Chris the bachelor was writing in to his family about his life. So interesting!
Anyway, so this month...January's letter is about the month of December and was written by Chris. This is why I had to include it here. He's funny. He should have rivaled Dave Barry and been a humor writer. Okay, he is a humor writer, and he rivals Dave Barry...he just doesn't have a very large audience. Anyway, here is a humorous glance at our December (and all the things I am behind on blogging about).
From the Washington Pierces:
This month Rebecca and I celebrated 10 blissful years of marriage. I am really pleased that my second marriage has worked out so well. We took the girls to Port Townsend, WA and stayed at a nice condo with a pool that the girls enjoyed. We enjoyed the small town and stayed for three days. On the third day we went up to Sequim (pronounced "squim") and visited a free-range animal farm. We had zebras, llamas, bison, horses, antelope and all kinds of animals getting our adrenaline pumping as they tried to get their heads into the cab of my truck. I squealed like a small girl when I reached my hand out of my window to throw a piece of bread to a buffalo and a seagull was on my roof waiting for me and grabbed it out of my hand. The girls were thrilled with the experience. Unfortunately, Betsey is cursed with what doctors call "broken record syndrome". The main symptom is that you say the same thing over and over and over again, all the while more excitedly. For example:
"Horse? Horsey? horse... horse... horse... horse... Horse, Horse, Horse, HORSE! HORSE! HORSE! HORSEY HORSEY HORSEY! - DADDA - HORSEY! MAMMA - HORSEY! AYE-AYE (Alice) HORSEY! HUBEY (Ruby) HORSEY!"
Once Betsey has sufficiently notified all in the vicinity of the important horse sighting, the next animal would be just around the corner. Doctors have said that the only remedy is to put a few drops of night-time cough syrup in her bottle just prior to an episode. We have not tried this yet because Rebecca is looking for a holistic solution.
Betsey is a tough little girl with a lot of attitude. When I say tough, I mean she can be tough to be around as she is very demanding and short-tempered. When she is sweet, she has the ability to make you forget that only a few short seconds prior she was making you wish that you had stopped after two kids. She is on track to be a cage fighter and also a beauty queen. It will be interesting to see what type of person she turns out to be as she gets older. Somehow Betsey seems to flourish and grow without any known food to actually pass her lips and enter her digestive tract. Sure, there are many times where food is passed up for garbage, cat food, small pieces of plastic and bits of unknown things that are found on the floor, but who knew that this would be enough for the human body?
Betsey's favorite people are as follows:
#1) Dad. She will run past anyone when hurt and break down walls to get to Dad during a time of crisis. Dad is unaware how he holds this position as his patience can wear thin quickly at times. It may be that after being gone at work for most of the day Dad may be seen as fresh meat at around dinner time. Do not attempt to cuddle Dad when Betsey is in the room unless you have ear plugs and football pads.
#2) Aye-Aye. Alice seems to have the patience of Job and a forgiving nature that comes with Sainthood. Even after getting her hair pulled, or taking a toy to the back of the head, Alice will quickly initiate forgiveness and say how cute Betsey is, and how much she loves her. Betsey recognizes this weakness and pushes Alice to the limits of her capacity. When everyone else is running for the hills Alice is running to Betsey with arms open. Dad is willing to relinquish his first place position to Alice but is currently unable to move down in the standings.
Tied for #3) Mom and Hubey. These two are in a neck and neck race to pull ahead of the other person and currently share this position until one of them decides to kick in the after burners. Higher rankings come with more responsibility.
#4) Oma & Opa (Rebecca's Mom & Dad). Limited bi-monthly exposure keeps this relationship alive. Time apart does seem to heal wounds.
All joking aside, we love Betsey a lot and it is fun to get to know her as she gets older and learns new words. We are hoping that these words will soon quell her frustrations. She can be a real hoot and is also a good cuddler when Dad puts her to bed at night.
This year we spent Christmas Eve at Rebecca's parents and then came home to spend Christmas day at our house. It was our first as a family at our own house and we really enjoyed it. Our friends the Reynolds came down later that day and spent the night with us. We took the kids over to the Church property and took advantage of the zip lines that had recently been installed for the scouts. Luckily I knew who in the ward had the gear to make it possible and we ended up staying for several hours. It isn't too cold around here right now - usually in the 40's and even 50's during the day as of late so there was not a lot of kid related complaining.
Rebecca got me a couple good seats to a Neal Diamond concert coming up soon. I wouldn't have believed you ten years ago if you had told me some day I would be a big fan of his. As a matter of fact, I used to regularly beat up people that listened to Neal Diamond. Rebecca also got me the book "Being George Washington" by Glen Beck which is a great read and very hard to put down. For Christmas I upgraded Rebecca's printer with a wireless printer that will print directly onto CD's and DVD's for her photography business. Santa also surprised Rebecca by filling her stocking with hair brushes from the dollar store. It seems that Santa must have been watching through the window during one of the many, many desperate manhunts that this family has been on in search of a brush while being late to be somewhere. I would not have thought that Santa would have found this situation as agonizing as others I know have found it to be, but Santa has proved me wrong yet again. Amongst other things Ruby and Alice both got American Girl dolls which have been put to much use. We enjoyed teaching and reminding the girls why we celebrate this time of year.
We had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve with some friends and stayed up late to have the joy the next day of getting up for the first church meeting of the day that started at 7:00. This year our ward starts at 9:30 instead of 1:30 and we are excited to have some time together at the end of the day again after all the meetings are done.
After 15 years on earth we have decided to make Stone an inside dog. He still has some energy, his eyesight seems good as does his sense of smell and hearing. However, his hair is getting greyer and I can see that he is quite stiff when he gets up after lying down for a while. A few days ago we took him down to the dog self grooming store and got the stank out (Ruby's wording). Alice asked if we could go back every day because she loved it so much. It is nice to now be able to pet him and not have to burn your clothes afterwards due to a stank transfer. I fear that there is a very sad day coming up for our family in the somewhat near future unfortunately.
Work seems good enough for Rebecca and I. Rebecca has joined a studio in a cool part of Tacoma with 6 other photographers. It is well organized and quite impressive. So far she is busy enough to justify the added cost and she enjoys having taken her skills to the next level. This effort, along with homeschooling our girls, keeps her quite busy. Work for me is the same as always. I am blessed to be gainfully employed and busy in my industry. I look forward to the day four years from now when my work contract runs out with my employer and I can stick it to some corporate people that have it coming. I have liked working for smaller companies during my career and the corporate garbage that I had a feeling I wasn't going to like seems to be proving my intuition accurate.
Ruby and Alice had a Christmas piano recital this month that was wonderful. Both girls played two songs and were the apple of their dad's eye. They have been practicing quite a bit and are improving quite quickly. Alice is really excited about learning to read and Ruby is reading three books at once.
Every once in a while, especially when she is overly tired, I will catch Alice quietly holding back tears. I will ask her what is wrong and she will burst out in tears that she misses Nana. We sure wish we lived closer to you Nana! Alice's tears seem to be contagious at times because it will get Betsey and Ruby going too. We look forward to seeing you this summer!
Congrats to Mike and Sage and their new arrival! I sure hope Mike enjoys seeing how many new outfits it takes to properly clothe a daughter though the early stages. I know it was news to me that things actually go out of style for small babies and toddlers. Additionally Mike, you may be surprised that bobbie pins, small rubber bands and hair clips (that were never designed to actually stay in anyone's hair in the first place) will start arriving slowly at first and will soon be stuck to the bottom of your feet on a daily basis as they eventually arrive by the truckload and can be found in any room in the house with a glance in any general direction (get a good sturdy vacuum).
We are lucky to have Mom and Dad coming up next week for a visit and it is all the girls can talk about. They are planning and conniving something new each day to surprise Mom and Dad upon their arrival.
We hope the New Year finds you all well and look forward to reading your letters. Here's to a good democracy filled and Obama free 2012!
Love, Chris, Rebecca, Ruby, Alice and Betsey
