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Ian
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Toria |
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Lizzie |
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Toria |
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Toria |
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Annette |
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Lizzie |
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Lexi |
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Julie |
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Ian |
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John |
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Ian |
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Diablo |
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Happy Holidays |
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Please
check that you have 13641 NE 40th Street |
December
2007
Dear
Family and Friends:
We’ve
had a great year, and we hope you’ve had one too. The kids are continuing to
grow and amaze us in new ways all the time.
Lizzie (age 10) is now in
grade four at Three Cedars School, where
she most enjoys her Spanish, games, and eurythmy classes. She has started
horseback riding lessons at a local riding school. She is
growing tall… by next year she may be taller than us!
Toria (age 5½) graduated from the Community
Preschool last spring, and has started kindergarten at Three Cedars School. She
loves her new class, particularly the movement exercises, songs, and art. Her
drawings just astound us with their intricacy and attention to detail. She lost
her first tooth earlier this month.
Ian (age 4½) is in his second year at the
Community Preschool. He has really taken a strong interest in letters and
numbers, and is already dabbling in reading, spelling, and multiplication. He
enjoys playing soccer once a week,
and is eager to try snowboarding and baseball.
Caroline, our au pair from Germany, finished her time
with us in September. She decided to stay in the U.S. on a student visa, and is
living nearby while taking college classes. She babysits for us in the evenings
frequently. She also recently got engaged, and plans on moving to London next
year.
Julie is our new au pair, from France. She moved in with us in September, and likes
living in the U.S. so far. She loves children, movies, and chocolate. The kids
have bonded marvelously with her, already treating her as a big sister.
Annette recently took a
part-time job as a sales associate for Pacific
Fabrics, a local craft store. Less than two weeks into the new job, she was
promoted to supervisor. She’s really having fun with the work and getting to
know the business. She continues to assist with handwork classes at the school,
and she’s still a community counselor with the EurAuPair agency. At most other times,
you’re still very likely to find her holding a pair of knitting needles.
John recently made a small career move of
his own, after 7 years working on the Windows
Media Center product line. He’s still with Microsoft, but now leading a new
team that’s developing online video entertainment services. As an outgrowth of
his fitness addiction, John has started running races. He began with a few
5k’s, and then signed up for the Seattle Half-Marathon, which he completed in just under
2 hours, well ahead of his goal.
Just
after last year’s Christmas letter was mailed, Amber, our beloved cat of 17 years, passed away. This was a difficult loss
for us. Lexi, our other cat, is
still with us. We also added a new pet to the family this year: a Bichon
Havanese puppy named Diablo. He frequently
lives up to his name, but at heart he’s a lovable, energetic pup, and gets
along great with the kids. (Lexi isn’t quite as impressed.)
We
got in a couple of vacations this year, spending a week in San Diego in the
spring, and a week in Long Beach, Washington, in the fall. As always, we spent much
of the summer on San Juan Island, where we hosted quite a few visitors.
May
the New Year bring you joy and peace!
Love,
John,
Annette, Lizzie, Toria, and Ian