Annual Christmas Letter

Seeing as I'm supposed to be studying right now, I thought I'd take an idea from the Holidailie's cue for their posters today: write your version of the holiday letters that go around this time of year (or something of that sort). Since I already wrote my version of the Christmas letter and it is now in the mail, I figured I'd just cheat and post it here!


Another year has passed and I find myself sitting at the computer composing another letter for the masses. We’ve had quite the eventful year, so I think I’ll just get right to it without taking up any more letter space in this paragraph!

I’ll start with Mom and Dad’s big news of the year: they became grandparents! Well, again, because they were already grandparents to Gypsy. I’ve noticed, though, that they are much better grandparents to this new grandchild than to the old, proving that grandparents really do play favorites. Poor Gypsy, she’s so neglected. But wait, there’s more news! They continued their world travels by taking quite a few trips again this year. The big trip was to Australia and New Zealand, but they also took a bike trip to Galena and another to Michigan, Dad took his annual fishing trip to Canada, and they both went up to the lake for a couple of days. Just to report: the men beat the women at cards this year. I’m sure the poor women will never hear the end of it. They also took a trip to Vermont, but you’ll get the reasons for that little trip a little later. Upon asking Mom what else they did, I got a “well, that’s about it”, so, well, that’s about it for the elders.

I’ve got a bit of big news myself: I’ve become an aunt! And there’s more news for me, too! My reportable news started early March, when I found myself unexpectedly jobless. So I sat around for a couple of months, spoiled Gypsy and attended a few job interviews, until I finally landed a job at Small Financial Services Group as a financial planner. I’ve gotta say, Dad and I have had quite a few interesting conversations since I started there, as he tends to disagree with pretty much all of their investment philosophies. Being my father’s daughter, while I really do enjoy my new job and am learning a lot, I sometimes have trouble keeping my mouth shut when somebody says something that disagrees with the ideas I’ve grown up with. And as if starting a new job and getting all the necessary licenses for that wasn’t enough, I also decided to go back to school. Law school, to be precise. I am now officially a 1L (first year) at Twin Cities University, where I plan to study estate planning and maybe elder law, after finishing the basic bar courses I have to take this year. Having a full time job and attending school 6 hours a day Saturday and Sunday tends to keep me pretty busy, and poor Gypsy is getting the short end of the stick. Just 3½ more years to go, Gypsy!

Brother and Wife keep trying to overshadow everybody else in the Christmas letter, and once again they have succeeded. They’re really rather selfish, if you ask me. And of course, they went a little overboard this year instead of spreading it out over multiple years. I’m a little scared to think of what they’ll do next year to top this year! They took the first half of the year off, to get ready for the second half. Then, in June, it started. First, they decided to pack everything up and move halfway across the country to small New England Town, where Elizabeth started a new job as an assistant professor at Small New England Town University. It’s a military school so she is now a commissioned captain in the Small New England State Militia. Dad keeps waiting for her to have to defend the state after it invades a neighboring state. The big news, even bigger than moving to New England and starting a new job, is that they became parents! Yes, I know, I kept that secret well up until now, didn’t I? Yep, Extremely Cute Nephew was born on August 12, and is quite the little man. He’s not spoiled at all, being the first two-legged grandchild on both sides of the family. It’s really too bad, actually, that he gets no attention. So there you go, Brother and Wife just going too far this year to trump the Family Christmas card yet again. Don’t you agree that they really should have paced themselves a little better? Really, what can they do next year to top this year?

So there’s the Family in 2007. Quite a big year for everybody, all in all. As I finish this letter this Thanksgiving day, it’s quite obvious we’ve got a lot to be thankful for this year: employment, travels, education. Oh yeah, and I guess you could say we’re a little thankful for that little 14 pound drool machine, too. Hopefully you all have just as much or more to be thankful for this holiday season. Now stay tuned for Brother and Wife’s chosen Big News next year!