December 7, 2001

Happy holidays! To look at our house right now, you'd think we're a bunch of Scrooges. No decorations except for a Christmas banner hanging on the porch. Only some wrapped Christmas gifts in the living room serve as a reminder of the time of year we're approaching. Frankly, decorating is the last thing on our minds right now. I only put the banner out because I found it in the garage this morning.
Kids
We're doing pretty well 'round these parts. Jack is adjusting to life and is quite vocal when he's unhappy with it. He's actually pretty content to eat, sleep, and fill his diapers. We can't complain. At his two-week checkup, he weighed in at a surprisingly large 9 pounds, 13 ounces, though he's all torso and hair (proof). No worries that he's not getting enough to eat!
Katie seems to be enjoying her little brother, although she's reverting back to a few baby-like behaviors. If we fix Jack a bottle, she usually wants one too--a sippy cup just won't do. She's also been more whiny when she's unhappy, although that could just be typical almost-2-year-old stuff.
Word on the street is that Jacob is so thrilled about having a cousin with a name so similar to his that he's taken to calling himself "Jakeson."
Mary
I just have to post this picture of my mom here. It's from this year's WWC MASK, and if you know the MASK, then you know the photos are usually of the DMV variety. I thought this one was so good, it deserved more web space!
Friends
We enjoyed a very welcome visit this past weekend from the Croft Family. Sherrice was wonderful enough to cook a week's worth of delicious meals for us before she left, leaving us teary with joy! Katie was quite fascinated with baby Grace's giggles, and liked playing with River when he came over too.
Debi's coming to meet Jack next weekend--we can't wait!
If you want to see some great pictures of England, and read a very entertaining first-time visitor account, check out Deanna's trip report on her site! It'll make you want to go there too!
Trauma
Did you hear the news about ExciteDELETETHIS@Home going bankrupt? Unfortunately, we were affected by it and were without our normal Internet service for five days. If you know me, then you know how much it was killing me. I lasted just over 24 hours before I found an old AOL sign-up disk and connected through dial-up, which just proves how desperate I'd become. I was able to retrieve e-mail, though I couldn't send it, and finally connected yesterday to get the new configuration for our cable access. Whew! I'm sure there will still be some service outages as AT&T makes the transition to the new network, but we're mostly back on. Our e-mail addresses have not changed.
Kathy and Lori are in San Francisco this weekend, having way too much fun without me. They are planning to see "A Christmas Carol" and "Beach Blanket Babylon," and get tattoos. All I can hope for is that Kathy's tattoo will be someplace that will not necessitate pulling her pants down at another one of my dinner parties.
Mail
Birth announcement/Christmas cards are going out this week. We did our best to include everyone, get current addresses, and correctly calculate postage, so hopefully all of you will receive one. I designed and created the cards myself, so if you have anything nice to say about them, feel free. I'll probably love you for it.
Closure
And since I probably won't be updating the site again before the new year, here we go:

Happy Holidays!

(Lori, you were so fond of these lights last year, I've put them up again, just for you!)