Christmas Card 2013

In true form, Christmas cards will not be going out on time this year. If this year proves to be anything like previous years, I will start sending them out around June, lose several before they make it in the mail, then lose my list of whose were actually sent before I give up and throw them in a shoebox. So here is the digital version for all my friends and family who would like to receive a Christmas update from The Holden Family free of tiny peanut butter finger and/or foot prints. (or worse.)

 

Merry Christmas!

(Or whatever Holiday is closest by the time you get this.)

At this point, I'm not even sure how many years I've missed doing a Christmas letter. Did I mention I've got 3 kids? (That excuse is sounding pretty tired to me, too, but it's all I've got.) So ... 2013 ... our big news is that JAMES GRADUATED!!! (There is just not a large enough font for that.) Just stating the number of years he has been going to school makes us sound ridiculously old. It's been our whole married life and all of our kids' lives! Finally, as of May 2013, we are DONE!

We got a slightly rude awakening this summer when we slowly realized that graduating with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, AND a minor in Sustainable Manufacturing Engineering, AND earning your Engineer In Training Certificate doesn't equal "awesome-engineering-job-and-big-bucks." Who knew, right? So after all these years of having a very focused plan, now we've sort of been in a little bit of a limbo with our plans, and that is pretty foreign to us. Every time we think we've found the direction we should take the door pretty much slams right in our face just as we try to walk through it.

Graduate School?

Um ... No.

 ... Moving for an awesome job?

Um ... No.

... How about this job?

Yeah, NO.

Ok, ... well ... let's buy this house.

NO!

Ok ... what about this hou-

NOOO!

So we're still a little confused about what our next step should be, but in the mean time James is enjoying working for a great company that loves him. He gets to do some engineering and we get to stay in Paradise which has been a happy surprise for all of us. We're learning that we don't necessarily have to be working towards the next big thing and to enjoy the pretty fantastic spot we're at in our lives right now.

Sam turned 6 in January. He has loved kindergarten and now first grade. Seven-years-old is just around the corner! *gasp* He's getting to be a big, responsible, amazingly helpful boy. He loves hiking. Especially hiking anywhere that he can ...

A: Climb on rocks, trees, etc.

and

B: collect cans to recycle for $$$.

He loves rocks and crystals, planets and space, inventing and building all sorts of things, and that baby sister of his has him wrapped around her little finger.

Jonas turned 4 in August. He's enjoying preschool two mornings a week. He has the same teacher that Sam did so it's been fun for them to talk about preschool together. Jonas has discovered that he loves to read and it's been fun to see him comprehend more and more and enjoy it. He keeps us laughing with his funny perspective on the world and will one day make me rich when I can get a book deal for his witty quotes.

Soraya turned 1 in July. Her first year of life she was the sweetest, EASIEST baby I have ever had the privilege of knowing. She is now making up for every bit of that in her second year. She is still sweet as pie. Easy, however, she is not. She is the most amazing climbing baby I have ever seen. If it was an Olympic sport I would be working on getting her a fake birth certificate for Rio, 2016. She loves her brothers almost as much as they love her. (Jonas, she loves torturing, but the love is there in those twinkly eyes when she steals something and begs him to chase her.) She loves pistachios, peanut butter straight from the jar (no utensils required), and she loves to sing. REALLY loves it. From the time she was a tiny baby she made it obvious that she loved when we would sing hymns at church. Now SHE'S the one singing them. She is one happy, confident, strong little girl and I am hoping she stays that way.

Seriously, I wish I could bottle the way Soraya says "Am! Am!" over and over when she steals my keys and tries to convince me that it really is time to pick up Sam from school ...

RIGHT NOW.

Or this un-spellable squeal she makes when she hears the door squeak and knows that DADDY IS HOME!

Or how she surprises me when she stops nursing for a second just to reach up and give me a kiss on the lips.

Or the way the boys look at her, and snuggle her, and take care of her, and teach her things.

Besides the mountains of laundry that can make me feel buried in things demanding my attention that I'd rather ignore, we truly are blessed with an abundance of laughter ... 

and happiness ... and joy ...
And dirty dishes. Also an astonishing amount of dirty dishes.

Wishing you a wonderful 2014!

Love, The Holden Family