Christmas 2007

It’s that time of year when everyone starts to think about all the letters they are going to have to read from people they haven’t seen in years. Don’t worry, I won’t deviate from the norm on this one. By the time you are done reading this letter, you will know anything and everything important that happened in our lives this year.

On a good note, Tami isn’t pregnant anymore and that means that our fourth and FINAL son Jude was born in September. He has been the model baby during the day. He hasn’t yet realized that darkness and night time are for sleeping but he will get around to that. I was going to describe all the amazing things he does but when I started to list them, they all involved bodily functions and I don’t want this letter to go that direction.

Silas is now 3 years old. We are extremely grateful he left the terrible twos behind but we aren’t so excited that he extended it to the terrible threes. I think his first word was something like “blank head”. For some reason, he enjoys calling people bad names. It can range from stupid to nice, back to dumb but they all end in head. I thought that if he was going to pick up swear words, he would use the ones that he hears in the house. He has been spotted several times in the neighborhood helping the neighbors “water” their trees. We are trying to teach him to be a little more discrete about that. It’s a dead giveaway when he has his pants around his ankles and his little white bum is hanging out. Did you know that flowers don’t thrive on that type of water?

Isaac is our tenderhearted 7 year old. He has been very helpful with his new little brother. Isaac played soccer this year. I used to think that soccer wasn’t really a sport. Now I know a little more about it. At this age it’s kind of like running cross country in a group huddle. The amazing thing is that they actually use a ball and they have boundaries. I think the boundaries are there so parents can keep track of the kids and they don’t have to follow them all along the racecourse. The ball is there so they know where to run. He also plays the violin. I always tell Tami that she has to be firmer about making the boys practice their instruments. That’s easy for me to say, I don’t have to listen to them practice. The violin has to be one of the most beautiful instruments when it is played correctly. It is also one of those instruments that should be practiced in the morning before school while I am at work.

Elias lives for sports. He is in the fourth grade this year and gets really mad when people ask him if he is a second grader. I always used to think he would make up for being short with smarts because he does so well in school but he picked football and basketball as his favorite two sports. The football season went just like last year. We were the worst team in the league. I tried to get Elias hooked on golf but I’m probably not the right one to teach him that golf is a relaxing gentlemen’s game. We only golfed once as a family and I had one guy yell at me for just about hitting him with a ball. Let’s just say it wasn’t the right time for him to yell at me while I was trying to keep two boys and Tami moving through the course while making sure Silas didn’t get hit with a ball. Elias just started basketball and he has to put up with having a dad as a coach. I feel sorry for him for that but I made it known before the season that if anything goes wrong on the court, it will be his fault. I also made it known that one player can make a mistake and not hear anything from me. Elias can make that same mistake and he will get yelled at. So far he seems to be okay with that but he sure does get poked in the eye a lot. His eyes seem to water daily.

Tami has been busy with her book clubs, bunko night, dinner exchanges, PTA meetings, volunteering at the local shelter, cooking for the homeless, sewing for the less fortunate and anything else she can do to help. Yeah right, with four boys and a husband who travels almost every week, she has been doing her all to keep the house from burning down. So far she has been very successful. She has managed to continue bunko night once a month. I keep telling her bunko night is kind of like a poker night but she doesn’t seem to go for that. I asked her if she would like to try one more time for a girl and we haven’t tried since.

I am enjoying my job. I travel a lot but we seem to do pretty well with it. When people ask me what my hobbies are, I look at them and tell them I have four boys. They then get the wrong idea, ask me if we have a TV and then I have to explain that the boys have sports, scouts, instrument practices and all the other extras that come up. It is fun to take all the boys to a store together. By fun, I mean miserable. The fun part is the reaction of all the people in the store. When we had three, everyone thought that was kind of cute. For some reason, the fourth puts cute over the edge, to completely annoying.
Merry Christmas from cousin Eddie!!!! (National Lampoons Christmas Vacation)