Oh, Christmas Card, Oh Christmas Card ...

. . . how wonderful our family is.

Is it too late for a family Christmas card.

Every year I get many, many Christmas letters in the many, many Christmas cards that I'm lucky enough to receive, and every year I say, "next year, I'm gonna write one of these here annual update letters." Every year comes and goes and I don't write that letter. But as George Byron once said, I am sure of nothing so little as my own intentions.

Judging from the Kowalewski blog, you'd probably think nothing much has happened to the Kowalewski family since August 21st. And you'd be right.

Well, that's not entirely true. Kathy did find a new salon she really liked and got a great new hair-do. Don also decided to switch to the that same salon. We had a tree taken down in the front yard.

Let's see. What else, what else, what else?

Oh, there was the birth of our third child. I know. Boooooring. Ho-hum. But if you must know, that happened September 27 and we named her Ada Louisa, after her great-great grandmother (is a hyphen needed there? I should look that up).

Jimmy turned two. Two?!?!? How can that be? Jimmy turned two, Marylin is three, and they both started pre-school. You gotta get 'em in pre-school early, these days. If your kid hasn't mastered three languages by their first day of kindergarten, you're pretty much gonna have to wait for them to start college until they're 17 or 18 - and your neighbors will point and laugh at you and your dumb kids ...and talk about you in foreign languages, to boot.

Instead of reviewing the year chronologically, I'll review by noteworthiness ...starting a paragraph above with the birth of a child (and choosing of a hair salon) and ending with the news that we only get the newspaper on weekends, now.
So, where was I? Oh, yes. Ada. By Christmas, she was 3 months old. 3 months have flown by, yet at the same time, it seems like forever since she was born and Kathy's parents were staying with us for three weeks to help us out. They were a huge help. Loading and unloading the dishwasher, running the kids to school, mowing the lawn, folding laundry, cooking dinner ...the list goes on and on. If I could hire Grandpa Jimmy as a full-time butler, I would. We sure wish they had come home for Christmas.

Jimmy and Marylin LOVE having a new baby sister.

Halloween came and went. Our Mickey and Minnie Mouse were the hit of the neighborhood.

Cousin Lauren showed up, too. In fact, Uncle Dave, Aunt Melissa, Grandpa,
Grandma Denise, and Grandpa Jerry all came by for Halloween. It was a lovely (and scary) night. Marylin achieved her highest candy count in three years. Well done, Marylin.

Further down on this blog you can read about our first family reunion. I enjoyed that very much and hope we continue that for many years. And of course there was the annual vacation up at Torch Lake with Dave, Melissa, Lauren, Grandpa Bill, Grandma Sally, Grandma 'Nise, Grandpa Jerry, with special guest appreances by Vito ...Dante ...Aunt Dana ...Uncle Trent ...Buddy Epson ...Betty White ...The Antrim County Dancers ...Miss America Connie Swales ...and musical guest ...The Pointer Sisters. The weather was great, the sandbar was hoppin', the ice cream was cold, and the vacation came and went too fast. We're already booked for 2007.

I continue to sell radio with Clear Channel, and Kathy continues with Arbonne. We voted. Neither of us pursued advanced degrees, skilled trades, or ran any marathons or climbed any mountains. ***Note to self ...next year ...do something substantial to impress friends in holiday blog/letter.***

Other than that, life is mayhem. It was mayham before the third child, so nothing much has changed. Diapers. Crying. Toys. Above all, though ...fun.

Blog to you soon.