The Christmas Letter...
The Miller family motto for this past year was “Looking Great in 2008.” Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out as well as we’d hoped. While neither boy combs his hair on a regular basis (see photo), both boys have learned that navy blue pants with a black shirt is a definite No-No. Since Peyton and I can already comb our hair and create non-clashing outfits, we decided to take it to the next level this past year.
For me (Drew) that included a trip to the Republic of South Africa. I spent 5 weeks as a member of a five person team of Rotary International’s Group Study Exchange Program. During my stay I visited a number of schools of varying racial and economic populations with the hope of developing longstanding relationships. I met and stayed with wonderful people over there and hope to return some day. We went on Safari/Game Drives, toured underground gold mines, and even flew in a helicopter and chased wildebeast. We also had a number of Braais (pronounced like "brigh" - Africaans word for Bar-B-Cue) and instead of losing weight to help “look great in ‘08”, I put on 15 lbs. living on the meat heavy Afrikaans diet.
While I was away gaining weight in Africa of all places, Peyton (A.K.A. “wife of the year” for letting me be gone for 5 weeks) was working out at the Harrisonburg Wellness Center. In addition to lifting weight and running on the treadmill, Peyton occasionally sits in the hot tub and reads while the boys play in the free day care facility. When Peyton isn’t working out, being a mom, or preparing 65 craft projects for kids at our church, she tends to be updating her facebook album or the family blog she created with the latest news and photos of Noah and Ben.
Noah has had quite a year with soccer and school. He played in a backyard soccer league and according to some parents we should plan on him receiving a soccer scholarship to college. I think we’ll go ahead and rely on the 529 plan just in case. Speaking of higher education, Noah will be starting kindergarten next fall. He outshouted his classmates at the pre-school Thanksgiving “program” (I think the whole thing lasted 9 minutes and one student cried for the duration). Noah is now no longer shouting since he got his second set of tubes in his ears last week and can hear as well as most non-80 year-olds. He’ll turn 5 in February and with that rite of passage comes an exciting new privilege in the Miller family: the right to chew gum. Even though Ben is still two, he likes to tell people he’s five with the hopes pf maybe getting a piece of gum from them and because he knows it irritates his “older” brother.
Ben is the comedian of the family and enjoys telling jokes and stories at dinner that only he truly appreciates and, as a result, he’s still eating 10 minutes after we’ve all finished. If only he included the letter “s” in his stories, we might appreciate his story about eating a _nake for a _nack. On another note, a wonderful thing happened this summer, Ben decided that going to the bathroom in your pants is overrated. However, he has created a new definition for the word “Buddies”. (Buddies- n. – small fecal pieces that accompany an initial bowel movement) He has taken the concept of a “buddy system” to a whole new level.
Even though Peyton is outnumbered by three Miller males, she tried to tip the scales in her favor while I was in Africa. Not only was my bathroom painted purple while I was abroad, but the boys were introduced to Disney Princess movies (in fact they are currently watching Cinderella as I write this letter). Since “Looking great in 2008” failed miserably (no help from a fairy godmother ever arrived), we’re hoping our “Drink More Wine in 2009” is more successful.
We will be at home again this Christmas and look forward to singing Happy Birthday to Jesus as a family on Christmas morning. Hope you have a joyous holiday season.
Drew and Noah play checkers together regularly. I caught Noah trying to teach Ben to play earlier this week. His efforts were well received but not very successful.
Yesterday Ben had a run-in with the sink at Kids Klub (the childcare at our gym). Here is a picture of his slightly swollen and crooked nose. He was a trooper and barely cried at all. I feel like all boys should have bent noses or split lips at some point in their life. Hopefully this will be our "big" injury for 2009. (wishful thinking)
