 Hannah
|
North_Dakota_Wheat
|
Jacob
|
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Merry Christmas from the Craft Family
This year I am posting my Christmas card because last year a draft letter never hit the streets! I hope this updates you on where our family has been this year.
Jacob walked, turned one, and got baptized all in one week. Now he is starting to talk using words like "up", "hi", "bye" and "daddy". John on the other hand is first chair trombone, starting to date, and to fight. John and I are testing the waters as I am not very good at the idea of "proportional response". I am either too hard or too soft and John is still working out how much he can push his individualism before crossing the line. I am sure my kids would say I need anger management and I am equally sure I would say that they need to follow directions. They are probably both true ;) Then in the next moment you see your son narrating the Christmas play, helping with the other kids, and hauling some brick without complaining and you are very proud.
Elizabeth remains my high energy, "I love life", child. She continues in her fifth year of dance, has joined the choir, and loves the Good News Club after school. She is also the one that when she calls me at work and asks, "Can I watch TV while I work on my homework, Daddy?" , I can have no reservations that she will complete her tasks. Elizabeth is very much a self propelled kid!
And then there is Hannah, who knows in an unconscious way that this letter exemplifies her stake in life. What is worst than being a middle child? except being the last middle child. She is joyful one moment, pouty the next, and then joyful again. She has a precious freckled nose and recently she has a wonderfully funny expression of excitement when something new happens. She has an inhaled gasp "Haoo", when she is the first to see the snowy egret next to the car or sees a new Christmas gift in the mail.
Michelle continues to work as an individual therapist with emotionally and behaviorally challenged teenagers and their families. One of her favorite sayings to parents is "When I go home, I am only a parent.", indicating that she experiences the full joys and frustrations of parenting just as they do. Her love for her job continues to grow. She has also joined the church choir and has been having a great time.
This year had many adventures including our retreat from Rita. Our family's adventure took us to north Texas and with some good planning and luck we avoided the traffic. My parents also celebrated 100 years on the family farm in North Dakota. I have many fond memories from growing up on the plains, some sprinkled here on this blog. Even Chieko Kuzuha and Tomoko Kuzuha came all the way from Japan. For those of you that did not know, I went to Japan as an exchange student with my host brother Yuji. Chieko was a great host mom, and my experiences in Japan are precious to me.
This year we also lost two anchors in our family. First my Nana died in April. She was always had good Style. She had mellowed in age, though she still had her opinion on a subject. Recently, Dorothy moved on to her next stage in life. She is like my third Grandma, we always stopped to she her in Valley City, North Dakota, every year we came back to the farm. My kids were also blessed to get to know both Nana and Dorothy which made our time together very special. I think I remain in denial about both.
My research has yielded a first paper titled, "An AMBER/DYANA/MOLMOL Phosphorylated Amino Acid Library Set and Incorporation into NMR Structure Calculations" in the Journal of Biomolecular NMR this September. And I have also collected a number of spectra using the University of Houston's 800 megaHz Bruker Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer and remain very busy.
All in all, this year has been the kind of year that a Full Life is made of. Ups and downs in which even the downs have moments of precious memory that will weave throughout the remaining trajectory of my family's journey. I am thankful for my family, friends, the people that intersect that trajectory. I am also committed to stay better connected with each of you. If I can travel and see you, I will; if we tag on the phone, it will be good conversation; if I write (unlikely based on my track record), well awesome; but ping me back in email and I 'll be in touch.
May your year be blessed by Christ in every way,
Merry Christmas
JWC
Â
(1) comments
This year I am posting my Christmas card because last year a draft letter never hit the streets! I hope this updates you on where our family has been this year.
Jacob walked, turned one, and got baptized all in one week. Now he is starting to talk using words like "up", "hi", "bye" and "daddy". John on the other hand is first chair trombone, starting to date, and to fight. John and I are testing the waters as I am not very good at the idea of "proportional response". I am either too hard or too soft and John is still working out how much he can push his individualism before crossing the line. I am sure my kids would say I need anger management and I am equally sure I would say that they need to follow directions. They are probably both true ;) Then in the next moment you see your son narrating the Christmas play, helping with the other kids, and hauling some brick without complaining and you are very proud.
Elizabeth remains my high energy, "I love life", child. She continues in her fifth year of dance, has joined the choir, and loves the Good News Club after school. She is also the one that when she calls me at work and asks, "Can I watch TV while I work on my homework, Daddy?" , I can have no reservations that she will complete her tasks. Elizabeth is very much a self propelled kid!
And then there is Hannah, who knows in an unconscious way that this letter exemplifies her stake in life. What is worst than being a middle child? except being the last middle child. She is joyful one moment, pouty the next, and then joyful again. She has a precious freckled nose and recently she has a wonderfully funny expression of excitement when something new happens. She has an inhaled gasp "Haoo", when she is the first to see the snowy egret next to the car or sees a new Christmas gift in the mail.
Michelle continues to work as an individual therapist with emotionally and behaviorally challenged teenagers and their families. One of her favorite sayings to parents is "When I go home, I am only a parent.", indicating that she experiences the full joys and frustrations of parenting just as they do. Her love for her job continues to grow. She has also joined the church choir and has been having a great time.
This year had many adventures including our retreat from Rita. Our family's adventure took us to north Texas and with some good planning and luck we avoided the traffic. My parents also celebrated 100 years on the family farm in North Dakota. I have many fond memories from growing up on the plains, some sprinkled here on this blog. Even Chieko Kuzuha and Tomoko Kuzuha came all the way from Japan. For those of you that did not know, I went to Japan as an exchange student with my host brother Yuji. Chieko was a great host mom, and my experiences in Japan are precious to me.
This year we also lost two anchors in our family. First my Nana died in April. She was always had good Style. She had mellowed in age, though she still had her opinion on a subject. Recently, Dorothy moved on to her next stage in life. She is like my third Grandma, we always stopped to she her in Valley City, North Dakota, every year we came back to the farm. My kids were also blessed to get to know both Nana and Dorothy which made our time together very special. I think I remain in denial about both.
My research has yielded a first paper titled, "An AMBER/DYANA/MOLMOL Phosphorylated Amino Acid Library Set and Incorporation into NMR Structure Calculations" in the Journal of Biomolecular NMR this September. And I have also collected a number of spectra using the University of Houston's 800 megaHz Bruker Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer and remain very busy.
All in all, this year has been the kind of year that a Full Life is made of. Ups and downs in which even the downs have moments of precious memory that will weave throughout the remaining trajectory of my family's journey. I am thankful for my family, friends, the people that intersect that trajectory. I am also committed to stay better connected with each of you. If I can travel and see you, I will; if we tag on the phone, it will be good conversation; if I write (unlikely based on my track record), well awesome; but ping me back in email and I 'll be in touch.
May your year be blessed by Christ in every way,
Merry Christmas
JWC
