The Christmas Letter

This year I decided to put our Christmas letter on this blog instead of including it in cards that may or may not be sent out to friends and family who may or may not want to read yet another Christmas letter. That is what you are looking at right this very second. Thank you for choosing to be here!

The year has flown by. Bill finally did the math for me: As we age, each individual moment becomes a smaller fraction of our overall lives, so time seems to speed up. I'd never looked at it that way. But last Christmas feels like yesterday, so there is certainly some truth in that theory.

Cameron is in his second year of college at the University of Chicago, which marks year two of seven of  what I call The Poor Years. He made the Dean's List last year, and he's working in the performing arts building as a sound engineer (and just got his first raise!) and also DJs at a community radio station on campus. His DJ shift is every other Thursday, from 4 to 6 a.m. Bill and I visited him in Chicago a month or so ago and got to watch him in action. At 4 a.m. The vinyl library at the station is vast, so it was amazing to comb through the collection. It's also nice to hear the crackling of vinyl again on the airwaves.

Liam is in his junior year of high school, at a magnet school in San Antonio called The International School of the Americas. His school is consistently ranked in the top of the nation's high schools, so we're glad he's there. He's active in Model United Nations and PALS. PALS is a mentoring program to elementary school kids. He's always been a kid magnet, so it is right up his alley. He started driving this year. Two teenage boys put quite a premium on our insurance, so we didn't claim anything when he hit a fire hydrant. And he's been accident free since!

For years now, I have been the shortest one in the family, but now the boys are both taller than Bill. If you get our Christmas card, you'll see their photo, taken by some random mountain biker in a park still unknown to me. They wanted to take their own photo this year. Who am I to stop them? They are both squinting into the sun, but if you squint too, you'll hardly notice.

Bill is still hunting rabbits, among other things. I still refuse to eat rabbits, though I do enjoy a little venison when we have it in our freezer. He's spent many free weekends this year out hunting in the wilds of Texas. He leaves me a map in case he doesn't turn up, so I can tell authorities where to look for his body. Yes. Morbid.

I decided to take a step back into the writing world this year, spending a few weeks this summer touring with musicians and writing a blog about it for them. It wasn't near as glamorous as it sounds. But it was fun. And it made me realize how much I miss that type of work. Things have changed so much since my magazine days, but I'm looking forward jumping back into that world as soon as I can.

I hope 2013 was good to you! Like I said, it was gone in a flash for us, and I can only assume -- based on Bill's theory of the passage of time -- that 2014 will be a whirlwind year as well. Blessings to you and yours, from me and mine!

All the best
Kristi