Christmas letter 2009

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's been a year of international travel for the Ethington family. Let's see there was the trip to Figi last March followed by the ski vacation to San Moritz the following month . . . Yeah right! Don't we wish? We did go to Williamsburg though. Twice.

Joel is a big second grader now and loves math. Bored with addition and subtraction he moved himself onto multiplication and fractions. In fact to motivate Joel to less enticing school work his teacher bribes him with promises of math games on the computer. He continues to enjoy soccer as long as he can be the goalie. If he can't be goalie he'd rather be the game's commentator noting the plays as they progress.

Earlier this year Joel found his personal nirvana -- The Game Show Network. All game shows all the time. What could be better? Mom and dad were fine with this until noticing the racy questions from the Newlywed Game. We had to put the kibosh on GSN (at least when aforementioned show was on). He turns eight on the first of January and we can't believe we've been blessed with his presence for eight years already. Time flies by too fast.

Eli is four and loves preschool and cooking. He's often heard saying, "Mommy can we make a recipe?", and is upset if he sees mommy cooking without telling him first. His favorite thing to make is mini banana muffins.

He enjoys "teaching" Cara wrong information too. Telling her blue is red, A is B and so on and then laughing hysterically when she repeats his misinformation. His Reign of Terror does seem to be waning though. But don't get on his bad side, you will pay for your misdeeds. Fortunately for him his tyrannical personality is wrapped up in a very cute package. He got the looks in the family.

Cara continues to come into her own. She's quite the jabberer and definitely has strong opinions. When I tried to sing her Barney's "I Love You" song the other day, she stomped her foot and said, "No Mommy I don't like that show!" Her favorite things are books, dancing, Dora and duck, duck, goose. A little actress she loves to pretend she is very mad or very sad to ensure Mommy and Daddy's rapt attention. She recently turned two this past month and we're so grateful to have her in our family.

From my perspective this is how Kelly's year has gone. Really busy working all the time for awhile, then a lull where he's not so busy, followed by a time period where he's super busy working 24/7. We're currently in the midst of the latter period now because Kelly is working on the migration which has nothing to do with birds flying south for the winter. Despite how busy he is, he always miraculously finds a lot of quality time for me and the kids. We vote him number one husband and daddy.

I'm mostly busy taking care of the kids, cooking (sometimes) and trying to keep a clear path through the house. I would like to say I've written the great American novel or accomplished something equally great in my free time. But so far that hasn't happened. There's always next year though. Stay tuned.

We genuinely hope you're enjoying a wonderful Christmas season and that you and your families are healthy and happy. We love hearing from you all, so please keep in touch!

Warmest wishes,

Kelly, Amy, Joel, Eli and Cara Ethington