Merry Christms, Happy New Year, and Happy Valentine's Day Too

(This was supposed to go out with our Christmas card, but it went through rigourous editing and 331 drafts till it reached this final masterpiece, and it missed the deadline to go out in the mail. Actually, I just finished it. So to save on stamps, here it is: the traditional christmas/valentine day card.)

Dear Friends and Family,

As we come to a close of another year, so comes the inevitable Christmas letter. So here is my attempt to catch you up on the Allen family in 2012 and not bore you at the same time.

Zachary (age 7) is now a first grader and riding the bus every day. He has more freedom and independence than he has had before, much to our dismay. We constantly remind him he is in first grade not twelfth. He is now getting more involved in extra-curricular activities… and so it begins. He now does cub scouts, Kids wow (a church program), and basketball and last quarter it was flag football. To save on gas, I’ve asked the coaches if he could stay at home and join practices by Skype. So far, no takers.

Drew (age 4) is now in Pre-Kindergarten which is the last year of preschool. He spends most of his time at school with his best friend Ashley and if he had it his way, most of his time out of school too. They are very cute together but worrisome when they began holding hands and talking about marriage (but with no kissing because Ashley said that’s too slobbery.) When I begin to worry about him growing up too fast, he always puts my heart at ease by punching his own butt and trying to work the word “poop” into every song he hears.

Nate (age 3) began preschool this year. As he would say, “I whide da buth to cool cause I watt da key key o ba doo bu teetah taco me.” And as you can tell, he qualified for speech therapy at preschool. He rides the bus to and from school, but is barely able to look out the window because he is a little peanut and his backpack is as big as him. His favorite past time is annoying his brothers and getting away with it because he is too cute and knows it.

Mark continues to work in Westerville as a rehab manager and is the primary bread winner. Lindsey has started babysitting 2 little kids twice a week and contributes to our family finances as primary bagel winner. We continue to grow closer in our marriage and continue to learn how to raise 3 boys with each passing year; loving every minute or yearning for the sweet release of death, depending on the day.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New year. (and Happy Valentine's day)

Be blessed,

The Allen's