Dear 2007: Don't let the door thwap yer booty on your way out. Love, The Hults'
OH it wasn't that bad. Many, many wonderful and memorable things happened in 2007. It's just that there wasn't an ABUNDANCE of wonderful memorable things. Its like, if ONE LESS wonderful memorable thing had happened, there wouldn't be enough to offset the stinky nasty things and WE'D BE TICKED OVER HERE. But no, it all worked out.
Personally I'm most grateful that we gained a Gramma Hults this year. AK's probably grateful for this little light of mine. Max is probably grateful for the Wii he bought with his own earned money. Ben, Milo and Emily are probably grateful for whatever just happened to them in the last 3 minutes (gnat-like attention spans make for a very optimistic outlook on life).
And while we could bitch about our finances until the poodle wakes up --we can honestly say that this years was a financial crisis like no other. When you're driving your car, it's one thing to completely lose control of steering, brakes and throttle. Like you're on ice. It's quite another thing to carefully and intensely balance careful throttle, steering and brake controls to negotiate a slippery winding road. The difference is control. Control means you don't slam into a tree, first off. Control also means that you are where you are by choice and that is very powerful. Control means you are more found than lost. Control gives you the conviction and confidence necessary to negotiate your way PAST the ice.
So heading into 2008 we may just be past the ice. The road is still twisty and we expect it to be for 2 more years. But we've metaphorically upgraded the horsepower of our car and literally traded in for a smaller more economical model.
Aside from the about-to-start-a-new-job-jitters, I'm also concerned about my ability to balance the new job, the usual volunteer commitments, and the Lux Graphics workload. My Lux clients must have gotten word that we were looking to scale back -- because I got 4 new orders just today and a couple more rolling in. We'll see.
New Years Eve finds Max having a sleepover at Grammas so he can watch the ball drop on TV. Maybe some Rose Bowl Parade in the morning too. AK is knitting and kvetching that she'd like to watch some mindless TV also. Yet she seems content to knit knit, and knit. She's reading our new "Eat to Live" book, about the vegetarian diet we're considering. She tried cooking a big veggie soup today and despite early concerns on both of our parts (it looked more "plants in water" than it did "soup") she assures me it tastes quite good. Which is good. Because we have enough to feed a platoon or two of vegetarians. She must have lost the "Cooking For Two" and "Cooking for Your Family" cookbooks, and found the "Cooking for Your Country's Entire Armed Forces" cookbook. To celebrate 2007's passing, my recent Lux orders, and perhaps the end of our treat-eating ways -- I got us some treats for tonight :).
Speaking of treats, CHRISTMAS was just peaceful and simple and wonderful. We had visits from family and friends. We had a double-barrelled Gramma Gun on Christmas Day with 2 of the boys' 3 Grammas there. The boys got their gimme gimme groove on AND shared in the joy of others as we slowly and fairly distributed presents over the duration of the morning. Our goodie cup SO runneth over, with AKs creations and also the goodies our friends & family dropped off. Here are a few snapshots. . .
This is Mondo Matriarch! On the right is Alaskas great friend from the Navajo Nation. Her daughter just finished her PHD in Special Education at Penn State, so they stopped over on their way back home. This here is a rare gathering of sweet strong mothers, all of whom we are honored and blessed to know and love.
Below is a photo Max set up in my photocube and insisted I take for his Uncle Alex. . .
He specifically instructed me to take the photo, then Photoshop text into it reading "Thank you. . . . from a galaxy far, far away". So here it is, I hope Uncle Alex is one of the 4 people reading this blog! It was a fine gift, his very own "vintage" original Star Wars lego kits. I can't imagine what it took to cull the pieces and put them back in their original boxes!
This of course is typical Christmas jubilance. T-shirts from Gramma Donna and Gramma Gaye, stuffed toy cheeta (named "Chee") and the very popular build-ur-own-monster puppets.
And below is AK's impersonation of her adorable nephew Oliver. Oliver and Oliver's Mom and Oliver's Dad (who surely have learned by now that they won't be needing their first names for a few years. . . ) came for a much-overdue visit. Oliver charmed absolutely everyone. He was delightfully intrigued and befuddled by the mittens AK had sewn for him, and it was hilarious to watch him go between excitement and interest in these fuzzy soft things and then concern and consternation at his now-useless hands and fingers. At once point, he ran down our hallway with his mittened hands in the air seeming to say both "Yay!" and "Ack!".
With a hearty "Yay!" and a characteristic "Ack!" we are happy to shuffle 2007 out the door and invite 2008 in for some leftover Christmas cookies & fudge. We say to you, 2008 -- as we also might say to the next president of the U.S.A. -- "We don't know you, we haven't met you. But we know where we've been and where we're going has never looked so good."
Personally I'm most grateful that we gained a Gramma Hults this year. AK's probably grateful for this little light of mine. Max is probably grateful for the Wii he bought with his own earned money. Ben, Milo and Emily are probably grateful for whatever just happened to them in the last 3 minutes (gnat-like attention spans make for a very optimistic outlook on life).
And while we could bitch about our finances until the poodle wakes up --we can honestly say that this years was a financial crisis like no other. When you're driving your car, it's one thing to completely lose control of steering, brakes and throttle. Like you're on ice. It's quite another thing to carefully and intensely balance careful throttle, steering and brake controls to negotiate a slippery winding road. The difference is control. Control means you don't slam into a tree, first off. Control also means that you are where you are by choice and that is very powerful. Control means you are more found than lost. Control gives you the conviction and confidence necessary to negotiate your way PAST the ice.
So heading into 2008 we may just be past the ice. The road is still twisty and we expect it to be for 2 more years. But we've metaphorically upgraded the horsepower of our car and literally traded in for a smaller more economical model.
Aside from the about-to-start-a-new-job-jitters, I'm also concerned about my ability to balance the new job, the usual volunteer commitments, and the Lux Graphics workload. My Lux clients must have gotten word that we were looking to scale back -- because I got 4 new orders just today and a couple more rolling in. We'll see.
New Years Eve finds Max having a sleepover at Grammas so he can watch the ball drop on TV. Maybe some Rose Bowl Parade in the morning too. AK is knitting and kvetching that she'd like to watch some mindless TV also. Yet she seems content to knit knit, and knit. She's reading our new "Eat to Live" book, about the vegetarian diet we're considering. She tried cooking a big veggie soup today and despite early concerns on both of our parts (it looked more "plants in water" than it did "soup") she assures me it tastes quite good. Which is good. Because we have enough to feed a platoon or two of vegetarians. She must have lost the "Cooking For Two" and "Cooking for Your Family" cookbooks, and found the "Cooking for Your Country's Entire Armed Forces" cookbook. To celebrate 2007's passing, my recent Lux orders, and perhaps the end of our treat-eating ways -- I got us some treats for tonight :).
Speaking of treats, CHRISTMAS was just peaceful and simple and wonderful. We had visits from family and friends. We had a double-barrelled Gramma Gun on Christmas Day with 2 of the boys' 3 Grammas there. The boys got their gimme gimme groove on AND shared in the joy of others as we slowly and fairly distributed presents over the duration of the morning. Our goodie cup SO runneth over, with AKs creations and also the goodies our friends & family dropped off. Here are a few snapshots. . .
This is Mondo Matriarch! On the right is Alaskas great friend from the Navajo Nation. Her daughter just finished her PHD in Special Education at Penn State, so they stopped over on their way back home. This here is a rare gathering of sweet strong mothers, all of whom we are honored and blessed to know and love.
Below is a photo Max set up in my photocube and insisted I take for his Uncle Alex. . .
He specifically instructed me to take the photo, then Photoshop text into it reading "Thank you. . . . from a galaxy far, far away". So here it is, I hope Uncle Alex is one of the 4 people reading this blog! It was a fine gift, his very own "vintage" original Star Wars lego kits. I can't imagine what it took to cull the pieces and put them back in their original boxes!
This of course is typical Christmas jubilance. T-shirts from Gramma Donna and Gramma Gaye, stuffed toy cheeta (named "Chee") and the very popular build-ur-own-monster puppets.
And below is AK's impersonation of her adorable nephew Oliver. Oliver and Oliver's Mom and Oliver's Dad (who surely have learned by now that they won't be needing their first names for a few years. . . ) came for a much-overdue visit. Oliver charmed absolutely everyone. He was delightfully intrigued and befuddled by the mittens AK had sewn for him, and it was hilarious to watch him go between excitement and interest in these fuzzy soft things and then concern and consternation at his now-useless hands and fingers. At once point, he ran down our hallway with his mittened hands in the air seeming to say both "Yay!" and "Ack!".
With a hearty "Yay!" and a characteristic "Ack!" we are happy to shuffle 2007 out the door and invite 2008 in for some leftover Christmas cookies & fudge. We say to you, 2008 -- as we also might say to the next president of the U.S.A. -- "We don't know you, we haven't met you. But we know where we've been and where we're going has never looked so good."
posted by Chris at
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