Belated Seasons Greetings

[email sent to friends and family... I'm not sure I have everyone's email addresses so I'm copying it here as well. If you didn't receive it, and you would like to in the future, please send me your email address.]

I have once again failed to mail seasonal cards and now The Season has officially passed, but I wanted to send a note wishing you the very best with the official Year In Review that seems to become obligatory when we achieve family status. :)

Larkin turned 8 on Dec. 24. This year she got her first pocket knife, decided to subject herself to Crazy Whole-Mouth Orthodontia, graduated from training wheels to 16 mile bike rides in the space of two weeks, started her first business and broke her second bone.

Finn turned 6 on Dec. 30. This year he got an ear pierced, wholeheartedly embraced long form books, discovered that his parents were too slow in Super Mario to be suitable playing companions, developed an interest in games requiring considerably more strategy than Candyland and explored his artistic side.

Emile and I turned 37 in 2012. Man, that looks like a big number. I gave away the book exchange to a new set of board members and attained my dream position of volunteering with no administrative responsibilities, went sea kayaking in Alaska, radically altered my diet which has effected a profound improvement in my health and discovered some deepening wrinkles.

Emile finished the beautiful floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in our living room, became a founding board member of Rogue Hack Lab (apparently we're not satisfied without a start-up non-profit in our lives), built a bamboo bike, improved on his burgeoning bald spot and continued his 9 to 5 slog that makes this all possible.

As a family, we went on our first group plane trip to Wyoming, where we went to an awesome dinosaur museum and even visited an active dig. We hatched chicks in an incubator in our utility room and now have a flock of 11 laying hens and one blind rooster. Needless to say, the prospect of scrambled eggs is not greeted with quite as much enthusiasm as it once was. We joined the local rock climbing gym and Emile and I took a class in belaying so we're now certified to dangle real live humans from the ceiling. We read the Harry Potter series and The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings (the latter being pivotal in both my and Emile's childhoods and particularly gratifying). Spell casting in pretend play started out sounding like fake Latin a la Rowling and ended up with a decidedly Tolkien elvish flair.

As always there are more tales and pictures of our exploits and adventures available here: http://hamsderhijinks.blogspot.com
and here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jenny.hamilton

Thinking of you all and wishing you the best,

jenny