Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

"But you'll have to get your own squirrel. This one's mine."

Lisa writes: Tom's half-brother's ex-wife's daughter-in-law had a baby just in time to play the part of Jesus in the Christmas pageant. Baby Nicholas looked a little concerned about his role, but he played his part perfectly. "No, seriously lady, you got the wrong kid. Try the next stable over."

Lisa writes: And the award for grossest family Christmas letter of 2008 goes to ... Lori and Family! Yay! Congratulations, Lori, and may you NOT be in the running next year. Here's the letter, if you have the stomach for it: What’s Christmas without a trip to the ER? Our poor Benjamin accidentally got his left thumb smashed in the hinged side of Ava’s bedroom door. It looked horrible! The nail bed was completely torn & squashed and the nail was hanging on by a thread. I wrapped him a blanket, gave him tylenol and asked the neighbors to watch the older kids while David and I took him to the children’s ER. He had his thumb X-rayed (which he hated); miraculously no broken bone. Then the doctor numbed his thumb, put the nail back under the nail bed and superglued it. Apparently it’s better to put the nail back so the new nail will grow in “looking more normal.” Of course he’ll lose the broken nail eventually. It took the doctor so long to get the nail on straight I was read...

Christi writes: I had every intention of getting a Christmas letter out this year ... but at this rate it would be more of a Valentine's note. So, at the risk of looking like a dork ... I'm forwarding on my mother's Christmas letter ... hey, we're in it :) I figure if you're still my friend after all my past "dork" moments ... then you're friends no matter what. So, thank you for your unconditional friendship and for always turning around before your eyes rolled to the back of your head... Your thoughtfulness has never gone unnoticed. Okay seriously, I really am forwarding my mom's Christmas letter, I really feel like a dork, but I'll get over it so I'm assuming you will, too. This has been an interesting year for us. Tim has been unable to replace the job he lost in August 2007. So, after exploring various career paths, I think we're finally on the right one. He's on the road to becoming a Firefighter (every boy's dream, right?...

Lisa writes: Neighbor Jim Diehl and friend's kids dance to "Shepherd's Hey" at our neighborhood block party this evening. I made the cookies, but Jim and the kids really made the party. (49 seconds)

Lisa writes: Email from Lori. ( Click pics to enlarge. ) Benjamin wanted to take our guinea pig, Michael, for a ride in his police car. "You stay right there, Michael. This will be fun!" "Don't worry, I'm a good driver!" "Let's go!" "We're out of here!"

Lisa writes: I've heard two stories so far this year from friends whose little kids have tipped over the upright and fully-loaded Christmas tree. One kid was climbing the tree, the other was in the process of putting together a tight-wire act with one end of the string tied to the bannister and the other tied to the tree. (How is it that little kids can be SO CLEVER and SO DUMB at the same time?) In the interest of parents everywhere, I thought I should share my parents' kid-proof tree strategy. It won't stop the kids from knocking off ornaments or eating pine needles, but at least they won't be able to take down the whole tree. This all assumes you're getting a tree that is nearly as tall as your ceiling. You are, right? And it also assumes you're getting a "real" tree. First, screw a hook into a ceiling stud. You can use it to hang a potted plant the rest of the year. Then get a long length of pretty heavy duty wire from Ace Hardware (or anyplace el...

Lisa writes: Email from Lori. It started snowing Friday night as we left the ward Christmas party. All the kids were ecstatic! I taught Benjamin how to say "It's snowing!" [issnowing] The next morning we woke up to about an inch on the ground. I put Benjamin in his high chair for breakfast where he could see out the window. He looked out, saw all the fluffy white stuff and yelled, "Ice cream!!" Pics: Benjamin playing in the snow. Cameron with crazy hair after sledding for hours wearing a funny cap on his head. Click to enlarge.

Christi writes: For FHE tonight we went to the Community Christmas Choir in the Tabernacle. If this picture comes through big enough you can see Michael Ballam down in front and Tawnie in the upper right and if you look real close you can find Santa Claus...bet you didn't know he sang in the choir on his days off. One of the announcers jokingly thanked "Santa" for taking time out of his busy schedule to sing for us and no joke there were kids lined up by the stage immediately after the program. They mentioned there'd be a surprise guest tonight...I thought they were talking about Michael Ballam. (: Love, Cj (Click to enlarge)

Lisa writes: Email from Christi and the gang. We had the annual tree slaughter last Saturday. You're not allowed to cut trees in Utah, so we went up to Idaho. Idaho may grow fat potatoes, but they sure have scrawny trees. But, we had fun getting our slightly lop-sided Charlie brown tree. The kids each picked out their own little tree top for their rooms. The dogs were in heaven, then they got stuffed in the back of the truck with the trees. [Note from Lisa: Yeah, this looks like a great idea.] We got all the Christmas decor up Sunday, so now the kids are counting down. It's been unusually warm and dry so far. But, it's looks like we may get a white Christmas after all. Other big news from our bunch...Christian turned 7 on Monday! We had his birthday breakfast/party and went to see "Bolt"...on a school night (crazy...I know). Tim got Christian all outfitted for fishing...now he just has to wait for the fish to thaw. Happy Holidays,Cj

Lisa writes: Family letter from Lori. First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHRISTIAN! Hope you had a fun birthday. Your birthday card should be there by today or tomorrow. We love you! Lots of mushy hugs and kisses OOXXOOXX Ava had her first piano recital last night at her piano teacher’s home. Ava did great! She told the audience the songs she would be playing and then sat and played with confidence, giving a little bow at the end. We were very proud of her. She looked so pretty too! J She had on her red Christmas dress and I had painted her nails to match. Benjamin and Cameron both managed to sit and listen politely without digging into the refreshments until afterwards. Good job boys! Cameron was up early and actually excited to get to school. Apparently he gets to do the morning announcements over the intercom system all week long! They pick “good readers” for this job and Cameron has been plowing through some really big books lately. He just finished the Peter and Starcatchers series wh...

Lisa writes: It's 30 degrees here in Virginia, so let's flashback to summer with Lori's kids in Washington State. Cameron and Benjamin, hanging with the boys. Ava and Benjamin, trying out the new baby cart. Benjamin, waving to his adoring public. Safety first! Innertube, boogie board, AND the lifejacket in six inch water. Ava and a water skeeter.

Lisa writes: The enthusiastic two year old came home from a trip yesterday and demanded funk. "More funk! More funk!" So, enthusiastic two year old, this is for you: Addendum: The rental minivan had XM radio and daddy liked the George Clinton station.

Lisa writes: Home all alone while Tom is at a funeral in Phoenix. I feel like the mom from Little House on the Prairie when Pa was gone. Got the tree up. Wrassled that sucker out of the trunk and into the house all by myself, dropping pine needles all the way. Turned out the trunk was too fat to fit in the tree stand, so I whacked off some chunks with the hacksaw. Strung some lights. Put the electric candles in the windows. Wound two strings of colored lights around the columns by the front door. Hung wreaths under the two front windows. Made cookies. Watched it snow. In those books, it was a big deal if they got an orange and a sugar cookie in their stocking. I like oranges. I like sugar cookies. I could handle it.

Lisa writes: Lori told me some Benjamin stories to post. Benjamin loves the juice boxes Lori buys for the kids' lunches. So much so that she's taken to storing them on the top shelf in the pantry so he doesn't drink them all. A couple of weeks ago, sister Ava (age 7) was home sick. Lori was tending to Ava and so Benjamin had to fend for himself for a few minutes. Lori found him struggling to climb up the stairs with a juice box in each hand, proudly announcing that one was for for Ava. She thought, "Aww, how sweet. He's taking care of his sister," and then immediately thought, "Wait. Where did he get those?" This two-foot-tall kid managed to climb up five pantry shelves -- nearly eight feet high -- and back down again with two juice boxes. Lori said, "I'm glad I didn't see him do it." Last week, Dave and Lori were reading bedtime stories to Cameron and Ava, respectively. They heard Benjamin in his room playing. When Lori came out of...

Tom writes: Last week we made our annual traditional trek to Vail for Thanksgiving with Lisa's family. This year, I am pleased to announce that I returned with no broken bones, fracture ribs, torn ligaments, or the like. :-) One day, all of us piled into the car and made our way to Beaver Creek for nothing other than a cookie tasting contest. Five bakers each made 1,000 chocolate chip cookies, and at the sound of a bell, the stampede began while thousands (or so it seemed) of cookie-tasting experts tried to make their professional sampling of the entries. All cookies disappeared within 15 minutes and the polling booths closed shortly thereafter. But then the problem of regrouping the cookie samplers became apparent. Fortunately, two of ours figured out how to stand out in the crowd. See if you can figure out which ones they are.

Tom writes: In the name of progress, they have decided to widen the Beltway in several key stretches and put in a HOT Lane. You will get to pay extra to use the HOT Lane, unless you are carpooling, but presumably there will be less traffic so you will not get stuck in traffic. (Who wouldn't want to spend all that extra time with their fellow commuters?) To make this work, there is a lot of digging and bulldozing going on everyday. Watching it on the way to work has been kind of sobering and awe inspiring. The clearing of the land simultaneously gives the impression of devastation of a landscape as well as a sense of progress. It has also surprised me to see how much land is hidden behind the trees that line the Beltway. Here is some of my morning commute these days...some with trees, some already naked.

Lisa writes: We are back in Vail! Remember when we did this in 2006? (No? Refresh your memory here .) Remember when we did this in 2007? (No? Refresh your memory here and here .) No snow on the ground this year. There is absolutely no way Tom can hurt himself this time. Absolutely no way.

Lisa writes: My sister sister, Debbie, completes her 18-month LDS church mission on Dec. 19. She's been speaking Spanish in Lawrence, Kansas and Independence, Missouri. Back in my mission days, we thought we were hot stuff for having access to a fax machine (to circumvent the notoriously unreliable Dominican Republic mail service). Debbie has emailed us every week. You can read them all here . Not to be all braggy or anything, but in a contest of letters, my faxes would beat Debbie's emails any day. 'Cause I drew lots pictures of bugs in the margins in mine.

Lisa writes: Our sister-in-law has an Etsy site of handsewn bags. Check them out here . She is an accomplished seamstress (you should see the pleather jacket she made for her two-year-old) and could probably be talked into making some custom baby clothes.

Lisa writes: Christian, age 6, at the gym. Just bein' awesome.

Lisa writes: The view from our hotel window in Sao Paulo. We stayed at the Formula One Hotel. You know that darling little display room at Ikea where they show you how you can "Live Well in 800 Square Feet" by buying an Ikea bunkbed and some other miniature furniture? Okay, so imagine an even tinier version of that called "Live Well in Something Like Maybe 100 Square Feet" and that was our hotel room. Everything you need, brand new and spanking clean, and not one wasted inch. Walking to the subway, we passed Giraffe Burger. No giraffes were harmed in the making of these burgers. But I can't guarantee nobody was harmed in the paining of this window. Check out Danger Dude standing 13 feet off the sidewalk on a wobbly step ladder! A couple of blocks past Giraffe Burger, McDonalds. One of very, very few American chain stores we saw in the country. The only others were Pizza Hut and (oddly) Ron Jons. Expressive graffiti. Maybe what happens after you eat a McDonalds...

Lisa writes: My dad, the dentist, had to finally have one of his wisdom teeth removed. He's been carefully guarding all 4 of them for his entire adult life, but a couple of weeks ago, one of them finally tried to make a run for it. He had to cancel patients in order to go to the oral surgeon. I wondered if they might be upset that their appointments were cancelled but my mom (his office manager) assured me that they all thought it was hilarious that their dentist had to go to the dentist. I think the word I'm looking for here is "comeuppance." Dad got a fancy new phone with a tiny little keyboard. When he's in the mood, he's a prolific text messager. Here are his post-surgery reports: 12:45 p.m. "Medical report w/o sarcasm. No real pain. Still partially numb. Starting to swell. Bleeding appears to have stopped. I'm hoping to have full feeling back tomorrow. Otherwise temporary paraesthesia for several months. See? No sarchasm." 12:53 p.m. "O...

Tom writes: We have arrived. The rebel forces are preparing the X-wing fighters as we speak.

Lisa writes: We walked into the Halloween party at Tom's Tai Chi school about an hour late, me waving my sign and little American flag, and it took the group about three seconds to look up, pause in mid-sentence or mid-chew, and start CHEERING. You'd have thought the real guy had just shown up. They are fans, and patriots, and athletic supports, those Tai Chi students. (Coach Pei in medieval Chinese cheesy movie actor garb.) Tom won first place in the costume contest. He beat out a cave girl and a sumo wrestler and Uncle Sam and a vampire. And well he should because, the fact is, not every guy can pull this outfit off. Or on for that matter. (Yeah, I've already used that line.)

1998 Halloween Originally uploaded by lisa.n.tom . Lisa writes: We make creepy look good.

Tom writes (still about Brazil): We had been diligent little campers and been to Mass on Saturday night and then to the LDS service on Sunday morning, and then it was off to the beach. But on the way, we could not help but stop for a moment as we drove by this... Remarkable! (1 min 10 sec)

Lisa writes: We dropped the kids off at Edivani's parents' coffee farm for a couple of days while we went to Sao Paulo and the beach. Edivani's family has been in the coffee business ever since her great-grandfather came over from Italy. Here is the traditional way to dry the coffee. They spread it out on concrete slabs to dry in the sun. Eco-friendly and free. The drawbacks to this method are that it's slow and sometimes they get rain during the harvest season (like this year -- warning: coffee prices are probably going up. Hoard now.) The family is now part of a co-op to grow, process, and sell their coffee to exporters. They are very proud of two big new pieces of equipment. One is a wood-burning, electric dryer. Faster, and still works even when it's training. The other is a sorter. Coffee is a bean inside of a husk. You roast it, the husk breaks, and then you have to separate the husks and the bean. A bag with fewer husks or pieces of husks is better quality. T...