Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

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.