Merry
Christmas
from
the
Kruger
family!
Cecily (5) started Kindergarten this year in the
fall. We went back & forth for
months about the decision to start this year or next, but she jumped in with
both feet and her teacher assures me we made the right decision. At home, her current favorite saying is “I
HATE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING!”, so I’m still not 100% sure we made the best
choice, but at least she’s doing well at school! Cecily loves all things home and “cozy”; one
of her favorite things is to bundle up with a “cozy little blanket” and her
“cozy little unicorn” and her “cozy little Mama” and read a book. She is also an incredible storyteller, I’ve
heard that at school she likes to spend her free-choice time surrounded with
her friends “reading” stories. I asked
her the other day if she’s going to be a book writer when she’s a grown up, her
answer was: “Yes, but mostly I’ll be a Mama, and on the weekends I’ll be a
famous ballerina.” Clearly, we’re
teaching her about achievable goals.
Parker (7) is currently in First grade at the same
school as Cecily. He finished out a
great year of Kindergarten and is thoroughly enjoying 1st grade as
well. He’s still working on learning to
read, but in the meantime, he loves listening to stories. After I spent three hours straight reading
Harry Potter aloud during the Read-a-thon, I introduced Parker to the wonder of
AudioBooks, now we can lose him for days on end as he’s immersed in Harry
Potter, Narnia, or a variety of other stories.
In the spring, Parker played coach-pitch baseball (not just baseball,
“coach pitch”, it’s apparently very important to him that you note the
difference). It was a new team this year
with a combination of two T-ball teams from last year, he had a great time and
loved playing. In the fall, Parker
played soccer in a neighborhood league.
Nearly every boy on the team was from Parker’s school, so it was fun
playing with kids he knows and sees every day.
He is still a HUGE Seahawks fan and Keith & I are learning more
& more about the sport every year.
Keith continues at the same engineering firm. This
coming fall he will hit his 20-year anniversary at the firm. In the meantime, he (according to my unbiased
opinion) has become one of the most popular managers in his division. Every time I meet one of his engineers, they
mention how great he is to work for.
Between work and parenting, Keith doesn’t have much time for
extra-curriculars, though he does enjoy an afternoon of puttering out in the
garage. I think he has also come to
enjoy his Sunday afternoons of watching the Seahawks with his son.
I’m still acclimating to the idea of being the
stay-at-home parent of two school-aged children. I keep feeling like I should be filling my
days with new, exciting things; but really, most of them are filled with the
normal cooking, cleaning, and groceries they were before, the only difference is
that I’m doing it without an audience now.
I’ve found that without the “I only have 2 hours of freedom” pressure,
my urgency of doing tasks has gone down and I’m not nearly as efficient as I
could be. I feel like I spent the first month of school just catching up on
everything after a very busy summer. I
have picked up a few of my old craft projects, and even made Parker a Harry
Potter cloak for Halloween. This summer,
my Dad married Kathy O’Neill, an old family friend. They are blissfully happy together and we are
all so happy for both of them, though it is still a little surreal for all of
us to now be family with our childhood next-door neighbors.
After a few years of not much travel, this is the
year we made up for it. In March, we
went to Puerto Vallarta with my Dad, Kathy, and both my brothers. There were 10 of us total and the kids had a
blast swimming and loved having their cousin Fiona there to play with. In July, Keith & I went on a Mexico
cruise as a combined celebration for our 11th Anniversary and my 40th
birthday. This was the first time we’d
spent more than 2 nights away from our kids since before Cecily was born. It was a great, relaxing trip where we did
little more than sleep, read, eat, swim, repeat. In August, we went to SunRiver, OR with the
Hamilton, Need, & Kruger families.
We had 16 people split between two houses and we had a great week riding
bikes, swimming, and spending time with family.
The kids favorite part was the night they decided to become “famous”, it
got a little quiet while the grown-ups were finishing dinner, we went around
the house to discover Parker, Wesley, & Cecily were having a dirt
fight. They informed us that they were
going to be famous: “the dirtiest kids in the world!”, I think they were pretty
close. Then we came home and finally had a few days of down-time before school
started!
We hope that this letter finds all of your well and
we share our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year!
The Krugers – Keith, Julie, Parker, & Cecily
It’s updated…occasionally.
No comments:
Post a Comment