Happy Christmas!

Neal Family Christmas Letter 2007 ahead!....

I know what you’re thinking. You are thinking, I don’t need to read their Christmas letter, don’t I know enough about the Neals? I mean, I read their blog, what more do they want from me?
Here is the answer to that wordy question. This year, I sent out Christmas post-cards instead of actual Christmas cards with a letter.
1. Because they only require a post-card stamp, and I am cheap and don’t want to pay full price postage. I feel like 41cents or whatever the outrageous price of postage is these days, is just that. Outrageous. So, post-cards are my way of beating the system. At least in my own mind.
2. I thought that maybe postmen and women might secretly be thankful when people send post cards so that they could do a little light reading while on their mail route.
So, I thought that I would whip up this little diddy of a Christmas letter just in case, and I did say, in case, you might be looking for a little more information about us than you obtain from this blog. And if this is not the case for you, you are excused from reading this letter.

Ok, so J first:
He is in his last little bit of his masters program. He just has student teaching, which starts in January. I am extremely proud of him for how well he has done in school. He has a 4.0 GPA. I honestly don’t know how in the world he does it with a wife and two kids, I know that we are a huge pesky distraction to him sometimes. Also, he actually seems really excited about what he is doing. A couple of months ago, he came home from teaching one of his first lessons in a school, and told me how invigorating it was to teach about art to a group of students, and how it made him feel really alive. I think that’s great. I can tell you for a fact that not one of my high-school teachers felt alive or invigorated by teaching me about anything. He’s going to make a great art teacher.

Then there’s me:
I just pretty much hang out at home, do some laundry, cook some meals, basic damage control around the house. Pretty ordinary stuff, really. Oh, and I also have a part time job at Bath & Body Works. I work a couple of shifts a week when J is home. For some reason, I’ve always sort of dreamed of working there. (I know, I should probably set my goals a little higher in the future). It just always seemed like a really fun environment. And it is, but some people take lotion a little too seriously in my opinion. While I’ve enjoyed my time working there (sort of), I will be glad when J graduates and I can go back to just being home full-time again. The hardest part about working is that I really miss my kids when I’m away.

Miss G: She is great. I really love being her mom. Ever day is interesting and fun. (and sometimes frustrating and overwhelming). But mostly just lots of fun. She is at a great stage right now where she is just so anxious to learn new things. J is teaching her to read and she is picking it right up. She loves to cook with me and has even filmed a cooking show of her own. She is very social and is always asking to “play with a friend”. When the answer to that question is ‘no’, she just plays with her brother. She is a great big sister to him, she is very protective of him and they are very loving toward each other. I love it. We have also been able to spend a lot of time with family over this past year. G absolutely loves both sides of our family and is constantly talking about different family members and asking to see them. She adores her grandmas (grandma rosemary, grandma marcia, and great grandma) who are probably the only people still reading this.

Bubba: He is crazy. To me, I feel like there is a big difference with this boy child compared to my girl child. He is constantly destructing or thinking about destructing. On a great note though, he is happy 99 % of the time. People tell me all of the time that they have never seen a kid smile as much as he smiles. It’s true, he is pretty much always smiling. He's a very sweet boy and we love him very much. He loves singing, looking at books, squeezing things, and did I mention destructing?

So, that’s us this year. We are counting down the days (171) until J graduates and we are really looking forward to getting out of student-mode and back into regular-mode. We have been really reminded this year of how much we love our family and friends and the support they’ve given us while J has been in school. We also know that the Lord has really watched over us and blessed us during this time in our lives, and we are so thankful for that fact.
We hope that everyone has had a great year! And thanks for reading our blog! I love to read other people’s blogs, so if I don’t know that you have one, post a comment so that I can find it! And if you don't have one, and maybe you also don't have a new year's resolution, you should resolve to get a blog this year!
Merry Christmas!
Love from,
The Neals