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Happy New Year! 
Yep, we're lazy again and are pasting our annual Christmas letter and photo here.
Journal
Saturday, January 6, 2007 1:59 PM CST The first horseman of the apocalypse appeared this September when Heidi did not win a spelling bee. She and James were locked in grammatical combat with 24 other family teams on a rainy night at the Hackley library when James was unable to spell “migrant”. My feelings remain that 4th place is very admirable, but Heidi has her sights set on total conquest next year. We’d like to share our spelling practice words for next year:
Tidings: Good ones we bring to you and your kin.
Frenzied: Marty’s life as Shoreline Sport & Spine continues to grow. The clinic is now up to five therapists and shows no signs of slowing down, much like his blood pressure and gray hair count.
BobVilaphile: What one becomes after buying a wonderful old home in historic downtown Muskegon. We still love it even after learning that the water and sewer lines from the house to the street had to be replaced, the landscaping that had been neglected for years needed to be updated, and the kitchen, mudroom, and main floor bathroom all simply would not do and had to go. In case you missed it, the new address is 1604 Jefferson Street, 49441. Drop by and see us!
Philanthropic: How Heidi describes her new job with the Community Foundation for Muskegon County. (She doesn’t really hand out any money, so don’t ask.) She is Director of Non-Profit Something or Other and really enjoys her job and the prospects of not having to survive tax season this year.
Wicked: Broadway play Marty and Heidi went to see while spending three days without kids in New York City in early December. Wicked has also been used to refer to Grace on more than one occasion.
Verbose: Hmmmm, which kid to pin this label on…James thrived on last year’s Word-A-Day experience at school. Unfortunately, his vocabulary additions this year seem to be coming from Calvin & Hobbes books, which we used to think were funny. Or perhaps Grace, who has shown a stunning mastery of not only English, but also trash-talking, in the less than two years she’s been in our family.
Perseveration: (repetition; “broken record”) How Grace manages to a.) keep asking the same question over and over, usually to a parent who is on the phone, b.) issue the same demand without ever saying “please”, or c.) predictably refer to herself as a “silly monkey” every time she does something wrong even when others would use terms such as naughty or delinquent.
Kinderqueen: Anna as royalty in the early elementary of Muskegon Christian School. She’s very interested in her friends, hair, clothes, learning to read, and scoring soccer goals (fueled by a very intense desire to keep up with James and his friends). In her competitive little mind, there is no two-and-a-half year age difference (and in reality, there isn’t much of a size difference anymore), and she’s out for blood. All with a freckle-faced grin and a toss of the curls, of course.
Proximity: Turns out when you live in town, you’re close enough that you don’t have to drive everywhere. We’ve walked to church and Hackley ER, biked to Fricano’s, Ryke’s, US 31 BBQ, and G&L, run through downtown, and backpacked to Keene lumber to pick up hardwood floor samples (what, doesn’t everyone?). To ensure that this doesn’t come off as one of those braggy Christmas letters, we should add that these ventures don’t go smoothly: we arrive at church sweaty and tense, with kids with knees bloodied from scooter wipeouts (someone’s competitive nature makes her a bit aggressive on wheels).
Persistence: Apparently years of James’ nagging convinced his parents that he really was the only kid without a Playstation, and he—oops, the family—got one last year for Christmas. The upside we’ve seen is that the sports video games have increased his interest in real life athletics. In addition to playing more sports with friends, in the last year he scored trips to see the Pistons, Tigers, Cubs, and Brewers play, and he sweet-talked us into letting him stay up late to watch the World Series. Maybe “upside” wasn’t the best word there.
Stubborn (see also obstinate, adamant, and intractable for later rounds): Tell Grace “no,” and you’ll understand this one.
Providential: Isn’t it fortunate that we already have stacks of child-rearing books from when Anna was three? Complete with dog-eared pages and notes in the margins, they’re dusted off and ready to go.
Awe: Daily amazement at how a.) the blessings and challenges in our lives are so masterfully inter-connected. b.) the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. c.) this Christmas baby still wants to hang out with us no matter how hectic our lives are, regardless of how uplifted or downtrodden our kids make us feel, and whether or not our kitchen ever gets finished.
Merry Christmas with love, from Marty, Heidi, James, Anna, and Grace
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Links: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IaNWLJwycMNU Pictures from our trip to China
http://sytsemafamily.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8IaNWLJwycMSO Family pictures
www.bethany.org Website for our adoption agency
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