Many thanks to Diana for helping me begin our family record keeping with this blog! The only thing I can think to share at the close of each year is my gratitude. When your husband works hard to provide in these tough times and your children are good people, what more can you ask for?
For many years, I was in the habit of writing a weekly report of our family events. My mom, our sage Grammy, would say, "Don't just give the fair weather report." It's true. We can learn so much from our mistakes and challenges. So after I tell you how wonderful my life is, I will humbly own up to my share of personal woes. First, here's news of the children:
Emily is nine and is being called "Emmy" this year. 
There are two other "Emilys" in her class of 35 at school. Her acting coaches had given her this nickname, so we thought it would be fun and help her teacher keep everyone straight! Success follows her hard work in school, athletics and the performing arts. She still is an animal lover and speaks to Merlin, the dog in a special doggy voice which I love to hear everyday. She makes me smile all the time. For example, I just walked into her bathroom to find a beautiful Christmas tree drawn in dry erase marker on her mirror. For Halloween '08, she got to go trick-or-treating with her friends in her beautiful Hogwarts robes as Ginny Weasley.
Peter, 11, is growing and maturing. 
His talents as a student are impressive, especially in math and writing. If I can get his permission, I will post a great story he wrote earlier this year. Yesterday his teacher called to say he had done an outstanding job on an in-class essay. He told me he was pleased because he had done it without mom or dad's help to edit it. You may recall from our previous reports that he is a phenomenal athlete--basketball, baseball, flag football. We are seeing and expect to see great things from him. By the way, he trick-or-treated as Joe the Plumber in a real plumber's shirt loaned to me by a nice lady who works at Party City. She took pity on me when I couldn't find the right thing for him to wear and her husband is a plumber. It would've been perfect if Peter could have spent Halloween with Lyle and Ciara who dressed as John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Our dear Kevin, 20, is alive and well! Because he had been so sick when he had lymphoma from 06-07, friends we haven't touched base with for a while need to know how he is doing. He is cancer free! What a great young man he is. He has worked tirelessly full-time for a Time Warner/AOL public access station in LA for the past year or so. This station in non-digital so it has meant an extra work load for Kevin as they have gone through their closure. All the while, he has also been completing his general education requirements through on-line course work. He will continue on to a four year university, wanting to study film making, this fall. A little known fact about Kevin is he likes to drink (just regular, non-alcoholic beverages) from small jelly jars and pretend he's a hobo. (photo)
Bryan has shown what he's made of this year by completing his undergraduate course work at UCLA with a BA in Economics and an English minor. They have no graduation ceremony until next June, so we will do more celebrating then. His matriculation was delayed by his humanitarian service in Kenya, which included a case of malaria. He loved the people, especially his contact family through the Volunteers for Peace organization. He was well taken care of by his "mum." He learned to use the kisii dialect instead of Swahili as he had expected. Instead of helping small businesses write business plans and co-op resources and speaking to youth about avoiding alcohol abuse and AIDS as he claimed, is it possible that he was really searching for sacred lost artifacts and treasures, maybe the ivory elephant? 
As far as our married children, I cannot talk about them. It makes me all misty eyed and this is no time to get sappy. (Wait a minute, it's the Christmas blog, the perfect time to get sappy!) They are being grown ups even better than I imagined they could be--socially concious,spiritually connected, loving spouses and good to their extended families to boot. Santa better bring them something.
Lyle and Ciara have brought new life to the Big Apple as he attends NYU dental school and she teaches at New York Kid's Club. They treated us like royalty when Marv and I visited them over Labor Day to help them move into their new apartment.
Speaking of new life, what a joy to have Diana and Mac's little one Luke to love. Wow, is he ever cute and, from day one, really smart. You see and feel how special he is the first time you're around him. And, I am not just saying this because I'm the Nana! As you can see from the previous blog, he was born 11/7/08. I am so grateful I could be present during much of Diana's long labor and delivery--she had a much tougher time than I did with any of my deliveries. They are attentive, patient parents. Mac is so sweet to always help Diana--they are a great team.
As for Marv, AKA the founder of our feast, I hope he will find time to blog on his own behalf, but he's having another really crazy busy year. He's just trying to keep his head above water with the collapse of Washington Mutual and the take over by JP Chase Morgan. We will see how his employment situation pans out in '09. At this point with the stock market impact on our retirement--well, there may be no retirement! I promised I would gripe a little, so can this count?
I still love my work (read:play) with toddlers at Tricks Gymnastics. 
I do what I can to help at the kid's school, including art docent in both classes, room parent for Emmy, and a little here and there for the Parent/Teacher organization. I'm in the Primary Presidency at church--I serve (again read:play) with children. You feel close to the Savior when you spend time with his little ones and, as our friends Brent and Trish Browning always say, the gospel is fun.
Oh, I almost forgot I was supposed to do some complaining. Here goes. One thing that really stinks is that I pretty much have to wear glasses now when I read. I don't need them yet for driving and most other things, but I'm silly and walk around with them on top of my head so I'll have them ready. Hey, they work great as an accessory to hold back my hair. Whoops! There I go being grateful again!
Sure, my life is far from perfect, and I will definitely have my share of New Year's Resolutions. One of them will be to keep up our family history by a weekly contribution to this blog (thank you for inspiring me, Ciara!)
Come back to see how I'm doing!
With love and gratitude always for your friendship,
Lorna
