Christmas Greetings from all the Crawfords
Most of you would be appalled at the current state of my house. In fact, I was afraid we wouldn't have time for Christmas this year.
When you walk into my house, you are greeted not by Christmas decorations but piles of books on the floor in the dining room. The dining table is covered with 2 dollhouses, paint, brushes, copper wire, switches, and various other miniature things. One of the chairs in the den is piled high with jackets and scarves that won't fit in the coat closet. There are DVDs strewn around the TV stand including several unwatched Netflix videos that we've had for over a month. In front of the bookcase is all the board games piled up that won't fit on the shelves. My computer and papers I'm working on are on one end-table. The pillows from the couch end up where people want them for comfort, not where they look best.
The kitchen, the hub of this family is not any better. The table where we eat/read is strewn with newspapers and other reading material as well as quill pens and ink from the girls' calligraphy yesterday. The back table in there is piled with partially finished projects that were started on the kitchen table and moved there when another project was started. Right now the sink is clean and the counter where we prepare food is mostly cleared! However, the island in the middle is piled with mail and school paperwork. There is no space left on the desk in the kitchen. I made an attempt to clean it off before Thanksgiving but only managed in finding homes for all the papers. All the other little important things are still covering it (keys, pencils, calculators, coins, small toys, a bowl of coupons and gift cards, and the telephone).
The front stairs are clear but the back stairs are a hazard with some toys that need to be taken up to the playroom. Too bad you can hardly walk through that playroom right now. We cleaned it out before Talia's birthday in June and everything not given away had a place. Sadly, that didn't last. The vacuum cleaner was left out after the girls cleaned the hamster cage recently. There are a couple of baskets with clean laundry that no one has put away. Of course, there is still laundry in the dryer waiting to be folded.
Talia's room has every available surface piled with precious things. Her dresser, end-table, bookcase, and chest of drawers are piled in some places over 8 inches high with things too important to be put in the playroom. All the stuffed animals are piled in a corner at the foot of her bed. The good news is that all her clean clothes are organized and in her drawers; the bad news is that she has grown out of those size 9 clothes.
If you can walk through Tacie's room without hurting yourself or something, you're lucky. Her earrings are on a holder propped up behind her door which falls over and dumps the earrings if you open the door too wide. She's a teenager. 'nuf said.
In the upstairs hallway are clothes that are too small for Tacie that we'll save for Talia. At the other end are clothes that are too small for Talia for us to give away.
In my room, usually the cleanest room of the house, I have a pile of sweaters and shirts that were given to me that I need to try on and sort through. When I walked into my bathroom last night I found it covered with Talia's clothes - wall to wall. But my bed is made!
The basement is no better.
So what HAS been going on here? It's my favorite saying that my father used to say: "You always do something instead of something else". My sister has just moved to Montreal (Mark has a job with Air Canada). My mother has moved to Lynne's house. They were both cleaning out things. Books ended up on my dining room floor; clothes ended up in my bedroom.
We enjoyed a few travel adventures. Last February we took Tacie's Girl Scout troop to Disney World. That was Great! It is different going with friends than with family. Talia and Bruce visited Grandma in Texas that week. For Spring break, we took a Disney cruise with some of the Crawfords: Brent's family and Grandma. Some of those Girl Scout friends also were on that cruise.
The girls had fun at Girl Scout camp in June. Tacie was a Program Aide this year. She also went to Wrangler In Training camp so she could help teach horseback riding to younger girls in the future. She also got to spend a week in Wisconsin with her Grandpa and got to fly a RC airplane.
Unfortunately, at the end of the summer, she fell off a horse during a lesson and broke her arm. It was a pretty severe break, both bones in the left forearm were snapped in 2 (and she's left handed). The dollhouses that we started to wire in the summer have sat undisturbed ever since.
Tacie has slowed down a lot because of her broken arm. No piano lessons or horseback riding. The Magnet program at school has continued to be challenging. She has done a couple of good service projects for the holidays. She and I helped distribute toys and food to needy children most of last Saturday. The previous Saturday, she helped a child go shopping with money donated to the high school in their "Shop with a Mustang" program.
Talia has been the busy one this fall. She's in Chorus, Recorder Ensemble, Art Club, and News Team (which does the school morning announcements on closed circuit TV). This is her last year of elementary school. Her Junior Girl Scout troop is working on their Bronze Award and planning a trip to Savannah in 2009.
Both Girl Scout troops have continued to keep me busy. I organized the teacher luncheon at the high school again. At work, we've adopted a new development process called "scrum". I never thought I'd want to be something called a "scrummaster". I think they call it that so no one thinks they're too important.
Bruce attended a sailing master class this fall, and he earned his captain's license. He took 5 days of classes on land then 5 more on a sailboat in the Gulf of Mexico. We're trying to plan a sailing trip over spring break. Motorola continues to be a good place to work.
Other travels included a visit to Pensecola Beach over the 4th of July. During the summer, we spent a week in Kentucky, visiting the caves (our favorite was Diamond), Lincoln's homes, a distillery, and Shaker village. Over Thanksgiving, we went to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. We had the best time in Williamsburg. We visited all of the colonial (1776) shops and saw all the demonstrations. We also went to Jamestown (1607) and Yorktown (1887) for their special Feast and Foods celebration, demonstrating how food was prepared by native Americans, and during the Revolutionary period. One of the best souvenirs we got was brass seals and sealing wax.
Christmas found us in Wichita Falls Texas, visiting with Bruce's mom, his brothers, and extended family. We enjoyed seeing them as it's been 3 years since we'd been out there. The long drive home reminded us why we don't visit too often. Next time we're flying.
Tacie had the pins removed from her arm on December 31. It basically took all day long in the hospital but we got to go home that evening rather than have to spend the night. Tacie's arm will get much more mobility now that the pin isn't poking out her elbow. It'd been causing quite a bit of pain.
We celebrated Christmas with the McDonalds on New Years Day! Lynne and Marshall are visiting but will return to Montreal on the 7th. We are happy to be home, and happy to share good times with those we love. Best Wishes to all of you.
Karen
