If you’re reading this you
should feel very special because this
was the first year that the Mezgers did not send out a Christmas card and
letter. Twelve years straight and then 2017. The struggle to make it happen was
very acute last year but I couldn’t fathom not sending one out. I really hope
to get one out next year, but the funny thing is, in accepting the
inevitability of no wide-spread holiday greeting this year (just like I
accepted no bows on gifts, and lots of other little things that felt “less”
than years before) I was a little more
able to just be with my people leading up to Christmas – which is a struggle!
So, I’m grateful for the time I had not
tracking down addresses and stamps, and am enjoying looking back on the year to
write up a little summary for us (and
you – because you’re special). J So here we go!
So, there’s good news and
bad. Let’s start with the bad. Vader Tot is dead and will always be lost
somewhere within the walls of our house. RIP Vader Tot Mezger. (Last year’s
Christmas letter pretty much prophesied a short life for our beloved hamster.) The
good news (unrelated) – we put in a pool! See – life really is full of ups and
downs. The pool wrapped up just in time for swimming during most of the summer
(cue Friday Swim Team and Taylor Swan) and in December we finished all the
landscaping, just in time for the beginning of cornhole and ping-pong season.
We heart our backyard so much and are so excited about all the
family/friend/community fun that’s going to happen back there.
If our year had a video
montage the background music would be from Nacho
Libre, or one of the super catchy YouTube Bad-Lip-Reading songs (Star Wars edition, of course) – our kids have
both memorized. The majority of clips would be from our 3rd family
trip to Colorado – South Fork really feels like our mountain home. This year
Aunt Kate went with us – she and I took a fly fishing lesson so were able to
join in with the boys while the girls entertained themselves in the surrounding
woods/creeks, always ending up dirtier and wetter than we had enough clothes
for. Other highlights: a family boat day, some big parties celebrating adoption
(Nora), and moving overseas (Holly), a Port-A beach trip with Nana (but no
Kyle), spring break skiing with the Murrays, Fosheas, and Clay/Oliver
(sanctifying for me, enjoyable for everyone else), another epic Halloween
(Slash + Axl Rose, Nacho Libre himself, a bank robber, and our 3rd-year
Minion), a (lame but fun) car wash as RSA family project, lots of “park in the
dark,” and family Frisbee-playing…and welcoming Baby Winn! Kyle and I even got
to sneak away to Napa Oregon wine
country for a weekend with the Murrays (40!), to see NeedtoBreathe at an
awesome outdoor venue, and to see U2
in Houston (on a school night – we’re such crazy kids). And we spent an entire weekend dedicated to watching Stranger
Things 2.
But what you really want to
read about, and what I really want to remember…is the kids.
Owen is not just a kid anymore. Now he’s a kid who
sometimes sits with the adults, or at least wants to (still root-beer over liquor-beer
though). He’s 10 and in the 4th grade and both suit him well. It’s
been an easier year at school than 3rd grade which we’re thankful
for. He played lacrosse in the spring again and scored his first goal. He still
loves Star Wars and Mine Craft and strategy board games. But getting outside
with the pool (and all the ensuing cannonball-esque tricks while fully-clothed
you would expect of a 10 year-old boy), for fly fishing (both camp and in CO), family
frisbee, and now ping-pong (Merry Christmas to us from us) have brought out a
really fun, silly, competitive side. He (and Rebecca) are obsessed with the
show MythBusters and he has a really incredible memory for “things parents say”
and 90s pop. I’m thrilled about one of those. J
Rebecca is
still our starving artist but not because people won’t buy her art (she has
commissioned pieces for several grandparents now) but because she is so busy
creating she forgets to eat. Her interpretation of Starry Night c'est magnifique. She continues to explore new mediums and larger trash items
plus water color and masking tape for sculpting. Her artful inventions are inspired
by whatever she’s learning from Science Club and Mythbusters – a super fun
combo that often results in things like homemade ziplines. She’s in 2nd
grade, 8 years old. She enjoyed kickball in the spring even though she and
Maggie weren’t on the same team (go Money!) and is getting even stronger at
reading thanks to weekly tutoring with a teacher she adores. She went to her
first Aggie football game and was soooo frustrated when the other team scored
even though we were up by 30 points. She hosted her first birthday party
sleepover (which culminated in removing stitches from Kyle’s finger), babysat
the class chickens over the summer for a week (a treat we won’t repeat with
Maggie’s 1st grade class), and is missing so many teeth she could
legitimately sing All I want for
Christmas is my two front teeth this year. She is a beloved big sister –
Maggie wanted her to take her in on
the 2nd day of school (Badooody!), and truly a delight, even though
she leaves a wake of paint, glue, styrophome and duct tape behind her whoever
she goes.
Maggie is in Kindergarten – whaaaaaat? Yep, she turned 6 and we just couldn’t keep her away
any longer. She continues to not change in all the ways you would hope – she’s
our joy-filled, sticky minion-gremlin. She didn’t get a birthday party (again)
because of pool delays, but all she needs in life to be happy is a stuffed
animal and a snack so we’re good. Wearing clothes is still not her favorite
thing – especially the uniform “jumper” (because she doesn’t want to look like “a
lady” – her words). But she does love
to wear (and misplace and then find, and clean) her new glasses! We always
thought it was her hearing that was off…but it was her eyes! Joke’s on us.
Which is fitting because she loves to follow just about everything she says
with “just joking,” and the statement that “you are so funny” is the highest
(and most frequent) compliment she could offer anyone. She has “modes” of
operation (Baby, Puppy, Badoody, etc.) and is often heard “in-gish-in-ating” at
Rebecca’s behest. Oh, did I mention she was hospitalized for a night w/ a
smidge of pneumonia? True, her oxygen sat was preeety low, but she felt fine
enough to regard the whole thing as a “really fun sleepover at the doctor’s
office” and if that doesn’t sum Maggie up nothing can. Things that come out of
her mouth are generally the best: Please
cut my nails because they grow up so fast. Or Rebecca’s parent teeth are coming in! Or, regarding where her buddy
Austin from school kisses her in class…wherever
he wants to. I’ll just leave you with that and if you want to see video
evidence let me know.
Alright, I’ll wrap up with us
big kids. Kyle is still
anesthesiology-ing, and elder-ing, and ordering tiny packets of tiny things
from minimus.biz for his backpacking trip to the Winds – this year he took some
newbies and loved gearing them up. He also took our two bigs on their first
mini (but real) backpacking trip complete with an aggressive raccoon named
Stroganoff. But he says his favorite moments were being with both me and Owen
when we each caught our first trout. He ended the year with a bang and pulled
the trigger on a big purchase to bless me because I hate all things car-related
and bought me/us a Suburban! Get ready carpool and Colorado and tiny parking
spots – here we come! We tried to name it Barb or the Burb, but Maggie calls it
the Blurb and I’m afraid it’s sticking…
Alison –
that’s me. Some of my fave moments of the year were: seeing Kyle’s face when I
caught my first big trout, dressing up like a unicorn for the
“mother-son-amazing-race” with Owen and not winning but #winning, shooting a
freakishly-amazing water-balloon catapult shot that brought down an entire
Kingdom at staff Team Week, assisting in a variety of electrical and other
handyman projects to beautify Kate’s place #amaturehour, and meeting some
female heroes of the faith through a workshop I helped put on at church.
The first year of working and having all of my kiddos in school
(yes, Maggie’s kinder is half day but between ‘Enrichmnet and two grandma days,
I have four full school-days a week to work) has been amazing and a challenge. Balance is elusive and
I’m learning to be okay with that – which means being grateful for all the help
I have (and using it!) and not expecting things to look like they did even just
a few years ago – because it’s all so worth it, and I’m not meant to be able to
do it all, especially on my own.
Basically, 2017’s banner
would be: I can’t do it all. Never could, but now I feel it, see it, live it
every day. Which makes Christmas all the more critical. Because everything
important He already did. I can’t earn or lose anything important. Jesus is
endlessly faithful, trustworthy, present, merciful, gracious, in control and
good. He needs nothing from me and wants everything good (his definition, not
mine) for me. And for you.
Praying that this truth
continues to root down deeper and deeper for all of us in 2018.
With Love,
Kyle, Alison, Owen, Rebecca and Maggie Mezger
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