Merry Christmas!
To all our family and friends we wish a joyful season. Hopefully you've been able to pause amid the hustle to ponder, and remind your kids, the real reason we are celebrating Christmas.
Casey and I have been married twelve years. We celebrated by giving each other one dozen eggs. No, not really. Actually, we bought ourselves the first season of MacGuyver. We like to spend time together watching cheesy television without benefit of commercials.
Casey is still working from home as a computer programmer. He's so good at what he does that now he has to spend a lot of time on the phone telling other people how to do it. He's still the scoutmaster, too. And an all around good dad and husband. Some things just don't change much from year to year.
Edith is still a full-time Mom only now we have five kids. I seem to have reached some kind of sustained crisis as far as parenting vs. housework goes. Luckily, I feel this is a temporary situation. Once the baby learns to get around on her own, I can go back to cooking (and cleaning) two handed. I'm really looking forward to having my closet back when we move the baby to her own room.
Anika is ten years old! She gets top grades in all her subjects even though she doesn't like math. She enjoys playing the flute and has a private teacher at last (no more beginning band!) Her Christmas play was one of just a few chosen to be performed by her grade. She is conscientious and responsible and wants to learn to do everything.
Clarissa turned eight and was baptised this year. She has made amazing progress in piano in the year since she started. She still loves to improvise more than to practice. She's already written songs of her own. She's very social and I can't count how many people have told me how much they enjoy Lissa. We enjoy her, too.
Anderson is five and started Kindergarten this year. He is learning to read faster even than Anika did. He is an absolute perfectionist which can be a real trial to him (and us.) He draws really incredible monsters with scads of eyes sticking up everywhere. And he makes sticky-up eyes to wear on his own head, too, out of pipe cleaners and googly eyes. He's very creative, very dramatic, very intense, and pretty lovable, too.
Meredith has turned three. She loves the baby, but doesn't love how much attention the baby gets. She loves to play with her cousins, who live close by. She still wears princess dresses, but not every single day. I could have started her in preschool, but I like to have her home with me. They really do grow up so fast.
Rosalie is the newest member of our family. She is six months old now and just learning to crawl. She is a very content person. She doesn't laugh easily, but she smiles whenever you look at her. I'm almost glad she doesn't sleep through the night yet, as that is about the only quiet time we spend together when I can just enjoy how little and dear she is.
Best wishes to all,
The Songers
So, my brother Joey has a new baby boy. 
So does Casey's sister Katie. It's the same baby! Our kids' first double cousin! Okay, so most of you already know that my brother married my husband's sister, but I still get a kick out of it. They named the baby Luke, and he is stinkin' cute. (Babies are stinkin', and cute, but rarely as cute as this, stinkin' or not.) Of course, he's got good genes. We should know.
