2012 in a Nutshell

Greetings to our friends and family around the globe. We hope that you will be able to bid farewell to 2012 with great memories and optimism for 2013.

As many of you have come to expect, we renovated the kitchen this year and no walls, structure or family members were injured in the process (although I did melt the siding off of the garage while cooking on the barbecue). This marks the end of a 5 year planning obsession but the result is beautiful and the function for our family is improved. The budget for kitchen design books has been reallocated to the kids activities fund, for which there are many.

Lil has progressed to Gold on the swim team and begins competing in a few weeks. She has an irrepressible zest for all things fun in life as long as it does not include homework, although she loves the social experience of school. Her short term memory is on par with that of our schnauzers which suits her just fine...every day is Groundhog day for Lil. Athleticism seems to be her thing and in June she surprised us with a series of 1st place ribbons for track and field meets. But mean momma continues to stress academics and piano practice so that if a swim scholarship ever appears, her neurons will still be firing. We invested in stainless steel this year and Lil is seriously thrilled to be wearing braces and a palate expander with a beautiful result so far.

Grace continues to frighten us on a daily basis. She recently announced that she may be small but is very smart. Each day she comes home from school or daycare with new information to impart: why Saturn is uninhabitable, why I shouldn't immerse electric appliances in water. She continues to be intolerant of foolishness and remember everything that is said to her in some detail. Desperate to outdo her big sister, she's decided she is also a swim pro and she catapults herself into the pool at every opportunity...which would be great...if she could swim. At her insistence we began her piano lessons this year which has encouraged Lil to put in a little more practice as she observes little sister gaining on her. Grace thinks Sophie is her sister...they are both tough, close to the ground and fast and share a passion for mittens and playing hide and seek. This year Grace decided that she would take responsibility for Sophie's "deposits" on our dog walk and after I demonstrated appropriate technique with the doggie bags I stepped back to allow her a turn. After staring down at Sophie's gift for a moment, Grace vomited on it leaving me to figure out what kind of waste bag was designed for this type of incident. Grace has elected to forego this responsibility in the future and has taken over the tug of war play activities.

Because both of our kids prefer to live under water, we converted the pool to salt water this year. It made maintenance a breeze and the girls didn't complain about chlorine burning their eyes. Every year I threaten to fill the pool with compost and grow tomatoes in it, but it would seem that my plan is going to be vetoes as long as our family is dominated by young swimmers. Tony and I continue to be avoidant of water sports but are happy to share a bottle of wine on the deck while "supervising" and Bella is an excellent life guard, tattling loudly when the girls are up to no good.

Tony has 10 months left in his sentence as OB chief and I keep imagining that life will be a little less chaotic when he has completed this commitment. (A girl can dream right?) Feeling his 60th year approaching he began working out and weight-lifting and is now in the best shape of his life. He continues to keep me running at work and we joke that our retirement plan is "Freedom 85". We're fortunate to love our work and will probably continue as long as we are blessed with good health.

I've dabbled in yoga this year but have been distracted by our exceptionally long gardening season. This year is the first that I have actually gardened on my birthday (February 4) and while I am concerned about climate change, I could cope with the concept of the year long garden.

We enjoyed an annual trek to Orlando this year spending much of our time at Seaworld where Lil decided she wanted to be a marine biologist or a dolphin, whichever requires less homework. In July, we travelled to England to spend a week with Grandma, Uncle Howard and Aunt Teri and spent time wandering around Wallasey and Liverpool. During this holiday we discovered that Grace does not require sleep, day or night, for a week at a time, making her the perfect future candidate for med school and/or motherhood, but a lousy travel companion. So we rented a nice condo in Liverpool so as not to traumatize Tony's family improving the odds that we'll be invited back.

Overall, we've had a terrific 2012 and hope that you have had the same. Have a wonderful holiday with the people you love in the place you call home...

Tony, Mary, Lil, Grace and pups