Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas!

Hopefully 2008 was good to you all and best wishes for 2009. We decided to go a little greener this year by putting our letter on the web instead of printing 50+ copies.

Just a brief update of the last year at the Elkins house. Mark’s dad continues his stroke recovery. It has been a year and he can now walk with a cane and is still regaining speech. He will go to CMU in January to get fitted for an electronic device that will let him type what he wants to say as it seems speech took the biggest hit and he has trouble communicating. I read a quote somewhere that said “If you want to have fun, don’t have a stroke.” That’s about it!

Z started daycare/preschool 2 days a week. It’s been very good for Mr. Active to meet other kids and get his energies out. He keeps us and the dog very busy, all the time. How he will react to a baby is anyone’s guess but having a buddy will be good for him.

Mark and I are still at our respective places of work and all is good. Hoping I don’t jinx anything but we are very grateful to have good jobs in this economic climate. In fact Mark has been putting in endless hours of overtime due to a computer switch at Consumers and that has allowed us to complete most of our home improvement projects.

Aside from our new TV, our other addition is due March 1. Pregnancy is going well, and this is coming from someone who hates being pregnant! All name suggestions are welcome because we are still pretty clueless. Once the baby arrives, feel free to come and visit as I will be off work until early May. (Please bring an offering to the new TV if you do. Mark insists all must pay homage to it as he does)

Aside from the stroke, it has been a fairly uneventful year and for that we are grateful. Quiet can be good! As for this year, we hope for the best and for a just a couple of nights of sleep once we have two kids. Just a couple, I know it’s a lot to ask…

We will update with pictures here on our website, check back as often as you like!

Love, The Elkins

Elkins Family Hoedown Christmas Style

Every year, the Elkins family packs up to Grayling for a weekend at a hotel early in December. Although, there isn't the turnout that the 4th of July gathering draws, there's still 50-60 of us there. All the kids gather for their presents first so one of the tribal elders got them all in a circle, gifts were passed out and then it was discovered that a couple other elders were missing. So the poor children were forced to sit, hold their presents and listen to the adults torture them with Christmas carols. Z, for a 2 year old, did incredibly well!

Cousin A, helped keep Z from tearing into his gift.

The agony of waiting!

The look on Cousin C's face says it all by the time the adults launched into the third carol!

Snow!

If it wasn't for the other 3 seasons of Michigan that I love, I doubt we'd live here. I maintain that snow has very little redeemable value except that it is pretty until Christmas, it refills the Great Lakes (which are awesome in SUMMER) and it gets me out of school 3-5 days a year. Z loves playing in the stuff though, he's in love with his "shobel". Teddy, is more like me, preferring to

enjoy the snow from indoors.

Happy Meal Fun

I thought he kind of looked like the knights in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If one must be a bad mom and feed your kids Happy Meals, at least the box provides hours of entertainment!

More Fall Fun

Here are a few more fall pictures. Enjoy!
Summer Trick or Treating (Z-style) at Holiday Shores

Kid friendly maze at Crossroads Village.

Trying on Cousin C's Darth Vader Mask

Happy Halloween!

OK, so I dropped the ball a bit on this blog thing but I'm going to give it another shot. And what better time to start than the most wonderful time of the year? Z has inherited my love of Halloween and has been on a high since last weekend when the Las Vegas relatives visited and we had trick or treating Part 1 at Crossroads Village. If you have small kids, it's highly recommended, even the adults get to trick or treat. Halloween here was perfect ith warm weather well into the night. Enjoy the pictures!

Check back periodically, I can't promise we will update weekly or anything like that but we will post the important stuff. Nebraska Sarah says this is an easy thing to do so we'll see! I hope to have prettier posts as I figure out the system.

Welcome to our website!

After reading countless blogs of family and friends, we've decided to join the club! No promises that we will be timely in updating or particularly insightful when we do but we promise to try our hardest!