An Honest Christmas Update

I have been receiving Christmas letters since the weekend after Thanksgiving.  My friends are all overachievers.  Now, they aren't all pretentious -- no, really, they aren't.  Some of them are very down-to-Earth updates of the past year.  But there are those that make my cynical and jaded side snicker. 

You know the one's that I'm talking about because you all get them too.  Generally, they are from those people that you don't know all that well.  All of these letters have the typical holiday photo of the shiny, happy, family followed by a 2-3 page recap of the awesomeness that occurred in their lives over the past year.  Things like raises, promotions, championship games, and awards that they have all earned are highlighted with humbled gloating.  There is nothing wrong with a yearly update letter.  There is nothing wrong with being proud of your family's accomplishments.  There is nothing wrong with any of it. 

But it still hits me wrong every year.

When I see the letters like that I wonder how I am friends with these people and then I realize that I am not.  Not really.  My friends send the cards that are simply signed "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" and may or may not include brief update letters that may or may not include a picture.  These people are those faux friends that I never interact with beyond this yearly update or liking a post on Facebook.  I mean, they obviously don't read my blog or they'd know that such a letter sent to me sets them up to be blog fodder.

I want to see an HONEST Christmas letter.  One that includes the good with the bad.  One that is fun to read because I can relate to it.  So, I'm going to write my family's honest Christmas letter.  I won't send it out -- not because I am ashamed or because it isn't true, but if I publish it here everyone will have the option to read it anyway and I won't have to pay postage.

Greetings from the Caballero Clan! 

2012 is drawing to a close and I must say that I am glad to see it go.  This year has been extremely stressful and although it is ending on a relatively positive note, I am just thankful that it is ending. 

We started the year off with the threat of unemployment looming large on the horizon, but we were fortunate enough to find the husband another job in our hometown.  So naturally, we all got pneumonia while we were moving 750 miles across country.  Also, the short notice of the move meant that we spent the first 8 weeks living with our parents.  Talk about stress. We're in our house now and hopefully will close on it in the Spring provided there are no more surprises.

The oldest boy passed 4th grade.  This was a shock to us all considering that none of the tests were given on a Wii or a Nintendo DS.  Seriously, his video game addiction is troubling, but he does make decent grades.  Since starting 5th grade, he also seems to be discovering girls.  This is very good news because it is evidence that video games may not be the love of his life after all.  

Our oldest girl spent the first of the year recovering from knee surgery and following it up with a broken arm. Needless to say, our orthopedist had a very good year. Luckily, she hasn't injured herself anymore since then because one more "accident" would have likely resulted in a visit from CPS.

The youngest girl is making her mark on the world in kindergarten.  Her teacher agrees with us that she is very unique and very smart.  She seems to have great mathematical ability as she constantly answers math questions in class without even pausing to raise her hand.  However, she still hasn't mastered details like writing her name all on the same line (she often writes it vertically down the side of the page).  Luckily she is very cute.

As for our youngest, well, he's a liar.  He tells some great stories but not one of them is true.  He's also lazy and absolutely hates to go to preschool, but we make him go anyway in the hopes that he will get some preparation for kindergarten next year.  He is plenty capable, but has no motivation.  His teacher and I have tried all year to get him to write his name, but so far all he will write is a J.  He says that he doesn't need to write the rest because with the J we will know that it is his.  Sigh. 

All in all, this has been a stressful year (which is why there is no family photo) and we are looking forward to a better 2013.  We know that we are blessed and anymore details of our lives can be found on Ginger's blog.
 

 See?  Good and bad, all truth, and less than a page.  Happy holidays.