Keal Family Letter, January 2006

Hello Friend and Family. Happy New Year! I hope you all had Merry
Christmas celebrations, and Happy New Year's eve parties! We had a
wonderful Keal Family Christmas at Peter and Roxanne's house in Drexel
Hill. My parents and all my siblings and our growing families were
all there. We also had a very nice and relaxing New Year's Eve.
Tirah and I just spent it at home, eating homemade sweets and drinking
hot chocolate, by the fire, watching movies. At midnight we went
outside and waved some sparklers around for a few minutes. One or two
cars were fortunate enough to drive by and witness our tiny fireworks
display. Hopefully it helped to make their evenings as well. It was
very nice and simple. We've been battling colds and coughs throughout
Christmas and New Year's, but we've had a Happy Holidays anyway! We
hope you all have too!

Cirdan is now a year and a half. He's the cutest little boy in the
world. I know, I probably say that every newsletter. Here are some
new aspects of his cuteness. He thinks every sound he hears is music.
The wood stove will creak with the heat, or the water cooler will
bubble, and we'll look down and he'll be dancing away to this hip beat.
It's very cute... and inspiring. Wouldn't it be cool if every sound
we heard was music to our ears? Cirdan talks more and more every day.
He can say apple "bapple," banana "nana," I can't even think of all
the words he now knows, because it's starting to be less of a surprise
to hear him talk.

One of his favorite things now is babies. Thea has her bears and other
stuffed animals which she nurses and takes care of, but she never
really got into babies. But Cirdan just loves babies. He always asks
for the books about babies. He loves his little baby cousin Garrett.
Thea has always loved the book about the Woman Clothed with the Sun, I
think because of the Woman and the Dragon, but Cirdan loves that book
because of the little baby. Cirdan is inheriting all the baby dolls
that Thea doesn't play with. It's very cute.

Of course Cirdan is also approaching the Terrible Twos, and he does
have his naughty side. His worst one is that he loves to throw food.
And the worst of it is that I can't figure out how to punish him.
Everything I do, he loves, or thinks is funny. And we don't punish
with hitting or spanking, so its things like the "naughty room" or just
getting locked in his high chair without food. But sometimes it seems
like he's just saying, "Oh thank you Papa, I was done with that food
anyway." Even just saying "No!" in a stern voice. He's taken to
throwing his food off his tray while say "NO!" almost as if to say,
"Don't worry Papa, I know what to say, I've got it covered."

Thea will be 3 in one month. She just keeps growing up! As always
she comprehends more and more of the way the world works. She knows
that credit cards are for buying things. She knows what money is, and
she asks me for some of her own. You know your child is from the 21st
century when she hands you a toy credit card and says "Here Papa, do
you want some money?"

Both kids love playing with toy phones, and they spend a good chunk of
the day talking to Mama on the phone. The other day both Thea and
Cirdan were playing with toy phones. Thea handed me her phone asking
if I wanted to talk to Mama, so I took it and had a pretend
conversation with Tirah. Cirdan saw this fun game and walked up to me
offering me his phone too. I felt like telling pretend Tirah to
"please hold, I have another call coming through." If only my
audience had been old enough to get a joke like that.

Something very cute that I've noticed about Thea's understanding of
things: She thinks that Tirah makes everything. Everything! I
think it's because she always sees Tirah working on some crafty
project, especially this Christmas season. Whatever the reason, Thea
has this concept that Mama makes everything. She'll come up to me
holding a DVD, and say "Mama made it." Mama also made our Christmas
tree, and our Nativity set. Maybe she thinks that that is what Tirah
does all day at Jo-Ann Fabrics... she makes everything for our home.

Tirah is very glad to be done the hectic Christmas season in retail.
She's back to regular store hours, so on days when she closes the store
she gets back at 11:00 instead of midnight. It's amazing how that
extra hour can feel so much longer. She was sick over Christmas, but
enjoyed the time off anyway. My Christmas present to her this year was
a copy of the New Living Translation of the Bible, which we are both
enjoying very much, and makes our evening ritual that much more
pleasant. Our current evening ritual which we try to maintain every
night is 1. getting ready for bed, 2. reading email (family, and GCFL),
3. reading from either the Word or the Writings (we alternate every
night), 4. praying, 5. doing 20 minutes of yoga, then going to bed.
When we do that, we stay much more sane and healthy, physically,
mentally and spiritually.

Well, it's been one year of attempting to start up my own music
business. So far it's been going well. I have a new album. I have
many new contacts. I have a manager. I'm looking forward to what
this next year brings. It's been so wonderful to get to be home all
the time, and get to work on my music whenever the kids are asleep.
It's a great situation for now. As always, the plan is that I can
eventually earn our living from music, and Tirah can stop being the
bread-winner. But for now, we are happy and content where we are.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2006! May the Lord be with you all on
your paths of life.

Love, Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and Cirdan Keal.