Keal Family Letter, January 2007

Hello Friends and Family. Happy New Year!

I hope you all had very nice Christmas and New Year celebrations.
We enjoyed the holidays very much.

On the 10th of December we had our Keal Family Christmas party, but
this year it was with no kids! Only grown-ups! Grown-up food, grown-
up conversation, grown-up noise levels... it was glorious! Part of
the reason we did that was because this year was the first year in
which we celebrated Christmas as just a nuclear family. Up until
now, Christmas's have been either a Keal family Christmas (My mom and
dad, and their descendants) or an Echols family Christmas (Tirah's
mom and dad, and their descendants). This year, most of Christmas
day consisted of only me and Tirah and our kids. It was simply
nice. But more on that later.

On December 11th, we went to a Christmas party at Lori and John
Odhner's, which was lots of fun. Then that Friday, we had the
Kempton Christmas Sing, in which our Men's A Cappella group sang some
of the songs featured on the album we made. The album (called "Earth
Today Rejoices!" with all proceeds going to the Kempton Church) sold
very well this season! Then the week before Christmas we went
caroling with our kids, and Matt Synnestvedt and his girls. It was
short and sweet, as our kids are still a bit young for caroling.
Then there was the Tableaux and the Christmas Eve service, which were
both very nice.

During the one of those services, while I was holding a wiggling
Cirdan in my lap, and wondering if it was really worth it to drag my
kids to church, something occurred that hinted to me that my kids
actually hear a small amount of the sermon. The minister was
talking about the Lord being our Savior, and Cirdan immediately
turned to me, and in not-quite-a-whisper said, "Papa! He said 'See
the Savior in His Temple!'" And then later on, during the same
sermon, while the mister was talking about the Lord being born in a
manger, Cirdan turned to me again and declared, "Papa! He said 'Away
in a Manger!'" Our kids, you see, think in music. A trait that I
can't say I'm not proud of. They compare things by means of songs
that they know. And often that's the only thing they really know
about a subject. When ever Cirdan sees a picture of Santa Claus, he
turns to me and says, "Papa! Look! It's 'Santa Claus is Coming to
Town!'"... that being his full name, you see.

Our kids are growing up to be classic children. The other day, I
heard Thea complain to me about Cirdan: "Papa! He's touching the
air! I don't like that!" Despite the classic nature of that
quote, I should explain the situation in Thea's defense. Cirdan had
been hitting Thea. So while telling Cirdan to stop hitting Thea, I
also told Thea to move away from Cirdan (not on obvious solution for
a 3 year old, I guess.) So she did move away from Cirdan. Cirdan
meanwhile kept hitting the air in Thea's general direction. Thus the
quote above.

Cirdan's latest favorite saying is: "But Papa, I can't, because I'm a
little boy!" For example: "Cirdan, please finish your lunch."
"Papa, I can't, because I'm a little boy." "Cirdan, stop hitting
your sister!" "Papa, I can't, because I'm a little boy." I
imagine his two-year-old reasoning goes something like this: "Thea
gets to do things that I can't because she's a big girl, so then I
shouldn't have to do things I don't want to do, because I'm a little
boy." ... or something.

We had an interesting situation this year. For a long time, we could
not find our Christmas ornaments! Things were getting re-organized
in the attic, and they somehow got moved to a strange location. So
we ended up having a Christmas tree with only lights on it, for most
of December. Which actually turned out nicely, because by the time
we found our ornaments, we decided that we would just wait, and
decorate the tree on Christmas Eve, which is apparently a Swedish
tradition anyway.

We've been wanting to incorporate more Swedish traditions into our
Christmas celebration, because of Tirah's Swedish heritage. To that
end, Tirah made Cardamom (or Cardamon) bread on Christmas Eve, for us
to eat as Christmas breakfast. It's a sort of a coffee-cake bread
which you dip in your coffee (or other morning beverage). The meal
is apparently called Coffee Duppa (spelling?). It was the first
time we had made this bread, and for whatever reason, we ended up
staying up until 2:00 in the morning on Christmas Day in order to
finish this bread! But it was fun anyway. Tirah and I sat on the
couch, half-asleep, watching some movie (I don't remember what it
was!), waiting for the timer to ding!

Tirah and I gave each other our presents on Christmas Eve, that way
leaving the entirety of Christmas Day for the kids. Christmas Day
was fun, crazy, and busy. We opened our stockings, then had Coffee
Duppa, then Family worship, and then got to work on presents. We
ended up getting our kids, way too many presents! We found a great
discount store called Ollie's, and we ended up buying most of our
presents there. But too many. It took us all day, and part of
Boxing Day to open all of the kid's presents. Now, in all fairness,
that is partly due to the fact that Carl Smith also got way too many
toys for our kids. And then there were presents from my parents,
Tirah's parents, etc. Lot's of presents!

That night, my parents invited us, and Peter and Roxanne's family,
and Carl Smith to Christmas dinner. Then after the kids were in
bed, we played card games. It was a good day. Carl bought us a
little camcorder (digital video camera), which is very cool! So we
video taped Christmas Eve, and parts of Christmas Day. I have video
editing software that came with my computer, which I'm excited to
learn how to use.

One present that Tirah and I got, was a gift card to the movies. I
also had a coupon for Pizza Hut. So a few days after Christmas,
Tirah and I went out for dinner and a movie, and ended up spending
more on gas, then on the actual date! We went to see "Night at the
Museum," which is very entertaining, and highly recommended by us.

On New Year's Eve, Tirah and I were invited over to Peter and
Roxanne's house, and we celebrated the New Year with them and Robert
and Elise Genzlinger. It was a fun night of food and games.

Our biggest news for this year is that we are having another baby!
Tirah is coming up on the end of her 1st trimester, and hopefully
coming to the end of her morning sickness. (Christmas break couldn't
have come at a better time, as it was probably the peak of Tirah's
morning sickness) Hawk Mountain grants up to 3 months of un-paid
maternity leave. The baby is due in the end of July, or early
August. So Tirah will probably be taking July, August, and
September off of work. She has to be back for October, because the
Fall is the Migration season at Hawk Mountain. Life is certainly
quite a ride! We suddenly need to be thinking about the
possibility of a new car, and maybe even moving to a new place, if it
doesn't work to add one more little 'being' to our already full
shared-household. We just recently told our kids about the new
baby, and they are very excited! Thea keeps asking, "Can I hold the
baby, even while I'm a kid?!" Both kids keep asking if the baby
has enough blankets and pillows in Tirah's tummy.

Well, that's about all for now.

Have a great New Year everyone, and may the Lord bless your endeavors.

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