All The Christmas News You Don't Need and More - 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours! We hope this finds you and your family happy and healthy. God has again been unbelievably good to us this year and we are grateful. We hope that he has been good to you and your family as well but we keep all those suffering through these times in our thoughts and prayers just in case it has been difficult for you. We know that this year has certainly gifted our family with a renewed sense of how interconnected we all truly are and that we really are here to help one another as Christ’s servants.

Now, given our over inflated sense of importance, we wanted to let you know about some of the phenomenal things that occurred in the Anchaya-Pepper household in 2009.

But first, we want to firmly emphasize that we again made it through an entire year without any legal action being taken against anyone in our little clan. Amazing but true.

As a family, we heard the quote, “This year has been unique, unequaled and unparalleled” used precisely 16.73 gazillion times by the press. Of course, this statement clearly begs the question – how many extra points do reporters and writers get if they use three adjectives all together in the same sentence that not only start with the same letter but mean exactly the same thing? From our perspective, the year was certainly distinct, dissimilar, divergent and different from any we had experienced before but we didn’t need even one of the 16.73 gazillion reminders. We were already quite aware of this being an unique year as four out of four of us managed to personally attain an age we had never experienced before. And this was without incident. Well, except for the one who is getting old. And, surely there is some research that says crying and gnashing of teeth really isn’t all that bad.

As you would expect, Mia and Aidan accomplished the most superlative things again his year. Mia set the world record for the length of time one can jump up and down while screaming. We attempted to get her into the Guinness book of World Records but they apparently couldn’t hear us over the din each time we called them to suggest the same. However, we are still hopeful. Mia also learned to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate attire for a young girl by using her own guidelines of “princess dress or tutu” and “not princess dress or tutu” and then emphatically communicated the same when her guidelines were not met. She is willing to suffer for her art and the rest of us generally just suffer. Mia is ever vigilant against being inappropriately dressed and quickly removes anything that she arbitrarily deems not befitting of a princess. Like socks. Pajamas. Or a jacket. This is an amazing skill to watch, especially when it is performed while she is in her five-point-restraint car seat. We would like to emphasize that we only use this seat when we are going somewhere in the car despite the obvious attraction of using it all the time.

Aidan is again at the front of his class. Thanks to the amazing foresight of his parents, he is alphabetically superior. Other than naming him A. Aidan Anchaya, we couldn’t have done a heck of a lot better. He has also joined the Boy Scouts where he has spent a copious amount of time learning how to blow things up. The Scouting Expo also taught him how to make a stove that burns with a totally invisible flame that can melt steel in less than one minute which is a skill every first grader certainly needs. He hasn’t put his eye out yet, but we believe he will have that opportunity again at next year’s Expo.

Now, in 2008, we went an awesome vacation with my folks to Yosemite and you know we always try to top ourselves. So, this year, we went on two excursions, an almost free trip to Sea World and then another one with the Boy Scouts despite my concerns of somehow being blown up or incinerated by invisible flames. For the first trip, we agreed to tour a property for sale in exchange for free housing and cheap tickets to see Shamu. Oddly, when all four of us arrived for our tour in our “We love Primitive Camping!” shirts which we thoughtfully purchased especially for the occasion, they didn’t even show us around the property for sale. They even kindly set a timer to let us know the very second they could hastily escort us off the premises. Really.

Our second vacation was even more exciting. We went on something inaccurately billed as “camping.” Actually, it was one of those extreme Survivor stunts where we had to live and sleep in a cold pond as record rains filled up our tent. Now, it could be strongly suggested that we didn’t bring the right gear but for marital harmony, I don’t think I’ll point out that the husband insisted he loaded the car with “all that we needed”. In a very exciting Déjà vu moment, I was rescued by two kind Scouts who escorted me out of the woods in a blinding downpour by using their flashlights which were remarkably similar to the flashlight carried by the Ranger who hauled me out of the woods in Yosemite last year. Oddly, it was also remarkably similar to those flashlights in our home that the car packer decided did not fit the category of “something we needed”. During the year we also had the good fortune to attend my youngest brother’s wedding. It was a blast and it gave us the opportunity to perfect the art of taking family pictures while looking in any direction but that of the camera.

We are sorry to report that we did somehow miss dress-like-a-cow day this year at Chic-Filet. Robert so clearly enjoyed it last year. The mystery of how the day was marked incorrectly on his social calendar remains unsolved.

We would love to hear what is going on in your life unless you want to tell us all about how much fun dress-like-a-cow day was for you. Can’t have two of us gnashing our teeth. We would also appreciate prayers for both of our fathers as they both fight cancer with incredible grace and upbeat spirits.

May the peace of our Lord be with you and your family this year.

Joan, Robert, Adian and Mia