From the archives.

Excerpted from my Christmas letter 2003.

Hockey Boy is now 12 and in the 6th grade. His real passion these days is hockey, and playing on a hockey team has kept him quite busy. He completed Communicants Class this fall and joined our church, and he is active in its 5th and 6th grade Bible Study and Youth Ministry. Hockey Boy plays the piano as well as the euphonium (a small tuba) in the school band, and he recently achieved the rank of First Class in Boy Scouts. He enjoys camping, skateboarding, snow sports and playing outside with friends. He is a delightful, kind-hearted boy.

Vivian has had a rough year, health-wise. Her seizures returned with a vengeance early in the year; she had over 60 grand mal episodes between January and April. When we finally got her medication high enough to control the seizures, it brought about problems with her liver, causing weight loss, excessive sleepiness and general malaise. During all of this, she became very agitated and aggressive and experienced some cognitive regression. Thankfully we now seem to have arrived at a good mix of medicines; her seizures are largely under control, and she is once again making progress at school, with only occasional episodes of hitting, kicking and biting her teachers, friends and mother. Her sweetness still shines through, though. One day she and I were holding our cat Jack, and he began to purr. I explained to her that this meant he was happy, and she replied, “He don’t know how to clap his hands?”

Dots is 6 and in kindergarten. She enjoys school and has made many new friends. Early in the year, her teacher gave her a page with the story of the Gingerbread Man and instructed her to illustrate it. Before Dots would draw any pictures, though, she crossed out all references to the Gingerbread Man and inserted the words Gingerbread Girl and feminized all masculine pronouns! I am actually somewhat relieved that some feminist traits are present in a child who aspired to be “Prom Queen Barbie” for Halloween. This fall Dots joined a school soccer team, where her chief contributions were in the areas of socialization and team fashion. She sported sparkling silver cleats, which she took great strides not to scuff or blemish, and she kept the goalie company (as well as any opponents she knew) while on the field. Dots became an “heiress” this summer when my great-aunt Anna (for whom she was named) died and left her $1000. As Dots was perusing AmericanGirl.com for ideas on how to spend her money, I suggested we might put it in the bank. She looked at me like I was a little dense and said, “Well, it’d fill up the whole bank!”