Not just a teaser, this is the real deal. And although I'm just now posting it now, it actually got mailed out in a timely manner - at least before Christmas!
Family & Friends: Glad tidings of great joy!
Grab a hot chocolate and let us tell you about our
year…ready?
Perhaps our biggest story of 2013 is that after 17 months in
the works we moved into our new house in April! A little bit like having a
baby, I think we’ve purposefully forgotten most of the pains at the end – the
87 shades of paint we tried, the punch list and blue tape and subcontractors
that seemed to live with us forever. Now we get to move on with the business of
just living here!
From the beginning we dreamt that our home would allow us to
frequently host guests and gatherings, and we have not been
disappointed! We’ve had family members, old friends, and even students from the
Middle East stay with us. Twenty-four pumpkins were carved in our garage during
a Halloween party with students from about just as many countries. Both sides
of our family celebrated Thanksgiving together under one roof. And each month
our neighbors gather in our front yard for a happy hour. Add to that birthday
parties and going away parties and it has not been quiet. But it has been so
good.
As a family we have enjoyed: camping at Enchanted Rock in
the spring, introducing the kids to Star Wars (episodes 4-6) which resulted in
paper turkeys named Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia at Thanksgiving, cheering
on the Aggies (and sometimes the Commodores!), getting to know lots of fun
neighbors and letting the kids adopt a pet snail with some of them for a while,
and sending the kids off on adventures with grandparents (Galveston, Hunt,
train rides) – which we parents especially enjoy. Thanks to grandparents, Kyle
and Ali even got away to San Francisco for a week alone (medical conference for
K, sightseeing and sleeping for A).
Maggie: Two and a half years old – she makes us laugh (and
yell – No Maggie!) daily. Her facial
expressions say everything her words can’t. She loves happyroni (pepperoni), ponyhair
(ponytails) and bunnybuns (bellybuttons).
She loves to ham it up in front of a camera – she has a special “cheese” face
for that. She loves to play hide and seek and uses trick counting to win – eight, niiiiine, wedow, neenee. She does
a killer impression of a whale singing that she blesses us with any time we’re
in the car. She is a favorite of the mosquitoes. She gladly naps in a tent in
Ali’s closet with her baby and botty
(blanket). She never lets us forget to pray at dinner. And always reminds us
that she’s a big girl: I-do-eee is
her battle cry! Owee and Bepbep (Owen and Rebecca) are her
favorite people in the world.
Rebecca: Four years old – our budding artist, chef, cheerleader.
Her multi-media creations (paper, string, straws, lots of tape, things from
nature, trash, more tape) could fill every shelf in the house if some didn’t
mysteriously end up in the trash (after a photo of course). She also loves to
decorate herself – a completely painted face and a half-sleeve of self-stuck
tattoos are not uncommon accessories to her two favorite outfits (nothing, or
her Aggie dress). She is looking forward to her first time deer hunting with
Kyle this season, and their future trip to the Amazon (her pick). She loves lemolade, doing yoga, baking with Mommy
and sleeping in late (preferably with Mommy). Our middle child is not shy about
her needs and frequently shouts – I got
to tell you somepin! Maggie starts the prayers – but Rebecca ends them: Amen for Jesus!
Owen: Six years old – and rocking kindergarten. His 6:30
alarm goes off and he comes down stairs in his uniform ready to go (all on his
own). From the carpool with older kids (who teach him about life and football),
to the times in chapel and the class garden, even daily phonics and handwriting
tests – he loves it all. He even loves his homework – going through a series of
“readers” with us. We had heard parents talk about it – but to see the light
really come on when it comes to reading has been such a treat to watch! He also
loved playing soccer in the spring (we took the fall off to adjust to the new
routine) and hope to do that again. He loves
legos and beating Alison at chess (something that prompted the enrollment
in a parent/child class for the two of them – but we all know who it’s really
for). And he enjoyed several rights of passage: playing (and winning) his first
game of Setlers of Catan, his first
birthday party sleepover and learning that Darth Vader is Luke’s father.
Carlos: Roommate of Kyle’s in college and our houseguest for
most of the summer and fall. Master ski instructor by winter, real-estate mogul
and pedi-cab extraordinaire by summer. And don’t even get us started about his
smoked brisket – meat perfection. Or our addiction to sci-fi, which is entirely
his fault. Somewhere between a 3rd parent and 4th child,
he was a welcome addition to our family.
Alison: Perhaps as big a deal as Owen starting kindergarten
(right?), this momma started being a two-school managing, carpool-driving,
home-work checking parent. In between planning for and loving all the guests
and gatherings at the house, she is still working on mastering the elusive
manual mode of her camera and remembering to actually turn the crock-pot on in
the morning.
Kyle: Still doing the anesthesia thing and loving it, he took
one medical trip to Honduras, and one boys backpacking trip to the Grand Tetons
this year. His free time was spent helping Alison prep and clean up from all
the parties (sweet guy) and planning the chicken coupe of his dreams (complete
with breed research) for the backyard – a spring 2014 project.
The biggest change for 2014 will probably be that we aren’t
anticipating any huge changes! No new little ones, no big move...our routine
will likely be very similar and that will be a welcome change.
So much of this year has been about settling into things and
seeing plans of ours come to fruition. But our greatest hope is that our plans
are really His plans. We delight in
the belief that the same Eternal God who planned from the beginning to send his
Son to make a way back to Him for us – is the One whom presides over all of our
dreams and plans – big and small. It is in Him that our hope and future lies. Come,
let us adore Him!
Merry Christmas!
With Love,
The Mezgers
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Special thanks to Rebecca for helping me get all the stamps ("stickers") on the envelopes. Next year I'll get her folding and stuffing too!!!
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Special thanks to Rebecca for helping me get all the stamps ("stickers") on the envelopes. Next year I'll get her folding and stuffing too!!!
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