Well it is that time of year when we are enjoying the summer heat and getting ready for that big celebration that so many associate with winter, snow, and cold. One thing I have learned since last Christmas is the value of incompetence. I try to use this to my advantage all the time. Like when puzzles need to be picked up, I mix all the pieces together and randomly shove them in boxes. My incompetence leads Mom and Dad to ask the older kids to help, which means I have so much less work. This must have slipped my mind last year when I wrote the family Christmas letter. Now that Dad and Mom have figured out my linguistic and computer skills they have “asked me” (or forced me) to work out an encore performance this year.
Nathan continues to provide the most humor in our house. He is still working on his letter sounds, but will start school the first week in January. I will officially be king of the hill and run the house. The bad news is that with him gone I will have no one on whom to blame when things go wrong. I better start working on some solid alibis. I am not sure what Nathan’s teachers will do with him. The school is in English, but I don’t think anyone speaks the Nathanese dialect of English. At least not on purpose that is.
In February mom took a two week sabbatical to attend a medical conference in some place called Thailand. Do we look like we were born yesterday? And who needs a Sabbatical from perfect kids anyway. I am sure she had a good, relaxing time away from kid duty and enjoyed all the special Thai massages and she loves Thai food. Dad said this was her birthday present – 18 days without kids. I am sure we are more of a present when we are actually there. She loves to have 4 kids jump on her in bed at 6:30 in the morning as a gentle wake up call. She celebrated her 40th birthday while on this trip and I must say that 40 never looked so good. (She paid me extra to write that)
When Mom returned we got serious about packing and were soon on our way home. At least that was what everyone said. Nathan told me we're going to Amerita. Since I only have lived in Mauritius, this is home, but Amerita sure was fun.
Dad tried to gain as much weight as possible while there. I thought he was personally trying to counteract the economic decline by buying pizza, cashew chicken and Krispe Kreme doughnuts. I didn’t mind eating all the good food, but I knew Dad was going to need some pants with elastic waists if you know what I mean. He also decided since most of his hair was falling out anyway that it was best to shave it all off. Now all the boys get buzzed (our hair I mean) and we save so much money on hair cuts that we can buy something useful. Like Pop tarts.
While in Amerita we got to see and do so many neat things. We got to be spoiled rotten by Nanas and Papas, Aunts, Uncles, and played with all our cousins. Who knew they were so cool? We saw some big trees – and got to play inside of them. I never really wondered what the inside of a tree looked like, but it was a fun experience. We saw a cool aquarium (I tried to figure out how to feed Nathan to the sharks.) Went to visit the president, (he wasn’t home.) Went to the fair and drove some mules. Had a Cook family reunion – Dude we have a lot of relatives. We got passes to go to Silver Dollar City and visited there quite often. We saw cousin Ryne play baseball and graduate from high-school and saw Uncle Robert graduate after like 9 years of university study I think. Our Uncle David brought over one of his snakes for us to pet. He was pretty nice as snakes go, but Mom said not to even think about getting one for our house.
Another cool thing about Amerita was this place called Wal-mart. It was off the schizzle. We seemed to go there most every day for something and they always had exactly what we needed – sometimes they even had stuff we didn’t know we needed yet.
Probably the most significant part of our year was when Karis accepted Christ in her heart in Feburary and Drew made the same decision in late Sept. I can’t make fun of them for that. They do have some smarts you know. Dad got to dunk Karis in some water at church and I keep telling him when he does Drew to hold him under awhile, so it will make sure and have an impact. I think Drew’s dunking is coming up soon and will probably be at the beach.
Well I guess that is a good point to end on since that is really what Christmas (or Twissmas if you are Nathan) is all about. We hope that Jesus lives in your hearts and that as you celebrate the season that his presence will fill the moments with a special touch that can only come from His hand. We will miss you all and hope your season is filled with all the joy of 4 kids stuck on a 19 ½ hour plane ride. Really it was fun.
Matthew for all the Cooks
Merry Christmas from,
Kevin, Sara, Karis, Drew, Nathan, and Me
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