Onward and Forward

Well, I suppose that our Christmas letter has been up long enough.  I didn't want it to get buried under other posts, so I took a break from the blog for a bit.  I'm not sure if anyone is still out there, but here goes!

Our trip to Washington DC was a great success, in spite of the Blizzard of 2009, as the media was calling it, which blew in a day after we did.  Wow!  I'm not sure what the technical definition of a blizzard is, but 24 inches of snow in 36 hours has to be pretty close.  I honestly don't think I've seen snow like that (other than in the mountains when we were skiing) since I was a kid.

In retrospect, the best things that we took with us were our snow boots and long underwear.  One notable exception to the snow boots was Elijah.  I looked in about seven different stores for boots for him before we left, to absolutely no avail.  What's up with that?!?!  How can I not find SNOW BOOTS in ILLINOIS in DECEMBER?  Elijah had a new pair of tennis shoes, which were fortunately fairly waterproof, but it wasn't great as we were wandering about the city in the aforementioned  24 inches of snow!

Here are a couple photos from Saturday, 19 December, the day that the storm blew in...

...and a couple of the aftermath.

It was really something!  I am awfully glad that we didn't have a car while there.  My brother, sister-in-law, and dad actually drove into this mess on Saturday.  They had some tales to tell when they finally arrived after 14 hours on the road, ending a drive that was supposed to take ten!  We were beyond relieved that they actually made it.

The reason we all descended on Washington DC at Christmastime is that my other brother, Thad, was graduating from basic Special Agent training for the Diplomatic Service.  He is now a part of the government agency that provides personal protection for the Secretary of State's office.  It's sort of like the Secret Service, except Hillary Clinton and diplomats here and abroad are the ones being protected, instead of the President.  The Diplomatic Service also investigates passport and visa irregularities and fraud.  He moved to New Jersey on December 23 for his first assignment in New York City, which is definitely on our future list of vacation destinations.  This job will eventually take him all over the world. 

Maybe we'll just follow him around.

As I am the only one who had ever before visited Washington DC, we decided to make a vacation of it.  Because Zech, Alyse, and my dad were coming too, we also decided just to celebrate Hoyt family Christmas at Thad's apartment while we were at it.  It ended up being a great time, in spite of the storm, and I'll tell you all about it in upcoming blogs!  (Hey, it almost feels like old blogging times...I have an interesting trip to tell you about!)

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas.  It felt as if we squeezed ours in between trips this year, but it was a great family time.  That will probably be featured in an upcoming blog, as well!

Talk to you soon!

Wilkes Family 2009 Christmas Letter

I've decided to make our Christmas cards a little greener this year!  Instead of printing off multiple copies of our yearly Christmas letter, I decided to put the address of our blog on the card and let people catch up this way.  We'll see how it goes!  Leave me a comment if you stop by and read it!

***

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that the holiday season finds you all healthy, happy, and surrounded by those you love best!

We have had an eventful year.  Two pieces of news vied for the title of "Most Exciting," but this one clearly came back the winner: we are expecting an addition to our family around 13 April 2010!  A second little boy will be joining our family!  This was rather unexpected but definitely not unwelcome, and we find ourselves frantically trying to prepare our home for a new baby.  After all, it's been seven years since our last one.  It's a good thing we have five more months!

The second piece of news is that we are, indeed, back in the United States.  We repatriated from France at the end of July and moved back into our old house in the Peoria area.  We had rented the house while overseas, and our tenants' lease was up at the end of June, so things worked out nicely.  We were sorry to leave France, but we are grateful that Jeff still has his job at Caterpillar, and it has been wonderful reconnecting with friends, old and new.

In 2009, we were able to take trips to London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, and Stonehenge in February; to Northern France, Germany, Southern France, and Venice, Italy, when Jeff's parents visited us in May; to two different places in Provence in June; and to England's Lake District and Ireland in July right before we repatriated.If you are interested in our adventures abroad during the first half of the year, please hop over to the blog I kept while there: www.chezwilkes.wordpress.com .

Jeff went back to his old job at Caterpillar upon returning to the States.  When we first arrived, he was not traveling much, but that changed as the economy appeared to be slightly improving.  He spent two weeks in November back in France and then a few days in Georgia when he got back.  We imagine that his travel schedule will pick up after the first of the year, but he should be home through Christmas.  In his spare time, he bikes and reads and tries to finish up our basement renovation, which should eventually result in two new bedrooms for Charlotte and Elijah, a media room, and a new playroom.  Whew!

Heatharlyne had a pretty rough time of it during the first trimester of this pregnancy but is now doing much better!  She took advantage of the kids' being in school in France to ramp up her running, which culminated in a half marathon in Annecy, France, this past April.  She has continued to run thus far into her pregnancy but definitely not as far or as fast.  She is back to homeschooling the kids this year and enjoys reading and digital scrapbooking in her spare time.  She also is participating in the prayer ministry at Richwoods Christian Church this year.

Charlotte and Elijah have had quite a year.  Both came back from France fluent in French, which is an amazing accomplishment, as far as I am concerned.  They are both taking French lessons with two other children who also lived in France in an effort to keep up their language skills.  Charlotte participated in rock climbing, and Elijah studied fencing in France, neither of which I think they would have or could have done easily here in Central Illinois.  I think they were sadder then we were to repatriate, but both have adjusted nicely.

Charlotte continues to be our child who wants to try everything!  She is currently studying tae kwon do, taking piano lessons, and playing basketball in a local league.  She also had a leading role in the church kids' Christmas play and still reads voraciously.  I think she would be doing a bunch of other stuff too, if Mom were willing to lug her around.  She is beyond excited about her new baby brother and is sure to be a huge help when he arrives.  She made the decision to be baptized in the summer of 2008; somehow, that missed last year's Christmas letter, but we wanted to share it with you anyway!

Elijah is still our go-to kid for a good laugh.  He is also studying tae kwon do, which he finds to be plenty of sports for the time being.  He is also playing piano and making great progress.  He had a small role in the Christmas play at church and absolutely loves computer and video games.  Since he can only play them on the weekends, he spends much of his free time building Star Wars creations with his Legos and reading up on James Bond.  He is, as always, a joy to be around.

This past year has been a whirlwind, but we can definitely see God's provision in all that has happened.  Here's to looking forward to what 2010 will bring!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Jeff, Heatharlyne, Charlotte, and Elijah

Stupid Pregnant Tricks

I'd forgotten how many brain cells that being pregnant kills.

I remember the increased clumsiness and have taken care to hold on to banisters and to watch the road carefully when I run.  But how does one guard against swinging around and knocking things over?  So far, it's just been water glasses and non-breakables, but I'm waiting for the day I get too close to the lit Advent candles...or set a water glass too close to the laptop...or elbow my kids hard in the head.

Oh, wait.  I've already done that last one.

So, the kicker (at least I hope it's the kicker) was last night.  I plugged in our deep fryer to make some french fries.  Our deep fryer has a soft plastic lid that is supposed to be removed before I plug it in.

The oil heated up, I dumped in some fries, and I waited a few minutes.  Then, I fished out the fries, along with some very disgusting-looking, black, stringy stuff.  "What's this?" I asked Jeff.

Yep.  I had forgotten to remove the soft plastic lid, and it had completely melted into the hot oil.  What makes this doubly funny (or not) is that this is the second deep fryer I've destroyed.  In France, I neglected to run our American one through a transformer and blew it up.

Jeff, to his credit, said nothing.  He didn't even roll his eyes or shake his head.

"I guess we'll have potato chips for supper,"I said.

Sigh.

Play Ball!

After our breakfast with Santa on Saturday, Charlotte had her very first basketball game.  She is playing in a small, local, in-house league that consists of four teams of third- and fourth-grade girls, two from here in Germantown Hills and two from up the road in Metamora.

I am completely new the whole basketball thing.  My brothers played in high school, I've been to a fair number of games, and I understand the basic rules.  But when it comes to strategy, techniques, or any of that mess, I'm clueless.  Jeff played junior high and intramural ball in college and is a huge help to Charlotte, but, as he's been out of town for her last several practices, she was pretty much dependent on the little bit of practice she got at practice...which isn't very  much!

I found the whole first game just short of hilarious.  I think that there are two girls on Charlotte's team who have played before; they are twins, believe it or not, and very aggressive.  One can even shoot well.  And the rest of the girls?  Well, they are beginners and pretty much don't have much of a clue!  They all seemed to have a pretty good time, but there was much aimless meandering, crazy ball throwing, and enthusiastic running up and down the court.

Charlotte exhibited nearly every nervous tic she has...she chewed her hair, and her eyes blinked fast and furiously.  I can only imagine how nerve-wracking it must be to play a game in front of a bunch of people when you don't really know what you're doing!  But she did well, especially for a first game.  By the second or third quarter (after a quick pep talk from Daddy), she was getting the hang of guarding her player and getting back down the court when the ball changed hands.  I think that a few more practices and games will do wonders for her.

After four, six-minute quarters, the final score was 12 to 10, with Charlotte's team in blue coming out on top.  She was quite pleased with her first competitive basketball experience!  And she is determined that, next time, she is going to score some points herself!  Charlotte is number 34.

Go, Team!

Breakfast with Santa

In past years, we did what a million other people do.  We picked what we hoped would be a quiet week night, headed to the mall, and let the kids visit with Santa Claus.  Jeff and I then usually ended up paying an exorbitant amount for one photo of the kids with Santa and left the mall feeling slightly grumpy.

We were able to forego this joyous event last year because we were in France until there was no quiet week night to take the kids to the mall, and Pere Noel doesn't meet with individual children there.  Although it must have been weird, we told the kids that they would just have to trust that Santa would know what they wanted and that he would know to bring it to France by December 13, our chosen date for celebrating our family Christmas!

Anyway, as we are back in the States this year, Jeff and I decided that we needed to figure out a good way to see Santa, hopefully one that would leave us less grumpy.  (How DO you get that information about when Santa will be at the local farm co-op?!)  Luckily for us, our little village has a Junior Women's Association that has hosted "Breakfast with Santa" for the past 37 years.  For a small fee, we could eat breakfast, get a photo with Santa with virtually no wait, and the kids could spend any remaining time making a variety of Christmas crafts and playing several fun Christmas-themed games.

Sold!  We were there! 

I bought an extra ticket for my dad on Friday, and, bright and early, we headed to the Germantown Hills Middle School for a date with Santa Claus.  The doors opened at 8:45, and the kids saw Santa on a first-come, first-served basis, their time denoted by stamps on our tickets.  As Charlotte had her very first basketball game at 11:00, we wanted to get there as early as possible so that we could see Santa before we had to leave.  We ended up being the third family in line, so no worries!

This event turned out to be a lot of fun and a very low-stress way to visit with the big guy.  We entered the gym, hung up our coats, and had a couple of minutes to check out the many raffle prizes (this event is a big fundraiser for this organization) before the music started, and Santa entered the building.  Our kids were standing in his path as he made his way to his chair, and both got to hug him even before they visited with him.

As Santa sat down, we hopped in line and were the third group to see him.  Here are the kids with Santa.

 

After the kids told him what they wanted, Santa apparently informed them that he NEVER promises gifts to kids.  But if they read a lot a books and were good boys and girls and helped a lot around the house, MAYBE he would bring what they wanted.

Pretty darn clever of Santa, huh?!  My type of guy.

After Santa, we got in line to get breakfast, which was a donut or bagel and a beverage. 

Then, we were off to the room where the make-and-take crafts and games were, where the kids each made a dough Christmas ornament and played until it was time to leave.

 

We left about 10:30, in just enough time to run back to the house to get some water for Charlotte's basketball game, which I will tell you about in another post.

And here's one more bittersweet end note to the whole Santa thing.  We were sitting at Sam's Club that evening, eating a rather nasty supper before shopping, and the kids proceeded to inform us that neither one really believed in Santa anymore!  Charlotte, our logical child, had a whole laundry list of reasons why Santa didn't make sense and why she thought it was a better bet to just ask us for things for Christmas.  I didn't say anything but glanced rather anxiously at Elijah to see if this was in any way traumatic for him.

No worries.  Elijah said, with a perfectly straight face, "I haven't believed in Santa since I was five."  (Seven is evidently ancient to believe such things.)  "Plus," he continued, "reindeer can't fly.  And even if they could fly, there's no way they could carry that many toys all over the world."  Later on, he told his dad by way of comfort, I suppose, "I'll probably tell my kids about Santa someday, too."

In a way, this whole conversation was hilarious.  In another way, it was kind of sad.  It just doesn't take long for kids to grow up!  I can vaguely console myself with the fact that we will have one more to tell about Santa for a few years, but I think that the days of Charlotte and Elijah believing have come to an end.

Time marches on...

Not Even a Mouse

Well, this past weekend was full and busy for the Wilkes family!  On Friday morning, my dad came over from Michigan to spend the night because Charlotte, Elijah, and I were all participating in our church's children's Christmas program.

A talented lady in our church, Melissa Anderson, wrote and directed an adorable play called "Not Even a Mouse."  It told the story of a little modern-day church mouse, fascinated with Jesus, who learned that her twin mouse relatives had  witnessed Jesus's birth because they had lived in Mary's home when the angel visited her and had stowed away in the donkey's saddlebag when Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem. These two mice meet the animals who were in the stable when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  There were also mice who lived with the shepherds and stowed away with the wise men.  The play was complete with an angel choir who sang perennial favorites like "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night" and a preschool choir who sang "Away in the Manger."  A few girls also had solos and sang some newer Christmas songs like "What a Strange Way to Save the World" and "One Small Child."

The play was clever, funny, and about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  I accompanied the two choirs during their numbers; Elijah was one of the modern mice, brother to the little mouse who wanted to learn more about Jesus.  He got to whine and yell his two lines and then sit backstage and read a book for the duration of the play.  During the actual play, the video monitors were on backstage, so he got to watch the rest of it.  He had a ball.

  

Charlotte was Anna, one of the twin mice who lived with Mary.  She had one of the two biggest parts in the play, and wow...I know I'm a bit biased, but she did a great job!  She had some massively long chunks of dialogue to learn, and she nailed every single line.  We are awfully proud of her!  For such a reserved child, she really blossomed up on the stage.  It was a sight to behold.

 

Here are some more photos of the big night.

 

What a great night!

Another Year Better

Yep...Jeff celebrated another birthday yesterday!  He is still jet lagged pretty badly and had to leave for Georgia this morning for a couple of days, but we did manage to squeeze in a celebration.

Jeff got home from work around 4:30, and the kids were quick to haul out their specially-picked out gifts.  Of course, as we had been out of town all of the previous week, they were specially picked out on Sunday afternoon after church at Walmart!

Elijah found Daddy a cool green shirt...

...and Charlotte picked out a couple of accessories for his bike, a water bottle holder and a lock.

After gifts, we headed into Peoria to meet some friends, the Pughs, for supper at the Kobe Steakhouse of Japan.  The Pughs were in our small group before we moved to France, and Saundi shares a birthday with Jeff!  So she asked yesterday at church if we wanted to meet for supper somewhere to celebrate.  As a Japanese steakhouse is a special-occasion sort of place, we settled on there.

Eating at Kobe was a hoot.  The eight of us sat around our own personal grill while the chef whipped up our food, complete with broccoli tossed into mouths, sake squirted all around, and an egg flipped up into his tall hat.  Of course, there were the requisite flames shooting four feet into the air, which terrified Charlotte and Ryann.  Here they are crouched against the wall, as if the flames were going to shoot out and engulf them!

Elijah was completely delighted by the whole show.  "You are so cool!" he proclaimed to our chef.

After supper, we came home and had a mint cream pie that I had purchased from one of the kids' tae kwon do classmates.  His school was having a fundraiser, and, when I bought them, I still thought I would be celebrating Thanksgiving at home.  I had somehow forgotten candles in the midst of this past week's madness, but we sang "Happy Birthday" and dug in anyway!

All in all, not a bad birthday celebration!

This morning, Jeff flew to Georgia for a two-night business trip.  He snapped this photo of my tummy before he left.  I always try to include a couple of these in my kids' baby books, but this was the first one we've managed to take of this new little one!  We're halfway there!

 

Have a good one.