2009 Christmas Greeting

Greetings from the Hanna family in 2009. We hope this year has found you happy, healthy and truly blessed. Well, it's a new annual Christmas letter from the Hannas and a letter this time of year wouldn't be complete without us telling you we are planning on building out at our property "The Wilderness." Yes, I know it's becoming a running joke; however, this yeaer may actually be different. After liking the same house plans for four days in a row (beating my old record by 2 whole days!), Kev was so impressed with my decisiveness that he contacted an architect and we have already had 8 meetings with him. It would appear that if at 8 differnt meetings you say something like, "How 'bout we just make this little change right here?" that your originals change enough overtime that they're nothing like where you began! Oh, well, I still like it and we're ready to submit to the City of Shawnee for approval. Now granted that doesn't mean that our 2010 Christmas letter won't begin....We've finally decided to build...:?!?! Kev has decided to serve as General Contractor and I've decided to serve as General Witch (edited to receive a PG rating :). Actually, we've decided to be very supportive, encouraging and uplifting...to our subcontractors!

This year has been one full of milestones and celebrations for us. Most importantly, Kev turned 40 years old in June. Not only did we get to celebrate with 15 friends at DisneyWorld and Disney's Vero Beach for a couple of weeks, but Kev personally celebrated with Pooh, Eyeore, Piglet and Tigger before joining our girls at SeaWorld's Discovery Cove to swim with dolphins. After celebrating like that, it's been hard to re-enter the real world. However, we've given it a good try. Upon returning from the Birthday Extravaganza we purchased some more rental property. Kev was able to convince me that in order to mow the new properties it would be necessary for us to purchase a new zero-turn radius mower with a 60" deck (I know for you females this means absolutely nothing but apparently it's important in the male universe). Although it is occassionally used for rentals, Kev gets a lot of use with his "Hustler" mower (maybe the true reason for wanting it) at our house. He can now mow our front yard in 93 seconds but the back yard takes slightly longer at a minute 45 seconds. At that speed and the Oklahoma red dust that follows, he looks something akin to the Tasmanian Devil. Kev has also enjoyed going to the OSU games and our girls have enjoyed the food at the OSU games.

My milestone involves giving "40" a really good look. I've always heard that the body just goes down hill from that age but had no idea how abruptly it headed south. Right around the time of my birthday in June, I began noticing ganglian cysts developing on my hands and wrists. At least that's the medical classification, others who noticed them just called them "ugly a** bumps". One doctor advised leaving them alone, but the hand surgeon said, "Sure leave it there if you want an automatic conversation starter!" In addition to me getting older, I began to realize that my girls were growing up and that perhaps they were ready to advance their music experience beyond Barney's hip/hop version of "Old MacDonald!" At this point I was at a loss since I seemed to have jumped off the music train several decades ago. But then I thought, hey, everything retro is coming back in style so I'll just share with them my love of music from the 70's! I loved this idea so much I decided the "70's" would be our entire theme for Razzle Dazzle's Spring Recital as well. Well....amazingly the lyrics to songs from "Grease" and other 70's songs enticing us to shake peach trees and have a little afternoon delight were now viewed in a completely differnt light as a parent than as a 'tween (I mean infant) back in the 70's. Anyway, through the gift of editing technology I was able to introduce my children and students to some amazing music.

Our oldest daughter, Gracie, is turning 10 on December 21st and growing up right before our very eyes. Her sweet spirit and willingness to help...herself is something to behold. Her love for "Little House on the Praire" was realized in November when our family attended the "LHotP" play starring Melissa Gilbert as Ma. Gracie went dressed in old timey clothes and took some "LHotP" books for Ms. Gilbert to autograph (as we'd been told she'd done on previous nights). Well, much to our chagrin it seems Ms. Gilbert was too tired after the performance and refused to even sign the books if sent back with an assistnant. Faith came to her sister's defense and said, "Well, that's just rude, she's just wanting attention." YES!! Way to go Faith. Gracie started the 4th grade this year with a wonderful teacher who really gained Gracie's favor when she informed students and parents that she didn't believe in homework and that her students shouldn't have any because they would have plenty of time to work on it in class. Well, this was the best news Gracie had ever heard but apparently she used her Super Hero skills of selective hearing when it came to the part of working on it in class. Three weeks into the school year we had a little chat with Gracie's teacher who informed us that, in fact, Gracie wasn't bringing work home because she wasn't turning anything in at all! Well, Mom's Super Hero skills of explaining--okay, yelling :) soon trumped Gracie's selective hearing skills and we have had a great first half of school! Gracie's braces should come off right after her birthday and she continues to love and excel in dance, drama, gymnastics and piano.

One of Faith's many milestones this past year included attending a week long summer camp in Tyler, Texas without her mom or dad. In required parenting fashion, Kev & I second-guessed ourselves for months before hand and especially the week she was gone wondering if we'd done the right thing in sending her alone at the tender age of 7? Well, my fears wer realized when we picked her up and she ran toward us crying....because she didn't want to come home?!?! Aaah, what blessings and sorrows combine as our children grow. Faith started 2nd grade this year beaming from ear to ear because her teacher had also been her Pre-K church choir teacher. Faith has enjoyed being a special helper and it puts my mind at ease that we stand a chance by this teacher knowing us from church that maybe DHS won't be called when she hears some of Faith's stories! I really promise we thought she was in the car when we headed to..... Faith has also seen her 2 year goal of acquiring braces pan out through her hard work of purposely pushing her teeth forward with her tongue. It's so sweet when your children think of you and don't want you to miss out on the opportunity to provide them with braces like you did their sibling :) It still appears there's nothing Faith can't do if she wants to from professional hula hooping to playing the piano by ear. She continues to love and excel in dance, drama, gymnastics and piano.

Lil' Miss Hope, 4 years old, and the Boss of the Family, reached a major milestone this year when she realized Mother's Day Out at church once or twice a week wasn't so bad. Long gone are last year's dramatic displays of illness, fatigue and fright to be replaced with expectant delight on the days she can go to "school" and play with her friends and special friend "Kennedy". Of course, my dad says why should Hope want to go to school when she can sleep until 9:30am and then be served breakfast in bed while watching "Mickey Mouse Clubshouse"? (Please refer to the first line in Hope's section). Hope has decided to demonstrate for us her fearlessness in the form of gymnastics this year. She continues to fly across the living room, bounce off furniture and even leave footprints on top of kitchen counters and the refrigerator?!? However, her Super Hero skill of fearlessness was put to a test this October at DisneyWorld when she decided to "take a NO" on Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion. Of course, she had already ridden each of these about 6 times each in the past but her brain finally caught up with what her body was doing and opted to sit those rides out. This from the child whose favorite ride, now that she is barely tall enough to ride, is Mount Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Hope is still loving and excelling at dance, gymnastics, choir and driving her sisters up a wall.

Well, that's about it for the Hanna family's milestones. We would love to hear about your family's. We hope everyone has a wonderful 2010!