xmas email

Sorry, if you have already seen this,
Seasons Greetings! Yes, we have gotten lazy and our annual Christmas letter is now the annual Christmas email,
We hope everyone has had a good year. Ours has been full of drama, so we think this year we will not do the traditional letter but highlights instead.
~Jeff’s company got bought out by Akzo Nobel
~Ally turned 9
~Our Disney trip became a real adventure when mudslides cancelled our train home (we had flown down). And we didn’t know about it till we got to the train station. We managed to get back home on Jetblue.
~Easter Sunday, Mary’s 40 year old cousin, Emily, unexpectedly passed away.
~we got a teddy bear hamster, Humu-Humu.
~Katie got braces.
~Katie passed geometry with a B, means she doesn’t have to repeat in 9th AND she got 10 high school credits.
~we spent 4th of July at the Milpitas Embassy Suites on a staycation.
~we saw High School Musical live on stage.
~Mary’s Step Mom, Pat, passed away, after a long illness.
~ 3 days later, Humu passed away. Ally came up with Grandma Pat needed a pet.
~our frig went out, took 5 weeks and 4 repair guys to fix it.
~we got a new teddy bear hamster. He tried to escape on the car ride home and he likes to crawl in shoes, so we named him, Sneakers.
~Katie turned 14 and started high school, her favorite class is orchestra.
~Ally started 4th grade.
~Katie’s favorite game is Guitar Hero.
~Ally likes to type stories on the computer. Along with questions about her story, including an answer key.
~Mary watches Connor 2 days a week and added best friend, Lisa’s daughter, Stephanie, 3-4 days a week. She still work at OSH on Sunday’s.
~thanks to Milpitas High’s instrument rental program, Katie has been able to play the oboe this year, instead of the clarinet.
~Went to Jeff’s Uncle Lee’s retirement party.
~Katie got Mary to read the Twilight series. Jeff has made it to the 3rd book.
~Katie went as a “cereal” killer for Halloween and Ally went as Mary, Mary as Ally.
~Mary finally had to do traffic school thanks to a "California stop".
~Found out Mary’s step siblings wanted to raise our rent by 60% as of January 1st 2009.
~Mary’s Dad was able to get them to agree to the same rent till July 31st 2009. Then we have a choice, August 1st we will have to either pay the higher rent or move.
~we decided it will best to move when the lease is up.
~since Jeff’s current territory is Salinas to Napa, we have been dragging the kids to different cities, to try and come up with at least 2 or 3 that might work for us. Although the rents have come down. We would prefer to stay in a 3 bedroom, especially since Jeff is home based. Which means we need to move out of Milpitas/San Jose area.
~Mary is starting to go thru things, want the move to go as easy as possible so anything that can be packed early will be. If anyone local has boxes, please let us know!
~All 3 of the cats are now considered fat J . Bailey is 2(the white and brown one), Phantom is 4(silver striped), and Isabelle is 6(multi colored). Sneakers is not fat, just very fluffy.
WOW! Think that is most of it! Our current email is virgojmk@comcast.net. However, we do have a back up email of virgojmk@yahoo.com, in case when we move we have to change carriers.
Hope everyone has a safe, healthy and employed 2009!!!
Mary, Jeff, Katie, Ally, Bailey, Phantom, Isabelle and Sneakers