Christmas Card 2009

For those of you who are wondering What happened to our Christmas Card this year, wonder no more.  This year the problem was our picture, I know there's always an excuse right?  we were running out of time before Christmas so we dressed everyone in red, green, white and pink (of course) to take our family Christmas card picture... this was the best one we got and I wanted something a little better so we took this one...

Which was at least outside but I was planning to get a professional one soon and now I realize that it's just not going to happen,  so here's our letter, sorry to all of you who didn't get a personal one, they are actually all typed out and waiting for the perfect picture.... it may be a while so enjoy this in the mean time.

We had a few snow flurries in Temple, Texas the other day so we decided to get in the spirit and write a christmas card.  There have been a lot of changes in the Smith family this year:

Cameron graduated from medical school in May.  He was matched in Radiology at Scott and White Hospital in Temple and we moved in June. It's December now and he hasn't actually done any radiology but he can order Tylenol with the best of them.  He is doing his intern year which will follow with 4 years of radiology.

We bought our first home and planted our first garden.  Cameron is amassing an arsenal of yard tools and equipment.  Elisabeth was able to get painting the house out of her system quickly, and the kids are able to jump, run and play the keyboard as loud as they can without having the big black guy from downstairs pound on the ceiling.  Can you beat that?

We also bought our first used van this year.  It worked great.....for about 23 hours.  It died while driving to church on Sunday.  That was a great day... hot, sunny, everyone dressed up, and a distressed 4 year old Katelyn and two boys that couldn't walk all of a sudden.  We got the van fixed real quick..... unfortunately it broke down the following week, and the week after that and a few more times for good measure.   I'm not sure we're supposed to know the town tow truck driver so well.  The good news is we haven't had problems for a while as long as you ignore the check engine light.

Elisabeth is cancer free and discovering all the great things she can do with curly hair.  She loves it…all 6 inches of it.  For a few weeks it was competing with some serious fros, but it was no match for Cameron’s hair cutting/styling abilities.  Other than hair, Elisabeth has been doing well… sewing, blogging (cameronandelisabeth.blogspot.com) , cooking, cleaning, exercising, hazardous waste disposaling (thank you Grant)...

Grant is 2 and dang cute.  As not to make the other kids look bad he occasionally leaves poop lying about.  Apart from the bathroom issues he is a joy. He enjoys mimicking everything he hears and he gets louder each time he repeats it. He believes he can have anything he wants if he attaches “peas” to the end of his request with a tummy rub.(his own personal sign language for the word please) At times he is a bit mischievous and Elisabeth can always tell he’s up to something when he says, “shoo mommy, shoo shoo,” as he waves his hand to shoo her away.

Dallin has become a rambunctious 3 year old who is the self designated class clown of the preschool Elisabeth teaches with a few other moms.  He prefers to end every sentence with “bob” and especially likes “ju ju bo bob” and then he and every young child within earshot bursts into hysterics. It’s very charming.  At the same time he has become very contemplative.  When is he thinking of something he taps his temple with his fore finger and says, “Hmm, hmmm, I’m thinking” then he rubs his chin and hmms a little more.  We’re trying to decide if he has ever told us what he is thinking of.

Katelyn is 5 and has started an official preschool and is doing very well.  She loves learning and being in the school environment.  She has only recently stopped waking up at 5am every morning in anticipation of riding the bus.  Katelyn now eats the meatballs in spaghettios, wants to marry Dallin, is beginning to pray to Santa Claus, and continues to cry if  you so much as look at her while holding a hair brush.

We hope all is well with you and wish you a Merry Christmas!

Love,

Cameron, Elisabeth, Katelyn, Dallin, and Grant Smith