Merry Christmas!

2013 -- Another year in D.C.

Good tidings! We hope this note finds you all well as the holidays approach. It’s been a full year. Here’s a little about what’s been going on with us.

The children are busily learning, playing and growing up fast.

Liliana turned 8 this year and embarked on a new athletic endeavor with competitive swimming. This summer marked her first year on our neighborhood pool’s swim team, where she helped her team in the breast, back, butterfly and freestyle strokes. She continues to work on her technique with a weekly winter-swim clinic and has high hopes for next season. She also continues to dance, with two ballet classes each week. At school she has awesome teachers this year and has started to play the violin in the third-grade orchestra. Her days are full, but she handles these big responsibilities with grace and has learned great organization skills.

Calvin is 6 now and is as full of energy and big ideas as ever. He started our school’s Spanish-immersion program and is joining his sister in challenging Nick’s and my collective knowledge of the language with homework questions. Calvin also joined the winter-swim clinic, where his strokes are getting stronger and he’s mastered a very splashy cannonball. Calvin recently joined Tiger Cub Scouts, where he has already completed a four-mile hike, a scavenger hunt at George Washington’s Mount Vernon and a bike ride across the Potomac on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Scouting is the perfect activity for this adventurous boy.

Henry is excited to turn 4 this month, and while he has grown immensely over the past year, we’re thankful he still has his trademark silliness, self-confidence and yellow curls. Over the summer, he unbelievably mastered riding his bike without training wheels, swimming short distances in the pool and jumping off the diving board with Papa to catch him. He enjoyed a mom-and-tot class at our local nature center in the fall, and looks forward to starting art and gymnastics in the New Year. He also likes to play with new friends.

Nick’s time at VR-1 comes to a close this month, which is bittersweet. He has loved the travel (China, Korea and Dubai just last month) and the jet (Gulfstream 550), but looks forward to the predictability of his new job at Navy manpower near the Pentagon. He looks forward to being even more involved in scouts and the swim team in the coming months. Perhaps the best part of his job change is that for the first time in our 13-year military career, we’ll have back-to-back orders in the same location. We get to stay in our home in Alexandria for a few more years!

I have taken on a few new volunteer roles this year in addition to my mothering responsibilities. I am writing our school’s PTA newsletter and teaching the second-grade Sunday school class at our church. These little projects, in addition to a bit of writing on our family’s blog and for a Web site for military families has allowed me to exercise my creative muscles. Henry and I also attend a weekly mom’s Bible study and fill our days with pre-school-at-home and the business of managing this bustling household.

As Christmas and the close of 2013 arrive, we think of the family and friends who have made our lives special this year and thank God for each of you. Whether you are near or far, know you are always close to our hearts.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Danielle, Nicholas, Liliana, Calvin & Henry