Dear Family and Friends—-
Merry (Much-Belated) Christmas! Somehow, we imagine that you’re not surprised that our holiday photo card arrived late…you should be used to our cards and letters being late by now—although this year sets a new record! Maybe next later this year we’ll get everything done on time.
Let’s jump right in by talking about our pride and joy, Amelia Grace. She’s sixteen eighteen months old now, and she is a blessing to us in every manner imaginable. This has certainly been a year of firsts—first words, first crawling, first birthday, first steps—and while we’re usually exhausted from chasing after her, we wouldn’t change a single thing about being parents. Amelia’s personality has really been established this past year, and she’s turning out to be a sweet, good-natured, friendly little girl. She loves giving hugs and kisses; she’ll “raspberry” you on your arm if you ask her to; she likes playing with friends and family as well as by herself; she enjoys dancing—shaking her little butt to the music; she’s learning all kinds of different words; and she loves eating the grown-up food she’s graduated to this year.
Another thing Amelia definitely enjoys a lot is getting a visit from her grandparents—both Nana and Papa Snider and Farmor and Farfar Mickelson (that’s Swedish for “Grandfather” and “Grandmother”) have been able to make the trip from Ohio to visit us a few times. She’s had visits for her first birthday, for a few holidays, and for no particular reason at all—and she always has new talents to show off to her adoring grandparents. We’ve also traveled to Ohio a few times this year to take Amelia back to see her extended family—including two new cousins, Derek (born to Neil’s brother Brian and his new wife, Kim) and Garrett (born to Geitra’s brother Monte and his wife Cheryl). While living in a different state from our families can be difficult, it’s nice to be close enough that everyone can make the drive in a few hours to be together.
As for Geitra, this has been her first full year being what Neil has decided to call a “professional mom.” Geitra’s planner is open on the kitchen counter 24/7, packed full of to-do lists, errands, play dates, classes, church commitments, and other activities—in some ways, she’s busier now than when she was working with the symphony! She and Amelia have made some wonderful new friends in our area through a mom’s group known as Mamistad (a combination of the Spanish words for “mommy” and “friendship”), and Geitra has also gotten to know a few other moms with young families through our church. Mommy and daughter have done baby yoga, taken “swimming” lessons, attended Kindermusik classes, and explored a number of local parks to find the best places to play and relax. Geitra’s also stayed involved in our church by singing in the choir, serving on a couple of committees, co-leading a small women’s study group, and overseeing the decorations for the Christmas holiday. Hopefully, Santa will have a big box full of downtime for Geitra to enjoy in 2008!
While Mommy and Amelia are running around, Neil’s still “trapped” in an office most weekdays—after all, we’ve got a daughter to put through college someday! After over four years with Booz Allen Hamilton, Neil finally changed contracts—he’s still doing work in satellite ground systems, but instead of working directly for the government as he did before, he is now working on a subcontract with Lockheed Martin to do large-scale systems engineering and integration. That meant a move out of the government building he’s worked in since we moved to Washington D.C. in 2001, as well as new management responsibilities in leading a 30-person team on the contract. It’s a great opportunity to continue advancing his career—in fact, just after the new year, Neil was promoted to a Senior Associate with the firm—while getting an entirely different perspective on the ground systems he supports. While work keeps him a bit busier than his previous engagement, there is one nice bonus—much less travel away from home. In fact, he hasn’t been out of town since he changed contracts. Of course, this means less of the frequent flier miles we’ve used for free plane tickets before, but sacrifices must be made….
And finally, Maggie’s doing well after giving us a bit of a scare a few months ago. She ended up eating a plastic play ball one evening, which led to a series of x-rays and eventually emergency surgery after she couldn’t get the pieces out of her stomach naturally. It was scary to have her go under for the surgery, but the vets took great care of her and removed about four 1-inch diameter pieces of plastic. She’s healed up great, and is back to her normal schedule of eating, playing, sleeping, and wishing Amelia would leave her alone every now and then. So far this year, Maggie and Amelia are becoming good playmates—Maggie loves chasing after Amelia with her roll-along bubble popper, and the fact that Amelia throws food on the floor every now and then is appreciated, too. The nicest moments are when Maggie holds still long enough for Amelia to give her a nice big hug.
With that, we’ll bring this edition of our holiday update to a close. Thanks for coming to read this letter on our web site, the-mickelsons.net, since it saves a heck of a lot of paper. Hopefully, all the extra pictures of Amelia and the rest of the family that we have on the site in our gallery make it worthwhile. We’ll keep trying to make the time to post new pictures now and then so you can watch Amelia grow through the coming year.
As always, we’re thankful to have each and every one of you in our lives. We hope you and your family had a blessed holiday season, and wish you a happy, safe, and prosperous 2008.
With Love—Neil, Geitra, and Amelia
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