The Christmas Letter I Never Sent

2009. BK turned one in August and three months later Lex turned four. Motormouth and Monstro celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary. Busy busy busy!

Monstro's dissertation defense was late-October. “Congratulations, you passed,” his professor said at the end of five minutes of making us wait in the hallway. Brian will graduate with a Ph.D in the spring. Right now he is waiting to hear about interviews at MLA. If you don’t know what that means, we haven’t talked in a while, so please call.

Motormouth went to Monstro’s dissertation defense where he rendered her breathless with his impromptu 10-minute opening. Simply brilliant; you would have been proud.

Motormouth took an online class called “Get Funny” and earned an A. She tried to get on “Wheel of Fortune” when the Wheelmobile came out to Massachusetts but didn’t make it, though she’ll forever regret not having yelled the answer “National Holiday” for an event with NO letters showing. Stupid. As penance, she has re-read both Infinite Jest and Ulysses, which has helped. She also started running again in April and between running and Rhythmball has lost 50 pounds.

Monstro, the boys, and Motormouth look forward to an early January trip to visit the Johnsons of San Antonio, (including our niece Amber’s baby son, Caiden), where it is pretty certain not to have snowed.

In any case, we are happy to be together, if not perhaps touched with PTSD and ongoing California-to-New-England culture shock even after 5 years.

2010. Can you believe it? Here’s to a happy. We pray for you. Please consider doing the same for Amber’s husband, who is stationed in Afghanistan. Love, Lynn

the boys

The boys are good. BK is in nursery school now. He has the same teachers Lex had, and we love them, so that's great. I know they aren't supposed to play favorites but on Theo's first day, his teacher June hauled him onto her lap and said, “I've been waiting a long time for this.” So he's in excellent hands, though of course we miss our nanny, who touched the house with a calmness rarely felt around here. It is, however, wonderful that the boys are in university-subsidized childcare that is so top-flight, we'd pay for if we had to. And Lex's imagination and memory are flummoxing his teachers but that's kind of fun in its own way.

still running

It feels like 10 degrees outside and I'm back from a run. For such cold-weather running, I need a proper scarf, or a cashmere balaclava, or a down burka. In any case, I did two down-and-backs, to stay within 1/2 mile of the house at all times. And yes, I had my ID and my cell phone with two ICE numbers. At my first turnaround, I was ready to throw in the towel, but by the time I got to the house, I felt warm and pretty good, so I ran up the street a little ways, always walking on the concrete and traversing sidewalk-ice as athletically as possible. Not too shabby. So, now I know I can run in non-windy 10-degree weather. And my iPod never fails to come up with a song that cracks me up: today's was “The Boys of Summer.” I nearly fell down.

Book Quiz II results

Motormouth's Book Quiz I result here.



You're The Bible!
by ?
One of the most controversial, misunderstood, and yet powerful
people alive, you spark extensive discourse wherever you go. People think you
hate a whole lot of things, and you probably do, but people forget about your
hatred for shrimp. Mostly, you like to tell stories and then be overwhelmed by
how many different ways people interpret the things you tell them. The older
you are, the less forgiving you become…


Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.