2011 Dean Family Christmas Letter
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Transcript of 2011 Dean Family Christmas Letter
2011 has been a great year for us. We had our 5th child in February and named him Asa Henry Dean. We call him Owen some@mes Enoch other @mes Abram and rarely Ella but it works for us. I thought George Forman had been hit in the head one too many @mes since he named all his kids “George.” Turns out he’s really smarter than we are because he always yells at the right kid.
Asa has bright eyes and a quick smile. He’s hardly fussy, and we’ve been told by others they’d have more babies if they were guaranteed to have one as good as Asa. We are truly grateful for how easy he is. We’ll enjoy it while it lasts because we may be cursing him in his teenage years. The birth of Asa wasn’t quite the Dukes of Hazard excitement that Abram was. It was eerily similar in that my water broke at 2 am for both of them and the labor was about 1 hour 42 minutes with Asa and 1 hour 16 minutes for Abram. For both the hospital was 30 minutes away. One difference is that the Germans don’t mind at all LYING on a pregnant woman’s stomach to “help” her push. I can s@ll feel that, and I’m s@ll screaming. Asa is keeping up with the family trend in that no 2 of our children were born in the same state and now we can add a 2nd country to that. Now that we are moving back to Ohio in the summer I just don’t think it’d be fair to have another baby in Ohio. It might upset the balance of the force.
With a new baby on board and the fact that it took 13 weeks to get his passport (along with the fact that the parents also have to send in their passports with the applica@on), we didn’t travel much in the early part of the year. We did get to see PaZon’s grave in Luxembourg, ride on the Rhine River, and have a family vaca@on in Croa@a at the beach this summer. In the fall, we had a great @me on our Mediterranean cruise and finally got to see Athens! We missed it the first @me due to a public transporta@on strike. They’re s@ll striking on and off but we docked the day before the planned strike this @me. The kids had a great @me in the kids club. They actually liked the formal dinners and trying unusual things like shrimp with all its legs and squid ink risoZo. Owen enjoyed site seeing with us.
Jared made a few educa@onal trips this year for dental mee@ngs, which included Rome and Las Vegas. For payback I took a girls trip to Belgium. It was also very “educa@onal.” The chocolate there is divine. I have 2 more girls only trips planned for next year to Scotland and a Bal@c Cruise. My biggest fear in moving back to Ohio next year is that Michigan won’t be as exci@ng as the Netherlands and Indiana just doesn’t have a Paris to compare. I suppose Europe doesn’t have the biggest ball of twine, but it can’t have everything right?
Merry Christmas 2011 !
Ath
ens, G
reec
e Cro
atia
Montenegro
If we had any input into the Chinese calendar, it really feels like the year of Abram to us. This isn’t necessarily any indica@on of whether we favor him most, least, or somewhere in between. It’s just that looking over the past year he’s had more quotes wriZen down than the rest of the kids combined. He’s at a great age when expressing himself develops at the speed of light and some@mes the wires get crossed.
Be careful what you wish for: I wished for an automa@c vacuum and I got it in the form of a crawling baby ea@ng everything he shouldn’t be ea@ng off the floor.
All I want for Christmas: Asa—his two front teeth-‐-‐check Abram—a pistol that makes smoke—not recommended Ella—pet shop house Enoch—bey blade and bey blade stadium Owen—iTunes card, shotgun Jody—peace on earth is a lot to ask for but I’d seZle for peace at home Jared—par@al deafness and a robot that does dishes, updates him on spor@ng news, and tutors him loudly in Spanish, as he would be par@ally deaf.
Kids say the darndest things: Abram would ask us to put Asa in his “cage.” AKA it’s called a crib. Please don’t call child protec@ve services on us.
Firsts: Owen Got Braces
We all want something but just can’t have it: Abram declared he wanted earrings like Ella. I told him boys don’t have earrings, and he immediately responded that a boy at his school has earrings. I don’t know if I should blame that on the gheZo or the Germans.
Watch out for the eavesdropper: Just when you think no one is paying aZen@on to your conversa@on, Owen will pop up and say, “Tell me how you feel about that.” He’s good at pretending he’s not listening.
Triumphs: Abram is poZy trained. I enjoy poZy training about as much as wai@ng in line at the post office. Abram learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Ella learned to swim. Owen’s football team won the championship game in the last 6 seconds.
OUCH: Enoch fell backwards and hit his head on a soccer goal just playing around. It required 5 s@tches. He was a liZle self-‐conscious for a few days at school and would purposely sit against a wall or walk backwards so people wouldn’t see his wound. (Probably not a good idea to walk backwards aler having s@tches but what do I know?)
Growing up: Owen is in middle school. He wore his football jersey to school before a game day and a girl asked if she could ear it. She paid him $5, and he let her wear it. He doesn’t know her name. Should that be a “hmmm….” or a “hmm?” Jared was shocked Owen would pros@tute his jersey.
In case you were wondering: One morning Abram came running excitedly to me and exclaimed, “Asa can speak English!” Phew! We were worried…
Even if you weren’t wondering: Abram tooted and exclaimed, “I farted!.....(pause) out of my buZ!” Uh? Should I be worried that perhaps he can fart out of other places so he had to specify?
Some connec@ons were made in heaven: For Enoch’s 9th birthday he wanted to invite a few friends over for a party. He requested his siblings be gone during the party except for Abram. He made him a special invite.
Say what?? Overhearing Ella asking Enoch to pass the coffee creamer. No we don’t let our 7-‐year old drink coffee nor do we drink it. Instead, we discovered the deliciousness of flavored coffee creamers in our hot chocolate.
The greatest blessing of moving so olen is gaining wonderful friendships along the way. (Although decluZering is a close 2nd.) We truly value each of you, and our lives have been enriched because of it. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season!
Love, Jared, Jody,
Owen, Enoch, Ella, Abram, and Asa Dean