2015 T H E ( M O S T L Y ) A N N U A L E D I T I O N STILL FREE

issuing

2014 was a year full of surprises, some fantastic and some awful. Some, like the one above, we were still reeling from at Christmas-letter-writing time. Which brings us to…

2015, which brought the arrival of this adorable person on August 17th after the longest 273 days of Talinn's life. As the last Christmas letter said for home

renovation I now say for pregnancy: NEVER. AGAIN.

Elise is four months old today and has gotten decidedly more interesting. She loves laughing, especially at Jack's antics and at kisses. She's also pretty excited about her new-found ability to grab things. We are all enamored with her crooked smile. Less so with her near-

constant stream of vomit (frequently issuing from aforementioned crooked smile). This morning they invented a new game wherein Daddy holds Lisi like Superbaby and flies her around the room, attempting to puke on Jack’s head. Jack flees, screaming. Everyone is entertained by this, although I am a bit less so, since I’ll be cleaning the puke off the floor.

And then there were 4. But that’s seriously it, people.

JACK, 4

ELISE, 6 WEEKS

DANIEL & TALINN, ENTIRELY TOO OLD FOR THIS.

THE PHILL IPSES

The House. The House. The House.I also skipped last year’s Christmas letter because the house still wasn’t done and it just depressed me. We have made quite a lot of progress since we first moved in though. The Owner’s Suite is finished enough and the whole house is finally painted. We had the repaired and refinished original front door put back on and the porch floor no longer sports giant holes.

We even did a tiny bit of landscaping, although less than we’d planned after discovering a two-foot-wide strip of concrete covered by a one-inch strip of dirt that runs the entire length of the house. Thank you once again, Previous Owners.

And, both last and least, new sidewalks by the street. We try to be really, really excited by how even the sidewalks are now since the city made everyone on our block pay for new ones anyway. (A process I resented less until I started paying more attention to the dilapidated sidewalks on every other street in our neighborhood.)

There is still plenty of work to be done, but the place no longer qualifies as derelict. Unless you look at the garage, which we are crossing our fingers stays standing until we can replace it.

JackJack has done so much growing up in the last two years. He is enjoying preschool, especially access to what seems to be unlimited art supplies. He loves to draw and throughout the year has worked on perfecting renditions of Larry Boy, “creature power discs” from the Wild Kratts, Dash from The Incredibles, and assorted large cats. He is particularly fond of cheetahs, but any large cat will really do.

Jack also loves swimming and riding his bike. After a couple of rounds of swimming lessons he’s getting close to being able to swim on his own. He likes riding to church every week and is ready to transition to a “big boy bike.”

Jack has also developed quite the way with words, concocting ever more convoluted and indirect means of asking “Can I watch TV”.

Bolt Castle on Our Tour of the Thousand Islands

Dinosaurs in Chicago

Announcing His Impending Big Brother Status (with Larry Boy)Quebec

Page 3, Clockwise from Top: Birthday at Niagara Falls (with pinkeye!), Preschool Party, Boat Ride in the Thousand Islands, Grandpa’s Half Marathon, Emeriti Park in Athens

JACK’S ADVENTURES

If the Phillipses didn’t travel, can it still be a Christmas letter? No. Most of the family stuck to North America this year, but we did travel a

ridiculous amount (for work! we swear!) until the end of June. After that we did nothing at all. Because pregnancy sucks.

In January we took advantage of a

timeshare offer combined with frequent flier miles for a trip to Cancun, Mexico. This trip had the unfortunate side effect

of letting Jack think that $300/night ocean-front rooms with multiple pools and hot tubs was an appropriate standard

for hotels. He has complained about every place we’ve stayed since.

A few of this year’s highlights:

• Mayan ruins in Cancun

• a carriage ride through Charleston and pimiento cheese grits (Let’s be honest: pimiento cheese everything.

Because pregnancy. And because pimiento cheese.)

• multiple donut stops in Toronto

(Sorry, Toronto. I’m sure you have much more to offer than Tim Horton’s but it was a really quick trip

and it kept raining and Talinn hates city driving.)

• sharks at the National Aquarium in Baltimore

• a cruise through the Thousand Islands in Ontario

• wandering through Quebec and

telling ourselves we were in Europe (It mostly worked. The drive did convince Talinn that she really did want to forego the trip to Italy.)

Merry Christmas and many blessings

to you and yours in 2016!

Love,

Talinn, Daniel, Jack & Elise