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During last July’s 5.8 earthquake, 3-year-old Bronwyn told her 1-year-old sister, “We’re going for a wiggle.” READ MORE
Mother Knows Best
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I'm thinking of enclosing a "Dear Friends and Family" letter with my Christmas cards this year; the kind you get that gives you the lowdown on what this family or that family did throughout the past year. Predictably, it will begin with, "I can't believe another year has gone by." What follows will be a summary of the educational accomplishments, athletic feats and social development of the children. The family vacation to Fiji, or perhaps the cruise taken for some special occasion. And then comes the obligatory apology for not sending personal notes, but, "...you know, we're just so busy..." I look forward to getting the holiday mail as Christmas approaches and I love catching up with people I rarely see anymore. It seems, though, as I read their letters, that everyone else is living it up while we...well...we're just living. Now, don't misunderstand, I love to get these letters. In a world scarce of any kind of social contact outside of e-mail, I'm pleased to get anything that resembles a letter. But I admit, sometimes I wish for a more candid look at the lives of other families. Should I decide to send a family update mass mailer-style, here is what my Christmas letter would say... Hey! We're good! Hope you are, too. The kids are fine. No 4.3 GPAs to report in our household. We are, however, grateful for the 3.4 our son did bring home. Our oldest is driving now. Not the cool sports car his friends all seem to have because we're in a crash- course savings program for his college tuition. He's driving our old '65 Ford pickup. No vacations for us this year, either. We spent all our travel and entertainment money at Subway during breaks at the weekend baseball tournaments we attended for our youngest. My husband didn't go on any hunting trips with his buddies. As a salesman, he's too busy hunting for customers at work. No piano recitals. The only thing my kids play is baseball. No, in fact, nothing special happened to us this year. On the flip side, however, neither did we endure a divorce. No affairs. No one was seriously ill. We're not in debt and our kids are reasonably well-adjusted. So...there you have it...that's the update from the Porrazzo household. Short and sweet. None too exciting, but we're fine, thank you. We're not exceptional, but we're happy and we're content. What better gift is there than that? I dunno. The holiday letter just doesn't sound as good when there's nothing spectacular to report. In our case, this holiday season, if you don't get my letter, consider that "no news is good news." Kimberly A. Porrazzo is a senior writer for Churm Publishing, Inc. and author of "The Nanny Kit." She lives in Lake Forest with her husband and two teenage sons. The award-winning columnist writes Mother Knows each month. She can be reached at: kimberlyporrazzo@cox.net. |
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