Last Christmas, we did not include a letter with our holiday cards. We knew you would understand considering that, three months prior, we welcomed Vivienne Michele into our lives. What a joyous occasion and one that continues to exceed every expectation we had for motherhood. This Christmas, we have found a rhythm with Viv and can say that we finally accomplish important tasks while she is awake and asleep. This is progress!
In January of 2010, Amy left her employ at Elizabethtown College to care for Vivienne. At the same time, she began providing daycare for Dougie who is a child of Shannon’s colleague and nearly the same age as Viv. Amy is thriving in her new role. She loves doing activities with the kids, taking them for walks in our neighborhood, and teaching the kids to use sign language. In her spare time, she tries to keep up with her woodworking craft and has also taken up a new hobby, knitting.
Shannon is now in her third year of work at Auntie Anne’s Corporate Headquarters. As Senior Public Relations Specialist, Shannon is responsible for consumer engagement, charitable giving, and social networking. It is a perfect fit! She traveled about five times for work this year, including Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Atlantic City, and New York City. In her spare time, she documents the many family happenings through photographs and scrapbooking. She also started blogging at www.reflectingthesunshine.blogpost.com.
As Viv took on a more regular eating, napping, and sleeping schedule, we became more adventurous in our activities, outings, and trips. In 2010, we spent a fair amount of time in the Staplers’ swimming pool, the skybox at the Barnstormers games, Perry County cabin, Bee Tree cabin in Lycoming County, and visiting family in Southern Maryland. Our main vacation in June was to the sunny and sandy Outer Banks with some of our family members. Another highlight at the end of 2010 has certainly been taking Vivienne to the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as her first theater performance, “Fairies & Fireflies.”
Viv has an amazing temperament, a beautiful smile, and an infectious laugh, all things that have developed over the last 12 months. It’s amazing to realize that our daughter has grown from sitting with support, to rolling over, eating solids, pushing up, crawling, eating “real” food, walking, and now running. On September 23, we celebrated Vivienne’s first birthday, and it was an amazingly memorable occasion. Many people continue to comment on Viv’s hair, and she has a lot of it. In fact, she’s had five haircuts this year. Her current favorites include shoes, tubby time, reading, and eating.
Additionally, we continue to remember the lives of Anya & Tegan, our beloved twins who would have celebrated their second birthdays in April. We honored their lives by planning and participating in Share of Lancaster’s Benefit Dinner & Auction and kayaking at Speedwell Forge.
We are delighting in our new home where we have now lived for 1 ½ years. We are close to most everything, including Lancaster city and all major, local highways making every excursion a relatively easy one. Around the house, we started (and mostly completed) a dining room remodel project as well as the removal of a huge fish pond in our backyard and a variety of plant relocations and flower bed removals to make the yard more manageable for our busy lifestyle.
We are blessed to celebrate the seasons of life with our friends and family. We enjoyed birthdays, weddings, and play dates with cousins. And we welcomed new life into our family, Reily, our niece born in April. As we gather together this season, may we all feel the blessings of love and life upon us, celebrating the good moments of 2010 and remembering those whose journey on earth has ended.
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