Happy Holidays
December, 1997

It’s been another family-centered year for us this year. The big news for us has been the kids - that’s right, plural! Jonathan has been great fun as he grows into toddlerhood, and we’re pregnant with number two, due April 13, next year. So we’ve spent half our time humming those incessant Barney tunes, and the other half re-acquainting ourselves with the ups and downs (mostly ups, thankfully) of pregnancy.

The fun with Jonathan could take up a whole letter by itself; we’ll try to keep it brief. Watching (and chasing) him now, it’s hard to believe that he was just taking his first real steps at this time last year. The other major development (and we do mean major) has been talking! He really communicates with us now, letting us know just what’s on his little mind all the time. He’s also a little singer, able to carry a tune, very well! With his entry into toddlerhood came the growing desire for independence - do you know the familiar struggles? He also loves books. He really enjoys both being read to and looking through his books by himself.

Laurie continues to work at Great American Life part-time. That has been a good balance for us so far - she gets out of the house a little, yet she is still able to keep our household running like a well-oiled machine. We’ve been fortunate with this pregnancy again; it has been pretty smooth so far. We just recently had the ultrasound, and the baby looks healthy (and big!).

Chris transferred to another division of AT&T in the middle of the year. The project he’d been working on for almost a year was canceled, so he found something else to keep busy with. Now he works for the part of AT&T that’s getting into local phone service: coming soon to your town! Chris also continues to keep busy (too busy) with the Sierra Club, still trying to get good environmentalists elected to public office. This year his committee was four-for-seven in Cincinnati’s city council race, thanks in part to a 1300-piece mailing that the two of us put out by ourselves.

We had a busy year traveling. In February, Laurie went to Texas for four days to play Florence Nightingale for her mom. Jonathan stayed home with Chris, while mommy missed them terribly. In May, we all went to Texas to visit Laurie’s kinfolk. Then, back to Texas for the month of September for Laurie and Jonathan to help Laurie’s mom recover from a successful surgery. Chris joined his little family for a weekend during the month to celebrate Jonathan’s second birthday. We’ve burned our own pathway from Cincinnati to Texas!

In June, we had our first annual family vacation! We found a place that’s far enough away to be , but close enough to be driving distance: Norris Dam State Park in beautiful Tennessee. We were looking for a retreat, and that’s what we found - a place where we could just relax and have fun. We stayed in a cabin, saw deer, went swimming, hiked around and played on playgrounds - it was so peaceful.

In October, we took Jonathan to the Cincinnati Zoo for the first time. After all of his animal books, it was really fun for him to see the real things. This fall we also had lots of holiday fun. For Halloween, we started with a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out our jack-o-lanterns. We had a great time carving them and dressing Jonathan up as a railroad engineer. He had a great time eating candy! We also had a nice Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Grayson, and are enjoying a very fun Christmas season. We’ll have our first Christmas here in our house, joined by Laurie’s mom, step-dad, sister and brother-in-law. We are going all out on the decorations this year, and with Jonathan’s persistence we’ve learned more words to more Christmas songs than we would have ever thought possible! It also looks like the downstairs bathroom remodeling will be complete by the time our guests arrive - we basically took everything (wallpaper, sink, mirror, lights, toilet) out and replaced it. Chris is glad to be done with it, and Laurie is glad to have the water turned on all the time again.

Once again we find ourselves at the end of a fantastic year, full of love and great memories. As the nights get longer and colder, our family gets warmer and more fun (and bigger!). We’re counting our blessings, and at this time of year, we’d like to wish many for you, too.

Love, Chris, Laurie and Jonathan Grayson P.S. Be sure to keep in touch with us! 5209 Horizonvue Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45239; (513)681-3774; cgrayson@att.net