December 20, 2000 Happy Holidays from the Graysons!

Once again we have many blessings to count as the year 2000 draws to a close. This has been a year of settling in and trying to keep up with the kids!

Mary turned two in April. Two, going on six, that is! She can be quite friendly (and loud!) one minute and whispery shy the next, but one thing is for certain, she doesn’t stop talking! She still adores her little pink Dee-doll, who isn’t as pink as she used to be, as she gets carried along literally everywhere. Some of Mary’s favorite playthings lately have been army men, dinosaur figures and Lego - basically, anything and everything in Jonathan’s room - as well as traditional "little girl" things, such as dress-up clothes and dolls. She has a terrible sweet tooth - she is notorious for eating just the frosting off cookies and cupcakes and leaving the rest. But apparently she grows well on sugar, as she is very tall for her age, and she is finally getting some hair.

Jonathan celebrated his fifth birthday in late September. He has had a very busy year, including preschool, gymnastics, swim lessons and soccer. His soccer team was the Crickets, and he had a blast running around the field with his teammates. He’s going to play again in the Spring league, which starts in March. He just missed the cutoff date for kindergarten, but he’s having a lot of fun at preschool, still attending three half-days a week. He’s so smart! He seems to have a natural aptitude for math, and his reading skills are really starting to take off. He attended many birthday parties and playdates with school buddies and neighbors this year, and we hosted a pirate/treasure-hunt themed birthday party for him. At the moment, he spends most of his playtime building with Lego, playing a game called RollerCoaster Tycoon on the computer, and coloring. He is a very patient and quiet young boy (usually), and he is a very good big brother. He watches out for Mary, helps her with the things she can’t do, and loves to play with her.

They really are best friends. It’s sweet to listen in on the little conversations they have as they play together. They both have very active imaginations - the things they come up with keep us constantly entertained. It’s been fun watching their wide-eyed enjoyment of all the Christmas decorations this holiday season, as if for the first time. Their joy brings out the magic in the season!

Chris has been busy again this year at BMC. The first version of the software he works on was shipped in May, and the second upgrade since then will be done in January. Laurie stays quite busy with the kids and managing the house, but she has also made time to start getting involved with some of the women’s/mom’s groups at our church. And on Friday nights, after the kids are (finally!) in bed, we enjoy watching movies together. And now that the kids are a bit older, we are starting to get a sitter for them more often to enjoy a night out by ourselves.

Our travel this year was all short, in-state trips. We visited Laurie’s family in Victoria many times, and we had a few weekend getaways to San Antonio and Houston. We spent two rainy (but fun) days at Sea World in San Antonio with Laurie’s brother and his family in June. In September, we celebrated Jonathan’s birthday by going to Fiesta Texas amusement park, this time with great weather. After months of building "virtual" roller coasters and amusement parks in his computer game, he loved seeing the real thing. We’ve also had several nice visits from friends and family this year, and we hope to have even more next year.

We are excited to spend Christmas with Laurie’s family this year. And we’re looking forward to attending Chris’ uncle and aunt’s 50th anniversary celebration in Dallas right after Christmas. We’ll get to meet a lot of Grayson kinfolk there for the first time. Chris’ dad and stepmom, will be there, too; they’ll come home with us to ring in the new year. What a wonderful way to spend the holidays -- with our family!