Hello friends, once again, one more Christmas Season!
For a good while I kept postponing writing our usual
Christmas letter thinking our year wasn’t so full with events worth mentioning
but then as I kept rolling in back on my head, I realized there is still beauty
in our simple daily family life and even when you don’t have an extravagant
year, there is still a lot to share! So here we go, and I hope you enjoy it!
We started the New Year moving into our new home! I was 8
months pregnant with Gio and we took the risk of moving earlier rather than
later although our rental contract was still good until the end of March. We
decided we wanted to move as soon as possible, before the baby was born,
knowing that the long commute to school, the extracurricular activities plus a
newborn baby were definitely going to be a challenge to handle.
The perfect house for us came out on the market and by God’s
grace we were able to buy it! We love our house, we love we don’t have to worry
about stairs and babies, we love our city of Sugar Land, Texas, our
neighborhood, we love the mature trees in our street, the quietness of our
cul-de-sac and the before mentioned proximity to school and friends! Baby Gio in my tummy was wonderful and waited
through it all. My mom and two sisters came to help and visit and Giovanni
Antonio, or simply, Gio was born on January 26th. He is a wonderful
baby, such a gift! We all love him so much and he captivates nearly everyone
around him! He is now 10.5 months old and has one tooth and a half, still very
little hair, and he continues to be a chubby adorable baby. He is also saying
some words and it’s adorable. He is very curious too!
While we adjusted to a new baby, life went on full speed as
our kids are older now and more responsibilities and commitments are naturally expected.
Rebecca continued having piano lessons and she started golf lessons too! Rebecca
learned how to knit and loved spending almost every afternoon with friends and
the lovely Dr Bilow lady, a sub teacher from the school who volunteered to
instruct the girls of the parish during almost all summer. Rebecca also went to
her first away camp, a whole week at Camp Bluebonnet where girls learn virtuous
leadership skills, grow in their spiritual life and build wonderful friendships.
I can attest it was the best thing we could have done for her, and after
recovering from the very tiring and busy week of camp, she was back home so
mature and wonderful, when just before
that I was panicking about adolescence and I was trying to learn everything I
could on the matter. God is faithful!
Rebecca started the year in 5th grade (with braces,
Nicholas too) and finished it with good grades and stronger friendships! Then 6th
grade came, braces eventually came off. Sixth grade surely meant an adjustment
with much more work load and stronger expectations academically. Fortunately we
have been able to navigate it together, with lots of talks and the occasional
late night help with her math. Rebecca’s hobbies and interests are many and
they continue to include astronomy and now bracelet making. She is set to
participate on a kids’ fair next year where she will have them for sale! I have
to say she is really creative and her bracelets look all different, beautiful
and well made. She is a good friend to everyone and she is also a natural
diplomat! She’s a big helper with Gio and all her siblings adore her!
Nicholas continued piano lessons only until May after
deciding he didn’t want to continue formal instruction for the time being. He
still enjoys playing the piano and has a natural talent for it, but it was the
right decision for now and we hope he will eventually pick it up again. He was
way more interested in playing sports with his classmates! He joined the school
baseball team for the first time and the whole family enjoyed cheering on him!
I need to say he looked adorable in that the uniform and he would hate to hear
me saying that to other people! Oh well.
Just before finishing second grade Nicholas received his
First Holy Communion! He was well prepared and looking forward to it very much.
Nico enjoys altar serving every Sunday Mass and he loves the monthly altar
serving boys training. We definitely treasure our parish of St Theresa! After
summer Nicholas started 3rd grade and it’s been a wonderful new
school year so far! He also started attending Chess Club at school and he
enjoys it very much! His other hobbies and interests include videogames (which
we managed to go without for the whole summer!!), biking, having play dates
with his friends, boys’ club, reading Calvin and Hobbes and Harry Potter, swimming,
the beach and fishing with dad. He loves having a little brother and keeps saying/singing
to Gio: “we love you”.
Victoria finished prek in May and entered summer knowing how
to read! We were so proud of her because she really showed effort and
persistence in learning ahead. It paid off and she has read many books herself
as well as movies subtitles and instructions everywhere. Victoria has many
friends, she is very joyful and a big helper at home! She is doing ballet and
giving herself 100% like it’s on her nature! She wants to do everything that
big sister and big brother are doing and she is a true companion to Gio! She
enjoys singing and wandering in our backyard, playing with dirt and she finally
learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, which was a big personal
achievement as she had gotten pretty scared of it due to a minor fall earlier
this year. One fear she hasn’t overcome still is her acute fear of needles and
throat or nose exams. I guess she won’t be a doctor after all. She also enjoys
fishing with daddy and she loves the beach and her family! And stuffed animals!
Dan took up two new hobbies this year besides being our “everything-fixer”
around the house! Dan was happily seen playing the electric guitar almost every
day even if for just 5 minutes and he went out fishing many, many times this
year! His favorite is seashore fishing and he’s gotten the more successes in
Surfside Beach, TX. Work is going well and he also got involved in the boys’
club! And about me, I finally went on a retreat (with Gio) after 5 years of my
last one, attended book club meetings, socialized with fellow school moms,
helped with our little children’s adoration group, helped with the girls’ club
and got busier than ever around the house and the kids!
In November we were fortunate enough to visit with my sister
for a few days in the beautiful city of Miramar Beach, Florida and that’s a
wrap!
We hope this letter finds you well and please know you are
dear to us you are in our prayers! We wish you the true joy and peace that only
the union with Christ can bring! And every Christmas he brings his gifts, as a
baby! Let’s welcome Him and let’s adore Him! Amem!
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