Merry Christmas from the Pagets

(The ones that are in rural Wisconsin, remember us?)

As the year comes to a close and letters and cards come from all over the world in various shades of Christmas red and green, our thoughts have turned to how we also have done things that we feel are marginally better than everyone else.  Therefore I have chosen to conquer the annual Christmas letter (adding this conquest to homemade bread, homemade pizza, large messes, spreadsheets, snarky facebooks comments, and drinking milk.)  Strap on your “I care” cape and hold on for the ride:

When Reva and I were married, we both wanted to have four kids.  After our first was born, we both thought that maybe that was a little aggressive and we should maybe only have 3.  After our second was born, that number dropped to two.  We were happy and loved our kids (for the record both children are still loved.)  After some powerful amnesia and celestial prodding we made the decision to try for a third.  We were wildly successful and are expecting numero 3 sometime in late February.  It’s a BOY!!!  I’d love to name him Guy Incognito Paget - but Reva’s not on board... yet.  I’m pretty sure that all the internal kidney kicking he’s doing is a result of her refusal to accept the name.

Now for the post-utero offspring: Child #1 - aka Solei - had a spectacular year.  After some small effort, Solei finished 4-K with a bang!  For a girl who learned her alphabet and numbers at 16 months, 4-K was not so challenging.  She has a great love of science and reading.  Kindergarten has been a lot of fun for Solei, who loves nothing more than to go to school.  Solei loves to fight with the neighbors bears and even beat a pack of wolves with her bare hands.  She’s a beautiful little girl who is a great joy to our family.

Child #2 - aka  Forster - has made leaps and bounds this year.  He went from being a loud, energetic toddler to being a loud, energetic little boy.  He is all boy - he loves trucks, tractors, and trying to seriously injure his father.  His favorite greeting is ramming his whole body, full force, into the crotch of the person he is greeting.  Not so bad for the lady folk, but for us guys he needs an education - “That’s My Purse!”  Forster is nearly potty trained.  He loves wearing underpants, but not actually going potty in the potty.  Those are mutually exclusive in our home.  Reva’s been working on using the hours upon hours she has him sitting on the potty to teach him to read.  He’s getting pretty good with sight words, but phonetic pronunciation is as awkward and infrequent as emotion coming from Kristen Stewart.  Forster is not the bear wrestler his sister is, they are too easy an opponent for him.  He’s enjoyed wrestling dump trucks.

Reva’s had a great year.  She spent the majority of the year as a Pinterest missionary.  Her conversions have been many.  She’s also taken on a challenge in which she takes a photo every day for a year - the only trick is that she has to be in said picture.  It’s been an interesting challenge for her - that has produced literally thousands of photos of her appendages.  She spent the year as the President of the Young Womens organization in our congregation.  Reva and her trio, The Blarney Girls, played the N. GA Scottish Games in June.  They, of course, were awesome and were invited back for an unprecedented 7th year next year.  Reva was also impregnated by an attractive gentleman with whom she shares a marriage.  

Jared’s year has been spectacular and disappointing at the same time.  Our hearts were broken on election night when Jared only garnered 6 votes for president.  In other news, Jared received 6 votes for president of the USA!  How impressive is that?  We have 4 years to perfect the message before the next election.  While waiting to move into the oval office, Jared took a new position with a Dairy Equipment Company in Madison - not stereotypical at all, is it?  We lost two members of our family this year when Jared had to sell is CJ7 and Motorcycle.  It was a sad parting on both parts.  They’ve been replaced (just yesterday) with a Jeep Grand Cherokee.  You can’t ever really replace a family member, but it’s nice to not have something with 4x4 to drive in the winter.  

Our pet monkey still has not arrived, so we can imagine what he did this year:  Furious George was quite the handful this year.  His penchant for excrement diffusion would be useful on a farm, but not in a home.  The carpets are not enjoying our friendly little pet either.  When he got loose this summer he bit the mailman, so our mail is not delivered to our home anymore.  This winter he got out and stole Reva’s brown jacket before a trip which apparently ended at an Ikea in Toronto.  Maybe it’s not so bad that our pet monkey hasn’t shown up yet.

We hope that all your lives are wonderful and you have a wonderful 2013.

Love,

The Pagets:

Jared, Reva, Solei, Forster, Guy, and Spaghetti Cat.