Holiday Letters

It's the most wonderous time of the year.  The time of year when Christmas cards begin to arrive and with them the arrival of the holiday letter.  I love holiday letters!  I love how they are all written with the same language and same tone.  You know what I'm talking about.  Most holiday letters look like this:

Greetings from the Zachariah family!  Boy, has 2012 been a busy year.  We traveled to Hawaii/Istanbul/Greece (you notice no one ever writes that they traveled to Idaho or Iowa) and saw some amazing sites.  The kids had a great time and were absolute angels on the plane.  Praise Jesus we all slept the entire flight and didn't suffer from any jet lag (again, no one ever writes about getting butt ass wasted on the flight and getting detained going through customs). 

Little Jeremiah is the spitting image of his dad and won his little league national championship for the entire world!  I know!  It looks like we have a future major league baseball player on our hands.  Yes, he may be only 2 years old, but I just know he's going to be drafted out of high school and make millions allowing us to retire and live in a 12,000 square foot mansion with maids for the rest of our lives. 

Sally Mae has had a great year as well.  She was the youngest competitor in the Miss USA pageant and although she didn't win, her inspiring natural talent on the viola has allowed us to sign a record deal with Columbia Records.  She will be traveling with the Vienna Orchestra this fall so you guessed it.  We are all moving to Vienna! 

Luckily, Jasper's company has an office over there and he was able to get a transfer and a huge promotion.  God sure is smiling down on us! 

I've been just as busy as always.  Not only did I serve as President of the PTA, but I also was the Junior League President AND raised $1.2million for the local children's hospital.  I'm not sure why God has picked me to undertake such a large task, but He provided me with direction and we got it done!  Go me! 

Hopefully everyone else had an amazing 2012.  We will keep you posted on our adventures in Vienna. 

All our love,
Lisbeth, Jasper, Sally Mae, and Jeremiah

I get out a holiday letter about every other  year.  This year I was lazy and didn't even send out Christmas cards.  If I had sent out a holiday letter though our theme would've been "we survived".

Greetings from the McArtor family!

Every year I think this is the year life settles down and every year I am proven wrong.  2010 I spent most of the year on bedrest, 2011 we had our Emma and Paul deployed, and 2012 has been just as crazy!

We survived Paul's deployment.  He survived his time in Afghanistan and, as a couple, we reintigrated into marriage life fairly seamlessly.  Jenn was able to bite her tongue most of the time and recognize that she had to take a step back and let Paul do some parenting.  Paul did a great job re-bonding with Emma and jumped right back in to married life and fatherhood.

We survived a hellacious flight to Turks & Caicos with food poisoning and had a great time the next day and for the rest of our vacation.

We survived a miscarriage. 

Jenn survived the sudden and tragic death of an old friend as well as the passing of several close family friends.  You know your parents are getting older when their friends start passing away in rapid succession.

We survived a chemical pregnancy.  We know it may not sound like much, but our hopes were up and then they weren't.  It was almost harder than the miscarriage.  At least we knew the miscarriage was going to happen from the get go.

We survived a change in Paul's job and his traveling out of town once a month.

We survived having two 21 year olds live with us for 5 weeks.  You will know you are middle aged if you ever have 21 years old live with you. 

We survived a road trip to Washington DC and to Buffalo, NY/Toronto Canada. 

We survived 2 months of non stop company.  Luckily, Jenn loves to have company and Paul tolerates people fairly well.  haha

We survived a rough first trimester.  Jenn loves morning sickness!

We survived Jenn's surgery to have a cerclage placed.  You can read about her first cerclage here.  I guarentee it's worth reading.

We survived Jenn and Emma spending 2 weeks in Florida. 

We survived the end of the world.  I mean so did everyone else, but hey why not!

2013 promises to be another exciting year with a baby due in May and a move sometime in June or July.  We don't know where yet, but will find out between January and March where we are headed. 

God bless and may your holidays be merry and bright!

Love, Jenn, Paul, Emma, and baby #2