This Sunday I came home from church and wrote our holiday letter. In all the years we’ve been married, Abe and I have never sent out a holiday letter. The first year we sent out individual, hand-written cards. Actually, before we started dating, we got to know each other by getting together and writing out holiday cards. So we started out strong! …And then experienced a six year fizzle.
So anyhoo, now our letter is all typed and ready to go, six months early. There is definitely an aspirational quality to its content since half of the year hasn’t actually happened yet. I plan on deleting all of the fiction once I know how the year actually played out.
Abe fasted today and is stressed out of his mind. This next week is the last week of the quarter for him, which means he has to hit quota by Friday. The big deal that he has been chasing all quarter got snagged in legal last week, meaning if there’s no quick resolution (which it’s looking like there won’t be–in fact, it might even die in legal), then he will miss his quota by a long shot. Abe is basically in a state of panic. I wish there were more I could do, but I do pray for him.
Mary fell asleep after church today. Someone, either my mom or Abe, slipped a towel under her so she wouldn’t pee all over her bed while napping. I was amused and took a photo.
Also, Abe rallied from his sorrows and conducted science experiments with the girls this evening. They used ground red cabbage dye to figure out what household liquids were acids and which were bases. The girls were entranced. Mary was convinced he was performing magic tricks.
Also–how could I forget?? Lydia spent most of the afternoon PLAYING WITH OUR NEIGHBOR’S DOG!!!!! If you know Lyida, you know she is scared out of her mind of dogs. She has been bitten (nipped, whatever) twice, and when she sees a dog–any dog–she literally goes screaming in the other direction. We have talked about therapy because we are so afraid she will actually run into a busy street someday without thinking. Her capacity to reason seems to shut off at the sight of a dog and she enters the most atavistic arena of cognition. Which is to say, basically cognition doesn’t happen.
Anyway, we were all shocked when Eli convinced Lydia to not only pet his dog, but to spend hours playing with it. We praised her up and down repeatedly for the rest of the evening when we found out. And we sincerely hope this is the start of a new phase for Lydia–one in which she can still be herself around dogs!!