the Haser version of a Christmas letter

I used to be really dedicated to writing down in my journal all my favorite strange stories that happen at Woodlands- at least for the first year or so that I worked here. I haven't done that lately, and it makes me sad b/c they're so fun to go back and look at :) So here's one I want to save so I can look back and laugh later :)

We had a bunny rabbit donated to the Activity Room (it only lasted a few days before someone else decided to take it home- but that's another story). Anyway, so we were introducing our sweet new long-earred friend to the residents, and it just happened to have the same name as one of the residents. After a while of sitting there quietly, this lady- who can get quite cranky and bossy at times- said,
"Joy, I don't appreciate you naming that cat after me."
I explained, "L, I did not name the animal. And besides, it's not a cat, it's a bunny."
"Well, what's the difference between a cat and a bunny?"
I didn't really know where to go from here.

OK, now onto the purpose of this blog. I reached my goal of finishing all of our almost 40 Christmas cards this year on December 1st!!! Not super impressive, but I do like to write a few sentences to each friend/family to personalize it- which is more time-consuming than just signing our names- so that makes my goal sound a little less lame :) At least, I thought I accomplished my goal, until we received a few cards from people that we didn't have a card for- and now we need to add a few more names to our list. And there were about 3 more people that I somehow had forgotten that we just added. But, as for the original list, I did finish on time and can therefore mark that off my list :) Next year I may even try to make some of our Christmas cards- like the adorable ones below.

It also made me start thinking about how fun it would be to write one of those Christmas update letters. You know the ones- from families who are incredible overachievers and outrageously motivated and accomplished- so they have a lot that happens throughout the year tell everyone else about. I am not in any of those categories for sure. I realize some people do live very far away from all their loved ones, and this is their only way of keeping everyone up on what's new in their lives. But it made me think, "What the heck would Nick and I write about?" And then it made me laugh. Here's a list of some things I think would be in our Christmas letter :)

Dear friends and family (most of which we see at least on a weekly basis since Huntington is so small),

2009 has been an exciting year at the Haser home!!
-We have attended enough weddings this year to almost average out to 1 per week.
-Joy racked up about $25 in fines at the library (at a rate of 10 cents per day, this is pretty impressive.) But thanks to free fine day in November, she got it all cleared for free!!!!
-Copper has only torn up 4 sets of window blinds this year.
-Nick has hardly received any speeding tickets in '09. And the points on his driver's license used to be in the double digits, and are now down to about 4!
-Joy has left her entire set of keys hanging overnight in the keyhole of the front door only twice this year.
-We've decided that when April 2011 comes around (after Nick's 30th bday), we'll start talking about the idea of having a baby. Maybe. Possibly. This does not mean we'll begin trying. Let me be clear- this is just when the discussions will start.
-Neither of us ran out of gas while driving this whole year- yes!!!

Maybe when we have kids or move away from Huntington, then we'll have more exciting stuff to write about and will understand this whole Christmas letter concept. But this is all I got for now :) Merry Christmas from the Hasers!!!

(One last note: I was getting ready to write my Christmas card to Oswaldo and Christine, when I found out that Christine is no longer one of my World Vision children :( WVision wrote and told me that her family moved out of the area that WVision works with, and they have no way of keeping in contact with her or supporting her anymore. I'm so sad that I will no longer be able to correspond with her or know how she's doing. But now they sent me a new child to sponsor in her place named Merete from Ethiopia- so I'll try to write him every 3 months since I can't contact Christine anymore. It still makes me a little sad that I won't know how she is- but I'll just rest in knowing that her heavenly Father loves her more than I could even begin to, and I know her future is in His hands.)