Here's a little glimpse of what I may have put in the Christmas letter this year. You know if 4-page single-spaced letters were still in vogue. (they were at one point, right?)
January--We ate too much, exercised too little, and survived the ill-timed Commute-a-geddon snowstorm. With numerous tales of hellish 8+ hour commutes, we've never been so grateful to live within walking distance of the Metro.
February-- Lara has become a certifiable wintertime wimp and breaks down and buys a "happy lamp" to help cope with the dark days.
March--Our baby turned six.
Lara bores the world when she publishes a list of 101 random things about herself.
April-- After living a mere 2 hours away for 14 years, we took our first ever trip to Philadelphia during Spring Break. We had a great time seeing all the historic sites, visiting an old friend, and testing out the Philly Cheesesteaks, so I'm sure it will not take us another 14 years to get back there.
We visit a bird sanctuary in Philadelphia and see some adorable baby owls. Adam's second grade teacher has lit a bird-watching bug in us and we think it's one of the coolest parts of our trip.
Lara wakes up on her birthday to her first cold sore in several years. It was a lovely indicator of the day.
Spencer anticlimatically turns 16 and does not get his license and does not go on any dates.
May--On a rainy day drive home from dropping the kids off at school after seminary, Glen totals our 2002 Corolla. Thankfully, he is unhurt (other than his pride) and insurance pays us a mere $600 less than what we paid for it 8 years previously when we'd bought it on Ebay.
June--We replace the Corolla and with another Toyota Sienna. We figure that if we were going to replace one car, that we might as well replace the one that gets driven the most, so we now own two minivans. We have mixed feelings about the new level of nerdiness this acquisition has raised us to, but I can't deny that it's nice having Spencer doing his practice driving in a 10-year-old Sienna rather than a new (or much smaller) car.
Glen turns 40. I'd like to say that it was a fun day and that we celebrated properly, but it wasn't and we didn't. In fact, I daresay that this day easily goes into our family lore as the worst birthday in the history of mankind and that we still can't talk about it without one of us (usually both of us) getting irritated.
July--With Girls Camp, Youth Conference (Trek), EFY, and a High Adventure trip along the Appalachian Trail--it was a busy month for the teenagers of the house.
Shlepping kids to swim team and youth conference planning keep the parents hopping.
Lara starts school supply shopping for 170. It's her pet project for the elementary PTA and although it's a wildly successful fundraiser, Lara does not even consider doing it again next year.
August--We sit front and center at the Kennedy Center and watch Wicked together as a family. It was wickedly awesome.
We embark on an epic road trip--Minnesota for Lara's 20-year high school reunion and a little anecdotal swearing, North Dakota (just to say we'd been there), South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Rapid City, Island Park, Idaho/Yellowstone to stay in a family cabin, then on to Nauvoo for a mad dash tour.
We had a great time together, but we were a little disappointed to have missed the big DC earthquake. We did cut our trip short and rush back to make it back for the completely anti-climatic Hurricane Irene.
September--The kids head back to school (Spencer-11th, Cami-9th, Emma-5th, Adam-3rd, Ellie-1st) and it is the first time that Lara does not have any kids at home with her during the day!
Lara runs the Ragnar relay with 11 friends--200 miles, everyone runs 3 legs. It turns out to be a fun experience and most importantly gives Lara the bug to keep running.
Glen and Lara get called to be Stake Youth Conference Directors for summer 2012 in Palmyra, NY. We are petrified, but excited.
October--Cami runs on her high school cross country team and Lara gets teary and nostalgic for her own harrier days whenever she attends one of Cami's meets.
After months and months of listening to the soundtrack nonstop, we take the family to an amazing performance of Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center.
Afterward, Ellie can sing, "Castle on a Cloud" word-for-word, British accent and all.
November--On a long weekend, we take the entire family and go on our first youth conference scouting trip to Palmyra. It is a productive trip that gives us our first true glimpse at all that needs to be accomplished over the next several months.
Lara and Glen run the Richmond half-marathon together. Lara was left with a bruise the size of a pancake on her hip afterward, but since she's taken almost 20 minutes off her previous best time and the bruise healed quickly, it's all good.
Ellie's neurologist decides to discontinue one of her medications and almost double the amount of her other. The numbers of seizures she has on a daily basis has dropped significantly in a matter of a couple weeks. Additionally, she seems more energetic, more creative, and she's having a much easier time in math. Apparently her brain is enjoying not being interrupted every couple of minutes.
December--Lara foolishly embarks on another goody-a-day posting schedule on her recipe blog. It serves as a time-consuming distraction for her and has effectively caused the house to become a pitiful disaster and delayed her Christmas shopping to epically late proportions, but hits on the blog are at an all-time high (19,000+ hits this month), so whatevs.
Lara finds the most spectacular Christmas pajamas EVER!
Spencer gets moccasins for Christmas. They are awesome.
February-- Lara has become a certifiable wintertime wimp and breaks down and buys a "happy lamp" to help cope with the dark days.
Lara bores the world when she publishes a list of 101 random things about herself.
April-- After living a mere 2 hours away for 14 years, we took our first ever trip to Philadelphia during Spring Break. We had a great time seeing all the historic sites, visiting an old friend, and testing out the Philly Cheesesteaks, so I'm sure it will not take us another 14 years to get back there.
Lara wakes up on her birthday to her first cold sore in several years. It was a lovely indicator of the day.
Spencer anticlimatically turns 16 and does not get his license and does not go on any dates.
May--On a rainy day drive home from dropping the kids off at school after seminary, Glen totals our 2002 Corolla. Thankfully, he is unhurt (other than his pride) and insurance pays us a mere $600 less than what we paid for it 8 years previously when we'd bought it on Ebay.
Glen turns 40. I'd like to say that it was a fun day and that we celebrated properly, but it wasn't and we didn't. In fact, I daresay that this day easily goes into our family lore as the worst birthday in the history of mankind and that we still can't talk about it without one of us (usually both of us) getting irritated.
Shlepping kids to swim team and youth conference planning keep the parents hopping.
Lara starts school supply shopping for 170. It's her pet project for the elementary PTA and although it's a wildly successful fundraiser, Lara does not even consider doing it again next year.
We embark on an epic road trip--Minnesota for Lara's 20-year high school reunion and a little anecdotal swearing, North Dakota (just to say we'd been there), South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Rapid City, Island Park, Idaho/Yellowstone to stay in a family cabin, then on to Nauvoo for a mad dash tour.
September--The kids head back to school (Spencer-11th, Cami-9th, Emma-5th, Adam-3rd, Ellie-1st) and it is the first time that Lara does not have any kids at home with her during the day!
Lara runs the Ragnar relay with 11 friends--200 miles, everyone runs 3 legs. It turns out to be a fun experience and most importantly gives Lara the bug to keep running.
October--Cami runs on her high school cross country team and Lara gets teary and nostalgic for her own harrier days whenever she attends one of Cami's meets.
Afterward, Ellie can sing, "Castle on a Cloud" word-for-word, British accent and all.
November--On a long weekend, we take the entire family and go on our first youth conference scouting trip to Palmyra. It is a productive trip that gives us our first true glimpse at all that needs to be accomplished over the next several months.
Lara and Glen run the Richmond half-marathon together. Lara was left with a bruise the size of a pancake on her hip afterward, but since she's taken almost 20 minutes off her previous best time and the bruise healed quickly, it's all good.
Ellie's neurologist decides to discontinue one of her medications and almost double the amount of her other. The numbers of seizures she has on a daily basis has dropped significantly in a matter of a couple weeks. Additionally, she seems more energetic, more creative, and she's having a much easier time in math. Apparently her brain is enjoying not being interrupted every couple of minutes.
December--Lara foolishly embarks on another goody-a-day posting schedule on her recipe blog. It serves as a time-consuming distraction for her and has effectively caused the house to become a pitiful disaster and delayed her Christmas shopping to epically late proportions, but hits on the blog are at an all-time high (19,000+ hits this month), so whatevs.
toy has proved to be a fun distraction for kids and adults alike over the last two days. 
