Whew! What a year!
This February Ben and I won the “Cutest Newlyweds of the
Southeast” contest for the ninth year in a row, even though we have only been
married for seven years – guess they really
love us! LOL! Congrats to us, Shmoopie!
This summer we enrolled Norah in Spanish camp, and while she is still struggling with the subjunctive tense, we believe that with a little more practice, she will be ready for the AP Spanish Exam in the spring. She will be a little behind the rest of her age group, but like they say, better late than never!
We tried to find a summer camp for Chris, but as we looked
through the local offerings, we saw that nothing really fit with his
personality and skill level, so we started our own in our on-site rec center.
We had such a great time hosting a dozen area children as we learned how to
build our own jet packs and develop other means of both simulated and actual
flight. As we developed the curriculum for the school, we actually received a
call from a Marvel representative who came to take notes for the final edits of
this summer’s blockbuster hit, The
Avengers. If you watch the credits, you’ll see us mentioned, and a big
family photograph of us with the Iron Man suit right above the MPAA seal. Good
times.
As if this weren’t enough, in October I received a call from
Martha Stewart, requesting to photograph my home (I am known for my interior
decorating, although usually the interest is just regional, rather than
national), and man was I quaking in my UGGs! I mean, that lady is just about
the QUEEN of decorating! We had also just finished our yearly kitchen remodel
just a few weeks prior, so I was still finding plaster dust in the crevices of
the shelves in the cabinet where I keep my collection of seasonal cake plates.
Imagine if Martha had seen that! How embarrassing!
But the photo shoot went off without a hitch, and we
actually made the cover two months in a row (“I just love what you’ve done with
ecru too much to limit you to one month!” is what Martha said, and who were we
to contradict her? LOL!). That same month we adopted our fantastic rescue dog
Gunther. We got his DNA tested and it turns out he is descended from dogs kept
by the royal families of France, Spain, Belgium AND the Netherlands! Who knew!
He is doing agility and herding training, and he is quickly advancing through
the levels of flyball championship – time to start saving those frequent flyer
miles and searching for dog-friendly accommodations in New York City for the
National Championship early next year! What a crazy puppy. He brings so much
warmth and love into our lives.
This Christmas I am soooo busy, sewing and canning and
baking and gutting the three back bedrooms in order to create that art and
writing studio that I’ve always wanted. I have an agent and buyer for my novel
even though it isn’t written yet, so after New Year’s I really need to get
busy! LOL! The publisher sent me a stack of a dozen different possibilities for
the cover art, and man, there is so much talent out there! It is so hard to
decide!
At the end of the year, I am glad to look back and see such
an average, happy year. Some years you do so much you can hardly remember it,
but this year we really took it slow and just let it all sink in. These are the
golden years, after all, and there’s no point in living life if you can’t stop
and smell the heirloom roses that we just planted all along the front fence of
our estate. Even though it’s freezing outside, they just won’t stop blooming!
LOL!
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Love,
The Nash Family
Slacker. :-)
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