Happy New Year! 2013

Merry Christmas 2012!

We had one beautiful snowfall during the holidays!

Dear Family and Friends,

A lot has happened since my last blog. Christmas has come and gone, and we have welcomed in a new year. We hope that you all enjoyed a nice holiday break.

Clara's Christmas portrait

Overall we had a very nice Christmas and New Year. My parents were here for a couple of weeks, and we also enjoyed visits from my aunt and uncle from Michigan, my cousin from Massachusets and her husband, my cousin from Texas and my aunt and uncle from Virginia. It was great to see everyone. We missed seeing Joey's family, but we were able to have some nice Skype sessions. It's not the same as being together, but Skype really is a wonderful thing when you have to be apart. 

Clara was much more aware of Christmas this year. She knew that Santa would be coming down the chimney, and she would say "ho ho ho" whenever she saw a picture of him. I think the true story of Christmas is still over her head. When we ask her where God lives, she points up and says "sky," but that's about the extent of it so far. We had a beautiful Christmas Eve service at Calvary Church; it was even snowing a little bit during the service. Joey, of course, led the music, and I played my violin on prelude music, as well as a descant on "Silent Night," which my dad wrote. The church was full, and it was a beautiful service. I always find the late-night Christmas Eve service to be so magical.

Joey and I won 1st and 2nd place in the Calvary Church "Ugly Christmas Sweater" staff party!

Clara was not interested in sitting in Santa's lap, so I had to help out.

Santa did come visit Stonington and left a lot of nice things for Clara. Unfortunately, we were also visited by illness. Shortly after my dad arrived, he came down with a cold. He started to feel worse and worse and complained of difficulty breathing. At that point we insisted that he visit the ER, and it's a good thing we did, because he was diagnosed with the early stages of pneumonia. He was put on antibiotics and slowly, over the course of his visit, started to feel better. After the new year Clara, Joey and I developed colds. Clara and Joey had relatively mild colds, but mine turned into some type of stomach upset which left me unable to eat and exhausted for several days. We are all feeling much better now and are hoping to keep well. The amount of flu going around this year is pretty scary. We are washing our hands a lot and trying to stay home more and avoid crowded places. We hope that you have not been touched with illness, especially the flu. We are praying for my brother, sister-in-law and their three children in Wisconsin, because all three children have the flu right now. We hope that they do not suffer too much, and that they recover quickly.

Family

Santa's little helper

Clara with her Godparents

Joey and I are back to working, performing and teaching. Joey broke his toe and sliced his finger over Christmas break. He tripped on a rug in our hallway and somehow broke his toe, and he sliced his finger while preparing his annual New Year's Eve fondue dinner. Fortunately, both the toe and the finger seem to be healing ok, but it was a little scary since we rely on both his fingers and his toes for our livelihood!

"Is Santa there?"

The holidays are exhausting!

Clara is growing and changing all of the time. She loves to learn. She recognizes and can say all of her alphabet letters and she can count to 10. She talks a lot and knows many words. She has started using two and three word sentences such as "Mommy up please" and "cracker on please." "Cracker on please" means "turn the Nutcracker ballet DVD on please" We hear that multiple times a day, since dancing to the Nutcracker is still her favorite activity. The first thing she asks for in the morning is "tutu on please" because she is ready to dance. As you can see, she is very good about saying "please." "Thank you" is a little bit more difficult to say, but we try to encourage it. She is such a happy girl and has a really silly sense of humor. She likes to make faces in order to make people laugh. We have so much fun with her.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Ripka!

Thank you Santa!

Well, that's the news for now. We hope you have a happy and healthy 2013!

Until next post,

Joey, Erin and Clara

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.

 Laura Ingalls Wilder