2010 Christmas Letter

Our 2010 Halloween costumes (Nightmare Before Christmas).

Because you know you wanted to see them at the top of our Christmas letter.

It's been a good year for the Blood family.  We've just started our third year here in Maryland and are still loving the people and the place (much to my parents' and grandparents' dismay--they keep trying to get Jon a job in Dugway, Utah).

2010 has been quite eventful.  We kicked it off with a monster blizzard followed a few days later by another monster blizzard.  It's too bad Seth was so young at the time--he'll never remember how we dragged him around our neighborhood in our makeshift Rubbermaid 'sled'.

In May, Jon & Meg celebrated their 5th anniversary (early) with a cruise down the east coast of Mexico and the Caribbean.  Don't feel too bad for Seth--he spent the week being completely pampered by Grandma Cathy in Tucson.

And, just a week ago, we welcomed the newest member of our family: a brand new 2011 Honda Odyssey mini-van!  Meg's sister Kenna is totally scandalized that anyone would WANT a mini-van.  Not Meg!  She's wanted one from the first time she had to shove Seth into his car seat in the back of the Taurus...

Of course, our biggest event won't actually happen until a month or two into 2011.  Baby girl Sara Catherine should be making her appearance around February 11th, but the way things are going we fully expect to see her a little earlier.  (And just because I wrote that she's going to be two weeks late.)

 

 Jon officially graduated from the AMC Fellows Program in July and is now a legitimate employee of AMSAA.  He is enjoying his work and hasn't been sent on travel, much to Megan & Seth's delight.  This year he's worked on developing his talents, specifically his gardening talents, crab-grass-preventing talents, fixing-leaky-pipes talents, and, of course, his creating-monstrous-formulas-in-Excel talents.  He is still Seth's favorite toy and has introduced him to rockets and the fire-prevention sprinkles on our ceiling, both of which are now major obsessions. He's also managed to keep himself secure in his calling as ward financial clerk, thus ensuring very minimal interaction with anyone in the ward.  Perfect.

Megan  is trying to keep herself out of trouble with her husband, mother, & OBGYN by making sure she takes time to rest and doesn't try to overdo things.  Okay, that's a lie...  Between thirteen piano students and a cake decorating side business, who has time to relax?  After two years of working with the Young Women, she was released just before Thanksgiving.  It's been hard to say goodbye, but Primary chorister is not a calling that gives a girl much time to mope, especially when she's called two weeks before the Primary Program.  All spare time goes to reading, blogging, and playing with the Seth man.  House cleaning can wait until Seth is old enough to do chores.

Seth is now two years old and it shows.  Anyone who has interacted with him in the past 6 months has been issued the following command:  "Come on!  Come play (insert current obsession here)!"  Other favorites are "Mommy/Daddy, too loud!", "No!  Stop it!", and "Don't like it."  Despite what it may sound like, he really is a good-natured kid.  He loves rules and routines, just like his Daddy (okay, and Mommy, too).  He made the transition from pack-and-play to full-sized bed without any problems and has outgrown car seat #2.  Next big step?  Potty training.  Mom is SO excited to get started on that one after Christmas...



Here's to a fantastic 2011!  We'd love to have friends and family stop by--we're now professional tour guides of New York City and Washington D.C. and are working on our Philadelphia tour.  Plus, as we discovered in September, we have enough room to fit the entire Blood family into our house (and that's saying something)!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and are grateful for your love and friendship.

Love, 

The Bloods:

Jon, Megan, Seth & Baby Catherine

(all awesome pictures taken by Krystal!  prettyinpixelsphotography.blogspot.com)