Happy New Year, E-style.

These are the snail mail New Year's greetings we sent this year, but I thought I would grace our blog with the same greetings. So if you did not receive this via USPS, (which is probably 'cause I see you frequently, or your not in my extended family, or I don't have your address) then here you are, my friends:

Though our greetings to you have come after December,
Don’t, for a moment, think we didn’t remember
To send you our love and best wishes this season.
Frankly, I wish I could think of a good reason…

Our late-ness is really just ill-planning and such.
And, honestly, you should have assumed as much
As adding child number four has thrown us for a loop.
Gavin Benjamin came last January—oh, dear. Did you miss that too?

That’s right. No letter last Christmas either.
We were packing and moving—actually, I was doing neither.
I was laying around incubating, waiting for doctor’s clearance.
Baby waited ‘til we were in our new house, then quickly made his appearance.

It’s been a great year which included new church callings.
I’ve learned to sit in the church pews alone, keeping children from bawling
As they see their darling Daddy, up on the stand.
We are thankful for his service to God and Man.

New schools for our children have been just right.
Paige, our pianist, is any teacher’s delight.
Trevor loves his preschool and excels at numbers and rhymes.
Preston’s preschool experience has him giddy all-the-time!

Steve still helps people “account” for their money.
He’s good at it, too—(P.S. Let’s pray for the economy.)
What do I do, you wonder? You ask?
I am “the Mom”—no more is needed than that.

Our days are blissfully filled with swordfights and singing,
(Though, evenly balanced with real-fights and food-slinging.)
Oh, there’s make-believe with pirates and princesses fair,
And anything that goes “Vroom!” or “Matey, ahoy there!”

This season we’ve remembered the birth and life of our Lord.
How thankful we are to know of His word.
Now, another year comes, allowing us to anew
Our commitments, our goals—it’s a chance to review.

My words have run out
No more rhymes here.
Oh, wait! This will work:
“Happy New Year!”

Love,
Steve, Lisa, Paige, Trevor, Preston, & Gavin Owens
January 2009