Christmas 2006

ThomasKids.com Christmas 2006 Letter

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2006

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas One and All!

Hope this year’s missive finds everyone healthy and content. It has been another busy year in the Thomas household (which I’m sure is no different for all of you!) The time seems to go by in the blink of an eye! As I reviewed our year, I was surprised by how many family adventures we had.

We took the kids to Big Bear in January and got everyone (except me!) up on skis. It’s amazing how quickly the kids take to the sport. We ventured all the way to Anaheim (humor) in July to attend the Catholic Family Conference. It was a wonderfully renewing weekend for all of us. The next week, we took off for Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia. We had our CFM Summer National Board Meeting in Virginia, so decided to make it a family vacation, and did DC in July – HOT AND HUMID – doesn’t say enough to describe the weather! But I think the kids were most impressed with our Nation’s Capitol. We also took our annual pilgrimage to Palm Desert in August for swimming and relaxing family fun.

Danny’s big news is another new job! Well, not really, but Mpower Communications was bought by Telepacific Communications, so he had to get new business cards again! His offices moved from Anaheim to downtown Los Angeles. So he went from a view of Angel Stadium, to a view of Dodger Stadium (from the 49th floor!) The plus of the new job is he can work from his home office a lot more, sometimes 4 days a week. He is still very busy with the St. Lawrence Parish Council, as well as the Parishioners Federal Credit Union Board. He has joined the Torrance Chamber of Commerce, as well as many networking groups, to help with contacts for his job. Needless to say, he is has a very hectic schedule! But he has been very good about reserving his weekends for family time!

Shannon, now 11 years old, is still our most “involved” child! She keeps adding new things to her activities list, but doesn’t want to give anything up. She is still playing soccer and basketball, went back to softball last spring (her team won first place!), took sailing lessons again in the summertime, and is still Irish Dancing. She performed in the National Championships in July in San Diego with 7 other girls on an 8-hand team. It was a good experience for her to see the high level of competition she has to look forward to! She has also continued with Junior Girl Scouts, altar serving, and was able to serve as a “junior” counselor this summer at St. Lawrence’s Bible Camp. She also squeezes in as many sleepovers as her parents will allow. She entered the world of orthodontics in November, and has a new “tin grin!” And, as always, made Honor Roll again at school (5th grade).

Steven, 8 years old, is a much more at-home kind of kid than his sister. He likes to play sports, and we will be attending the regional soccer playoffs with his team this January! He also played basketball and baseball again this year and had a lot of fun with his buddies. He participated in Cub Scouts last school year with Danny, but decided to “take this year off”. He has discovered “skating” (skateboarding) and really enjoys this new pastime. He did take swimming lessons this summer, and seemed to enjoy it more than in the past. And, of course, there are still many Legos in his life! He is also doing extremely well in 2nd grade this year.

Colleen, already 6 years old, has really matured in this last year. She started Kindergarten at St. Lawrence and is loving it. (YES – all three kids at ONE school, finally!) She is a very “motherly” little girl, always looking out for everyone else. She is still a wonderfully musical child, and took piano lessons this year. She also played her first season of soccer this fall and surprised me by being much more aggressive than I imagined! She also took swimming lessons in the summer, and is doing Indian Princess’ with Danny. She also performed in the St. Lawrence Variety Show with the girls in her class to “California Girls”. It was precious.

Well, that leaves me. I was once again in charge of our largest school fundraiser in May. It turned out to be a wonderful evening, and I have retired on a high note! I am still busy at school volunteering, however. I am Parent Board Chairperson this year, and also Room Mom for the Kindergarten class. I work in the school library for Steven and Colleen’s classes and work in Colleen’s classroom, also. I joined the Parish Choir this fall (something I have wanted to do for a long time!), and also joined a book club that meets about once a month. I managed to sail only a few times this year, doing the His N’ Hers series with my Dad. Now that I have all the kids in school full time, I joined the YMCA and have been working out about 3 days a week. I traveled to Miami in February for our CFM Winter Board Meeting. I have also been thinking about going back to work part time (tuition for 3 kids!), and took the CBEST in October to enable me to begin substitute teaching. That is a New Year’s resolution!

Everyone in our families is doing great. No big news to report, just everyone doing well. I hope the same can be said of all of you and yours.

May 2007 bring you all the joy and blessings you richly deserve.

God bless you all and God bless America!

Noreen, Danny, Shannon, Steven, & Colleen

(Shasta and Shadow, too)