Merry Christmas from the Cranneys!
When I asked Stephen for input for our Christmas letter this year he wondered if we should even send an update. For the first year in our marriage we have no new babies, jobs, degrees, or states of residence which may make this our most stable/boring year of adulthood yet. Lame! Luckily the boys have been keeping us from having to download solitaire on our phone just yet, and we’re enjoying our time in Texas.
Joshua Lev (3) is our charmer and gold loving pirate. All that is sparkly or sweet has his attention. He literally has nightmares about cookies being stolen from him which we know for a fact since he still somehow finds his way into our bed in the middle of the night.
Simeon (5) can imagine himself as a British solider or lightsaber wielding Jedi for hours on end. He sometimes can't finish a book or movie because of his need to pretend play it out. I never thought I would regret wrestling scholarships being virtually non-existent until I saw Simeon take down his older brother with a Full Nelson--to think of the future he might have had . . .
Christian (7) is our nature child. He begs to skip parks with playgrounds to find forests and river areas. I have nearly daily arguments about his use of sticks in the house, and next year's Christmas presents may simply be a stash of sticks, nuts, and rocks. If he's not begging to go outside he's pleading to listen to an audiobook and I have to insist he's got to turn it off for meal times. (He can read fine, but listening allows him to fight with his stick and listen at the same time).
Mid-process on several job applications, Stephen has yet to find out if he is to continue this oasis of academic postdoc research with the freedom to study whatever enters his mind, or if he's going to join the rest of his cohort, settle down and get a job. His time here has been productive though, and he now has about a dozen publications.
I'm enjoying the extra time I get with the boys while homeschooling for another year and expecting a baby boy this next April (got to spice up these Christmas cards somehow). Hoping to see gains in my parenting from this seeming specialization in boys we've got going on.
We hope this update finds you and yours well,
Rachel, Stephen, Christian, Simeon,
and Joshua Lev
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