Keeping Up With The Joneses

Today's Holidailies prompt: "Write your own version of those holiday newsletters that people send to friends and relatives at this time of year."

(Initially, I was going to write a "real" one.  Then this happened.)

Seasons Greetings from the Jones family!

2007 has been a wonderful year for the five of us.  This year, Joe got another promotion.  For the fifth year in a row!  It was an incredible surprise to us all.  Joe is really enjoying the extra responsibilities, and he's lucky enough to still be able to leave work early enough every night to continue his volunteer work.  Joe spent the summer coaching little Joey's tee-ball team to the regional championships!  He's never been so proud.  Joe is still getting up early in the mornings to run before work.  He ran a whopping seven marathons this year!  He's not won one yet, but it's always a possibility.  He came in third in his age group in two of the marathons this summer.  We have his medals framed on the wall and as you can see, we have enclosed photos from each of his races.

Jane's design business continues to flourish.  She has been featured in multiple magazines this year.  We have attached scans of the articles.  The whole family is always so excited to see Jane and her work get all of this publicity.  This next year, she has been invited to re-design three American embassies.  She will be traveling all over the world in 2008, but we will wait until next year's letter to tell you all about those.

Little Joey is currently in the third grade, and his teacher says he is the smartest, most polite little boy she has ever met.  Of course, we expect nothing less from our darling son.  We're still considering bumping him ahead a grade, as he continues to excel above all the rest of his classmates, but we just don't want to force him to grow up too fast.  He is currently playing soccer, and his team is undefeated.  Our Joey is the goalie, and he has yet to let a goal past him.  In his free time, Joey has become somewhat of a Jeopardy addict, and more often than not, he gets the answers right before the players!  Such a smart little boy.

Our darling Janie is soaring in her first grade class.  She does her homework every evening without any prodding, and she always comes home with bright shiny stars on her work.  Janie is our budding musician.  She plays the violin, the harp, the piano, and the trumpet, and she is amazing on each of them.  She has begun composing pieces that she performs for not only the family but for her school as well.  She also tap dances and she and her little partner won a state-wide competition. 

Last, but not least, our most successful family member, our Bichon Frise, Star.  We hope that you all saw Star on the National Dog Show this Thanksgiving.  He won Best in Breed, but didn't quite make Best in Class this year.  He was a bit disappointed, but he is still young, so next year, we fully expect him to bring home Best in Show.  Just watch!

We wish you all the happiest of holidays and hope that everyone has had as wonderful a year as we have.  Peace and blessings in the new year!