Christmas 2012

2012: Street Fights and Other Challenges

For those who may not remember, I spend 4 hours every Tuesday night taking karate classes with my son Cal. One night as we were leaving class, he turned to me and asked “So dad… How do you think we would do in a street fight?” A lot was going through my head and I knew I needed to answer carefully but unambiguously. I stopped, looked him straight in the eye, and said “Cal, I think we would get our asses kicked.”

You see, every year is full of challenges and this year was no exception. I won’t bore you with a listing. That would be neither interesting nor entertaining. But this episode represents a microcosm of our family life. The challenge was not so much in the prospects of a street fight, but rather it is the challenge of parenthood. You see, Cal takes karate so he can learn self-confidence and how to protect himself. It’s our responsibility that he thinks very carefully how he uses these skills and to put him on a path that leads to self-awareness and wisdom.

When your kids are young, you view them as an extension of yourselves. We are now at the point where our oldest will be going to college in a little over two years from now and the younger two are not far behind. The focus is less and less on the kids as an extension of us, and more about preparing them for life independent of us. There is a sense of accomplishment as we see our kids go through this process, but there is also a mixture of sadness. I have vivid memories of the kids when they were younger and I know those days are fleeting.

But not all of our challenges are so serious. More recently, I was presented with a challenge from the great Rita Ford, one of my sisters-in-law. Her challenge… To use the word millihelen somewhere in my yearly letter. For those not aware, millihelen refers to Helen of Troy who had “the face that launched a thousand ships.” A millihelen is a unit of measurement equal to the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship. So, it remains to be seen how well we are rising to the challenge of parenthood, but at least for Rita’s challenge, I win. Now, the family update....

Margaret, our oldest, is now sixteen and is a sophomore at Grapevine High School. She continues to take Choir and is in the Women’s concert choir. She also started taking theater classes this year. She is doing reasonably well in school, though there is always room for improvement. In the spring, she was in a private production of Annie where she had several parts. This fall, she played a seagull in the high school production of The Little Mermaid Junior. Over the summer she started driving with a learners permit. We are working on her full license. Please pray for us and all the other drivers in the Grapevine community.

Our middle child, Cal, is now in seventh grade. Unfortunately, the litany of broken bones continues. In May it was his right foot and in August, it was his right wrist. This brings us to 6 bone breaks in nearly 3 years. Oddly enough, none of these breaks have been in karate class where he has recently attained his purple belt. Cal did join the football team this year, but it resulted in the broken wrist. Cal would like to inform all that his glorious, but brief, football career is over.

Charlie, our youngest, is now a nine year old in fourth grade at Dove Elementary. He decided to not do student council this year, but he has still in the talented and gifted program at school. He has signed up for choir and has a part in the winter play. We are all looking forward to seeing that. In karate, he has just attained the rank of second-degree junior blue belt. He is also still active in scouting where he is a Webelo in Pack 300.

Laura continues to teach two days a week at the Saint Francis preschool program. She has scaled back on her volunteering this year, but is still active as the environmental coordinator at Dove elementary school and the treasurer for the Cub Scout pack. She also finished writing a book on environmentalism and the Catholic Church and presented it to a few publishers. For those interested, you can follow her blog at www.greenforgod.blogspot.com. She continues to be very busy.

As for me, not much has changed. I still work for a company that manufactures industrial robots for manufacturing. They are based in California and I have worked from home for the last 6 years.

Have a peaceful holiday season.      Cyle, Laura, Margaret, Cal, Charlie and Mickey (the dog)