Merry Christmas!!!

I'm obviously behind on my game this year....I normally have my Christmas Cards sent out on the day after Thanksgiving (or nearly, at least), but Christmas is tomorrow and I'm just sitting down to write our now! Yikes!

Of course it's due to procastination on my part, but I'm blaming it primarily upon the inability to come up with a good idea. You see, I loathe the typical "look at how wonderfully perfect our family is and read about all the many amazing things we've accomplished this year" letters that seem to go around.**(please see end note) Not that I'm not excited for everyone's prosperity, it just gets a little old after awhile, and I start feeling more like a dean on an admissions committee than a friend interested in how her long-distance friends are faring. So, when the Mr. and I were married, we decided to send out creative, (somewhat) unique letters, to get our point across without bragging all about our wonderful selves (even though we know we're wonderful, of course.) :)

So far, we have tried the following:

2001 - Wrote our own lyrics to the tune of "Good King Wenceslas"
2002 - Listed tidbits starting with the letters in MERRY CHRISTMAS
2003 - Crossword puzzle
2004 - "Quickie" Letter about how not much had changed.....except our impending parenthood!
2005 - A letter in Angel's words
2006 - Calendar of Important Dates that year
2007 - "MasterCard Commercial" style letter; all about our 'numbers' that year (how many miles the Mr. ran, how many diapers I'd changed, etc.)
2008 - A plain-old-boring letter {Sigh.} Bear in mind, though, that my baby was only 1 month old at Christmas, so I was slightly preoccupied.

Unfortunately, this year, thanks to residency essays, primary sharing times and preschool lessons, my creative juices are currently spent. So, without further adieu, here's our Family's 2009 version:

This year we're "Going Green" and sending out e-cards to preserve our environment!

.................................................................................................................................................

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has been INCREDIBLE!



Investing lots of time and effort in learning the practice of medicine. (The Mr.)
Never wanting to miss a moment with our kids!
Counting our blessings: each other, beautiful children, wonderful family and friends, a great place to live, our health, our educational opportunities....and too many more to list!
Recognizing the Lord's hand in our lives every day!
Enjoying preschool, learning to read, write, and developing a love for learning! (Angel and Grins)
Developing her own little personality while she RUNS around exploring (translation: gets into everything)!!! (Wiggles)
Interviewing for Internal Medicine Residency (The Mr.)
Blogging about our adventures as often as we can. (The Mrs.)
Loving everything about our life!
Excitedly anticipating what lies ahead (moving, beginning residency, starting a "new chapter" in our lives....)

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!

P.S. Since our family has moved, we wanted to be sure you had our new contact information....but write it in pencil since we'll be moving again in May (when the Mr. Graduates and we move anywhere from Hawaii to Maine to anywhere in between.) We'll send an update in March when we learn where that will be, but until then, we wish you PEACE, JOY and the reminder of our Savior and His love for us all....this holiday season and always!

All our love,
The Buchanan Family


**I am in no way implying that "regular" Christmas letters are bad/boring/unappreciated/etc!!! I LOVE hearing from friends and I don't think many of my own personal friends - such as readers of my blog - have bad letters at all! I am just afraid my own Christmas letters would turn into a little brag session if I didn't try to do something different, since I'm so proud of my kids (of course.) So, pardon my annoyance at some Christmas letters - it was certainly not directed at, nor does it apply to - anyone reading this!!! :)