Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

These are the two pictures we sent out on our Christmas cards this year.

No, the dog didn't make it in the shot this year!

{See some of her outtakes here.}

What started as a post on how to write a Christmas letter that people would read, it turned into a week long of sharing my witty husband's past years Christmas letters.

I continue that tradition, and leave you with our 2014 Christmas letter.

                                                                          Welcome to the 14^th edition of the Teodoro Family Christmas Letter, an annual missive in which we attempt to captivate readers with tales from our past year, and hope for nothing more than a photo card featuring children we’ve never met in return.  This year we took a couple of mini-vacations to Lake Roosevelt and Whistler, but the highlight was our two weeks spent in some of the finest fly-over states America has to offer, in what we refer to as our Great Midwest Tour.  After flying into Indianapolis, we drove our rented minivan 1500 miles through Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, spending our Summertime journey visiting family and reminiscing with friends, breaking the monotony with stops at every restaurant along the way that sparked up nostalgia for Rachel’s youth.

Mike had another productive year, still gainfully employed with xxxxxxxxx, albeit in a different division then he has worked for the past decade.  He spends his days designing machinery, and his spare time holding out hope that his group will soon learn the name of their new department, which to date they haven’t been told.  This year Mike also renovated Rachel’s walk-in closet, took her on a weeklong trip to Mexico for their 15^th anniversary, and continues (to hear him tell it) to be an all-around great guy.  Those searching for the less-than-rosy news will be pleased to hear that in January, when Mike took Owen tubing in the mountains with his Cub Scout pack, they were often forced to hike up the steep hillside instead of waiting in huge lines for the (apparently) confusing self-service rope tow, behind people who would clearly not be able to find their way off of a broken escalator.  So there’s that.

Rachel continues writing a blog [holy-craft.com] to share her craftiness with her thousands of followers, and is quickly becoming one of those people that throw around fancy terms like unique visitors, page views, and other internet-y sounding words, whether or not she knows what they mean.  She also organized the 3^rd annual Teodoro Turkey Trot 5k, complete with t-shirts she designed for the nearly 40 participants.  Rachel remains very active in the children’s schools, recently completing her first term as PTA president, and (to the delight of the community, it seems) did not seek reelection for what has to be one of the world’s most thankless jobs.  Actually, a thankless job would have been preferable to the steady stream of criticism and denigration she got for her efforts, but we digress.  

Aidan is now 15 years old and in the 10^th grade, and continues to make a name for himself on the drum kit as one of the few sophomores selected to play in his school’s top-level jazz band.  He also drums with various other groups, from the church worship team and youth group to bands he joins for specific competitions.  Suffice it to say, it isn’t uncommon for us to catch a glimpse of a guitar player or two dragging their massive amps down the hallway, minutes before his latest band incarnation attempts to blow the doors off of our house.  This past April, Aidan had the opportunity to serve in the Washington State House of Representatives, and had a blast there in his weeklong stint as a page.  Most importantly to him, however, he was finally able put all his hours of X-Box racing to good use when he got his driver’s permit, and is now suddenly begging to chauffeur us everywhere we go.

Isabella is an 11 year old 6^th grader, now midway through her first year of middle school.  She still shares two main passions with her mother, crafts and warm weather, and was lucky enough to enjoy the latter while joining her best friend Grace on a trip to Hawaii.  As the second girl across the finish line in the Turkey Trot, she clearly remains speedy, and as such decided to join her school’s track team this year.  However, besides the rain, the monsoons that seemed to arrive with every track meet brought with them another unwelcome visitor, the return of Little Miss Sunshine.  Those who remember her previous refusals to play soccer in the rain won’t be surprised to hear that the same attitude has followed her to the track.  We’re just thankful that her gymnastics is indoors.

Our little Owen is now 8 years old and in the 3^rd grade, and continues in his attempt to join every possible activity.  He plays xylophone in the Orff Orchestra, rides in his school’s Unicycle Club (think biker gang, with less wheels), swims, plays soccer, and is game for anything else we’ll let him try.  In spite of his long list of activities, Owen’s biggest adventure of the year came during our trip to Whistler.  We realized there was a problem when, as the last people left in line to pick up their kids after ski-school, the head instructor arrived and asked if we were Owen’s parents.  Apparently he had gotten separated from his group, and while they were pretty sure Owen wasn’t lost, they didn’t technically know where he was, either.  As she returned inside to continue making phone calls on his behalf, and we stood out in the cold, attempting not to descend into a mad panic, guess who rolled up to the door in a TAXI?  Ever the resourceful young man, after losing his group he simply joined another (which happened to be based on the other side of the mountain) and an instructor there secured him a ride back, none the worse for wear.

            With that, we would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2014.