Merry Christmas Friends and Family!
It’s Christmas 2009 at the Swifts, and for the first time we do not have a new pregnancy, baby, or move to announce. We are still in Lake Placid, Florida enjoying living one street away from Christy’s parents, and we have made friends with some other young families in our neighborhood and at church.
Mark became a casualty of the recession in June, but is now working as an independent contractor for a company called Arise. He trains home-based customer service reps over the web—another work-from-home job, which is great because we get to see lots of him. Mark is also Young Men’s President at our ward and got to join the youth and chaperones on a tubing trip down the Itchetucknee River. They teased him about sleeping in the Honda Element with air conditioning, but, hey, a Canadian can’t be expected to go camping in the summer in Florida without intervention!
Christy has kept herself busy this year taking care of the girls, developing her freelance writing career, and becoming a Highlands County Master Gardener. She now writes for 2 web clients as well as the local newspaper on a regular basis. She got to cover the Heartland Idol competition and even go up in a hot air balloon for the Balloon Festival. Who knew writing for the local paper had such perks? The vegetable garden has been a bit of a disappointment—too hot and too much rain, but the lettuce and eggplant seem to be thriving this time of year.
Kira will be turning 5 in February and will start kindergarten in the fall. She learned to swim in a matter of 2 weeks this summer during swim lessons. She is also learning to read thanks to Hooked on Phonics, and recently began writing words, spelling them as she sees fit. It’s so exciting to see her growing and developing! She learned to pump her legs on the swing, loves to climb, and made her first best friend, Natalie. Our sometimes serious/sometimes silly little sweetheart is still long and lean, and loves going to Disney World to ride the Goofy’s Barnstormer roller coaster. She’s also a great (most of the time) big sister to little Ocean.
Ocean, who will be 3 on Valentine’s Day, would be going to kindergarten in the fall, too, if she could. She does kindergarten-level academic activities along with her sister, loves making up rhymes, and recently learned to hop on one foot. She loves making up silly songs, repeating things we tell her, and doing whatever Kira is doing. She does not like roller coasters, but did remark once on the bus from the hotel to the Magic Kingdom: “This is the best ride ever!” The two girls play so well together now—sometimes they’ll spend hours with their Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Ponies, and Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Who knew it could be this great?
We also adopted a new member to the family—a black kitten named (by Kira) Cutie Kitty. This kitten was found by Mark in the vacant lot next door with an injury on her chin that we discovered was due to being thrown out of a moving vehicle. While we never thought we’d be a cat owning family due to allergies (Mark, Christy and Kira), somehow this cat doesn’t seem to bother us too much, and since we couldn’t find her another home, we kept her! Aside from the biting, scratching, destroying of Christmas tree ornaments, and unwrapping of presents under the tree, Cutie Kitty really is a nice little cat.
This summer we had the chance to visit the family in Sault Ste Marie including a side trip to Ottawa to see some of our good friends. We miss you all! We also maxed out our season passes to Disney World with lots of Mickey Mouse hugs, trips to all 4 major parks, and a nice collection of Disney jibbitz on our Crocs.
The year ended sadly with the passing of Christy’s grandmother. We were thankful, however, that we were close enough to be able to see her and visit with her before she died, and to attend her funeral.
Here’s wishing everyone a healthy, safe, and positive New Year and beyond.
Love,
Mark, Christy, Kira and Ocean
