Christmas
2003
In
December 2002, Jennifer celebrated her 18th birthday with her
friends, having pizzookies at B.J.’s.
For Christmas, Santa brought us our own karaoke machine for our house -
- so we can practice for New Year’s Eve at Mike and Sheila’s. We actually stayed up ‘til
Early
in January, we suspected something was up when Jennifer cleaned and packed her
room. A little further detective work
revealed that she was pregnant! What a
shocker!!! Ok, now, deep breath, relax,
calm down (sorry, the incident still brings back recurring trauma). Jennifer and her boyfriend Danny are
expecting their baby in September. It
looks like September’s cake week is turning into cake month. Pat and Tricia’s reaction was “you b****, you
just had to have the youngest grandchild!”
But, the race isn’t over yet . . . Tom and Pricilla are expecting their
third baby (a girl, we suspect) in September, as well. Jenn also decided she was done depending on
the dying bug or moped for transportation.
She bought a Civic from Danny’s sister.
Let’s just say that this event caused enough drama in our house that if
fully described here, would bring the Family Christmas Letter to an “R” rating. January also brings Georgia’s 4th
birthday party and Jakob’s 7th.
Jakob had a skating party, the day after we attended a school skating
party. Kim and Aunt Mary each won a
small coke from the snack bar for winning a race in their age group. Mary’s age group consisted of Damian and
Mike. Super Bowl, once again, was at our
house.
February
began with Jennifer and Danny attending the winter formal dance. They borrowed Damian’s car and took two other
couples and lived to tell about it.
Autumn is really enjoying her Brownie troop. She loves having something all her own to do,
without those bossy siblings. They earn
“try-it” badges, go on field trips and sell cookies. Lots of Cookies. Over 200 boxes earned Autumn a “cookie diva”
pin. We won’t tell how many of those
boxes ended up at our house. Lisa was on
a business trip to Las Vegas, and had some time for a visit with her Mom. Chris and Autumn’s school celebrated Loved
Ones Day, including a performance by Autumn and the rest of the second
graders. They sang My Country ‘Tis of
Thee and the State song – singing all 50 states in alphabetical order! Myford offers so many opportunities for
parent involvement. Damian attended
Donuts with Dad and Lisa volunteers to teach Art Masters in both Chris and
Autumn’s classes about once a month. On
Valentine’s Day it seemed no one wanted to revive the guys-cook dinner party
tradition. So, Damian and Lisa went out
alone to Fleming’s. That’s where we
discovered chocolate lava cake. Damian
has been trying to perfect the recipe ever since. And y’know, there’s no such thing as a bad
chocolate lava cake.
In
March Lisa went on a business trip to Denver and stayed an extra day to go
skiing at Breckenridge. Even though she
had skied twice before, she still insisted on taking an all-day beginner’s
lesson, and she successfully avoided the basket ride down the hill behind the
ski patrol. Kim attended an honor roll
dessert at her school for her first semester performance. It’s amazing how those D’s turn into B’s in
the last month of the semester! Lisa,
Damian, Mike, Mary and Joe had a bet in January to see who could lose the most
weight in 10 weeks. Between the high
stress and heavy celebrating, Lisa and Damian weren’t exactly leading on this
one. The prize went to Joe. We all celebrated with a big breakfast at
home and Fleming’s (again) for dinner and more cake. The bug has been revived and is now
transporting Damian’s Dad around town.
Lisa’s Mom came to town and we had a little gathering at Linda’s house with
us, Mom, Linda and Paul, and Pam and Ken and their kids.
In
April, Jenn went for her first ultrasound to see if the baby was a boy or a
girl. All that was determined was that
the baby was uncooperative. Kim made
secret plans to participate in a Locks of Love charity event. Locks of Love takes human hair donations and
makes wigs for children with permanent hair loss. Kim had 10 inches of her hair cut off and
donated. She was even quoted in the
Irvine World News saying “at least my hair will be pretty on someone
else.” Lisa and some of the Williams
adults went to see Les Misrables and to dinner at Maggianos. That’s a little too much culture for Damian,
so he stayed home and babysat. Chris
celebrated his birthday with a bowling party, including pizza and cake in “the
ocean room.” Chris’ birthday was on
Easter this year. So, the same day as
his party, we also hunted for eggs at church and dyed eggs at home. We ‘relaxed’ on Easter by eating all
day.
In
May we ran the cotton candy booth for Myford’s second annual carnival. Lisa, Jenn and Kim volunteered to work with
Autumn’s Brownie troop to make a Mothers Day mini photo album. Autumn celebrated her First Holy Communion
and we had lunch at B.J.’s. It was
Chris’ and the 4th graders’ turn to perform at the Open House. They sang and danced to the tunes of the
early California pioneers and gold miners.
Chris described it as the most embarrassing moment of his life. Jenn and Danny attended the proms at both of
their schools. This month, Jenn’s doctor
told us that the baby is a Boy. We
eagerly awaited the arrival of Tyler Michael.
Trish and Pat’s Rebecca celebrated her first birthday. Pretty soon, she won’t be the baby
anymore. Kim attended a PAL event at Universal
Studios. They saw a limousine that
carried either Clay Aiken or Ruben Studdard of American Idol fame. How exciting to be so close to someone
famous!
In
June, Jenn graduated with a diploma and everything. The family celebrated with a barbeque party
at our house the following weekend. That
was the same weekend as our anniversary.
Lisa surprised Damian with “we’re staying home” and ordering dinner from
Tustin Brewery. In Kim’s last week of
school the 7th grade visited Medieval Times because they were
studying the Medieval period of history.
Lisa and the family women went to Arizona for relaxation and pampering,
staying at the Fairfield Scottsdale Princess where Tom works. The lowlight of the trip was a visit to an
outdoor, self-service hick bar/hamburger joint.
This place made Dick’s Last Resort in Myrtle Beach look like a five-star
fine dining establishment. We blame
Priscilla and those pregnancy cravings.
While Lisa was away, Jenn moved out.
When Lisa said “pretend I’m there and have a good cry” Damian accused
her of being drunk.
We
celebrated July 4th at the annual Keelson Avenue block party. We have a great picture of the three pregnant
bellies – Jennifer, Tricia and Priscilla.
Kim once again attended Girl Scout camp at Camp Scherman and was in the
intermediate horse camp. We went to the
WGA family function at the Orange County fair.
Deep-fried Twinkies, dizzy rides and baby pig racing. Who could ask for more? A couple of weeks later Jeanne hosted a baby
shower for Jennifer. Jenn went home with
a Honda-full of baby boy presents. At
the end of July, Tricia and Pat welcomed their new baby, Sarah. They are now outnumbered – with brother Nick
and sister Rebecca. This one actually
looks like a Williams with dark hair and blue eyes.
In
August, Autumn was invited to the wedding of her second grade teacher, Miss
Donnelly, now Mrs. Quinn. Damian hosted
the annual fantasy football draft at our house.
One night around midnight Danny called to say, “we’re going to the
hospital.” Over 12 hours later, with a
shocked look on his face, the Doctor said, “It’s a girl.” Haylee Marie is going to be quite the tom-boy
with all those boy clothes and baseball décor.
Actually, everyone immediate went out to buy everything pink. So, she now has two complete wardrobes. Cake week has now officially expanded into
cake month. The last weekend of August
is Labor Day weekend. Damian likes to
make as many visits as possible to the international food fair in Orange. On Sunday, Damian took Chris and Autumn to
the food fair and told Kim she had to stay home to go to church with Lisa. Kim was bitter. After church, Lisa said “we’ll just go get
something to eat, since everyone else already ate at the food fair.” While enjoying Tony Roma’s Kim said she was
glad she didn’t go to the food fair. Somehow,
on the way home from dinner, they passed by the Pond. First Kim noticed all the people and thought
there was a hockey game. Then she saw
the sign that said “American Idols in Concert.”
When they pulled in and paid for parking Kim asked why we had to pay to
get through this street. Then finally,
she said, “I’m so blonde!!!” Kim enjoyed
the concert very much and Lisa enjoyed having a 12-year old with her so it
didn’t look like she was going for her own enjoyment.
Everyone
returned to school in September. Autumn
is in 3rd grade and is in Brownies again. Chris is in 5th grade and is
playing another season of AYSO soccer.
Kim is in the 8th grade, she’s a spirit squad captain and is
very involved in the school leadership group, PAL. Altogether, they are very busy. Tom and Priscilla’s new baby, Ariana, arrived
in September. She is the last of the
three 2003 babies and the last of Tom & P’s three girls, after her sisters
Miranda and Isabella. Autumn celebrated
her birthday with her friends Katelyn and Monique with a sleepover and
Disneyland. Kim had a luau sleepover with
about 10 of her friends. Damian’s
birthday at home was much quieter.
By
the time we get to Lisa’s birthday in October, we already have a lot of
leftover cake. So, we went for ice cream
at Cold Stone. Kim and the Pioneer
spirit squad marched in their first parade at the Tustin Tiller Days. We had scheduled the triple baptism in
October. However, Tom and P decided to
have Ariana baptized at their church in Arizona and Jenn and Danny planned a
trip to Atlanta to show Danny’s relatives baby Haylee. So, Sarah was baptized all alone. Jenn returned from Atlanta to find that
Albertson’s had locked out their employees during union contract
negotiations. So now, she is “working the
corner” (with a picket sign, of course).
Mary hosted her annual Halloween “dare to bare or scare” party. On Halloween night, we sent the kids off to
trick or treat with their friends so that both of us could stay to work the
haunted house. Damian’s dad, as Gandolf
(or Moses) helped us out, too. We
actually had some complaints like “isn’t that the same ghost you had last
year?” What ungrateful little goblins!
We
made the kids run the 5k race in the Dino Dash the first weekend of
November. Damian and Kim finished in 39
minutes, Chris finished in 46 minutes and Lisa and Autumn came in at 53
minutes. We have a year to train to
improve our time for next year. Or, we
could just sit around and eat a year’s supply of Thin Mints like we did this
year. For Damian’s Mom’s birthday we had
Japanese food at Tsunami, then cake compliments of Heather and Ben. Lisa and Autumn went to a Brownie’s
mother/daughter sleepover. Yep, that’s
right . . . 13 girls in one room and 13 moms in another room. Autumn had fun. For Lisa, it was the longest 24 hours of her
life since being in labor with Autumn.
Jennifer, Danny and Haylee have now moved into their own apartment in
Orange. Kathy, Jeff and their family
came out to visit for Thanksgiving. The
boys were deep-frying turkeys and we had food going in and out of four ovens
all day long. We almost had enough
turkeys so that each person could have their own. That’s what happens when the grocery stores
give them away and it only takes 45 minutes to cook them in the fryer.
In
December Kim joined a youth service group, Rainbow Girls, with her long-time
friend Stephanie. Jenn didn’t do much
celebrating for her birthday, but we did manage to get her a refrigerator. When you don’t have any cold food, you
realize how much we take for granted.
And so, the parties begin. After
months of rumors that the WGA Christmas party had gone away, they announced the
party would be held at the Back Bay Café.
Then, it’s on to the annual ladies ornament exchange at Knott’s. In the middle of all the eating, shopping,
wrapping and such, Lisa will be finishing her A.A. degree in Business
Administration and in Liberal Arts, ready to move on to Cal State Fullerton
next year.
We
wish everyone a joyous holiday season and a new year of happiness and good
fortune.
Mark
your calendars . . . Next year we will
be having a big party for our 15th anniversary on Saturday, June 26.
P.S.: The annual reminder . . . If you received
this by snail mail and prefer to access it via the web (complete with pictures)
at www.williamsfamily.org, or vice-versa, just email and let us know. Damianwilliams@cox.net or Lisawilliams@cox.net.