Friday, December 21, 2012

Christmas Letter 2012

Hi again,
I am back to post our 2012  Christmas Letter!   I wish you all a happy 2013!  I will try to blog more this year.  I do like to write and I do like the blog thing it's just I already have a full time job and the blog could be a full time job.  Both of which I like.  :)  Take care and remember life isn't always what you expected but it's how you look at it.  It's mostly hilarious...

So another year has gone by too quickly. We sure hope you are all happy and fine. As for us, we have had another year of happy times and challenges and that’s about right for life. So here is a little bit about what is going on with us.


2012 was a big year for Zachary! He turned 19 in October and graduated from Hillcrest High School in June and also from Hillcrest High’s Seminary. We were very proud of him (because Lord, that was painful!) and he was very ready to be finished with school. He worked very hard on his grades (not a moment too soon) and was able to wrestle for Hillcrest for half the season until he had to have his wisdom teeth out over the holiday break last year. Unfortunately, Zach had huge wisdom teeth (ironic as he seems to lack wisdom) and the holes left after his teeth were out left his jaw too fragile to wrestle. But he traveled and conditioned with the team until the end of the season and had a super experience. Currently Zach is driving his beloved Jeep and working full time on the press at Hudson Printing and dating a new girl every weekend. Making up for lost time in High School it seems. He is a miser with his money (except with the girls) and if you can get him to pry open his wallet and after the moths fly out, you will find it full. This is a good thing because if he doesn’t get registered for school soon, he will be paying for his own gas, car, food, cell phone and underpants.

Holland is 13 and in the eighth grade. This will be her second and last year in Middle School since she will go to Hillcrest High in the 9th Grade. (Don’t even get me started) She loves school except she actually forgets that school is for ...well… school, rather than a place to hang out with her friends. She gets awfully crabby when I remind her about Math homework and Reading logs and she actually called me a nag. A nag, rude. I never knew I was such an irritating person until Holland brought it to my attention. This was my favorite line, “Mom, your voice is hurting my ears.” Actually Keith told me that years ago and I didn’t believe him. Holland loves Art…the class, not the boy. The boy would be Chris, or maybe it’s Chase or someone else, I can’t keep up. She is already planning to join the Golf Team and the Tennis Team at Hillcrest and she is also registered for Drama…trust me, she’s a natural. No braces, no zits, no worries…13.

Keith has had has another great year at Hudson Printing which is good since we have recently gone credit card free! Yes, you read that right! As of October first we went to debit card and cash only. Keith and I have both had to really watch our spending. Regrettably, we watch each other’s spending and peck each other to death like ducks. I must say, Keith is getting more anxiety and excessively grumpy as he ages. He is obsessed with the cleanliness of our house. Unfortunately, I am getting less anxious and somewhat lax about the cleanliness of our house in my old age which severely compounds Keith’s OCD issues. Rats! (Not literally…not yet anyway.) Bless his heart, he golfs and works in the yard and cleans house like his mother to try not to be mad at me. But in the end, he will fuss and fume like Yosemite Sam. To his credit, he is a very good golfer and our yard is beautiful! To be fair, I’m not like a pig in a wig or anything when it comes to housekeeping, but I’m no Patty Beltz either.

In fact, I admit I’m getting older. I have symptoms of the MEN-On-PAUSE and it’s no day at the beach. Although it feels like one sometimes IF that beach was so hot and sweaty all of a sudden that it made your underwear stick to your skin and your upper lip sweat just because you tried to put a 12 pack of diet coke into your grocery cart. Or all you had to do was look at the security line in the airport and your head started to sweat so bad that your hair was dripping wet and by the time you got to taking off your shoes you were afraid to walk through the scanner for fear of electrocution. I might be a little moody. I recently had the opportunity to take a trip with my friend to New York City and see the Rocketts. I brought a snow globe home from the show for Holland, she collects them. I didn’t check it because its glass (fra-gee-lay) and I didn’t want it to break in my luggage so I carried it on. When I got through the security line (see me sweating profusely) they stopped me because…yes…I had too much liquid in my snow globe! The snow globe that is packed in my carry on…in a box…packed in styrofoam. It is a rare occasion that I am speechless, but now I just stopped and looked at her. She said I had to leave it with her or go back out and check it. Then she took it out of my bag and said…get this…”did you really want it?” Are you frigging kidding me? I said “Of course I want it I wouldn’t have bought it if I didn’t want it.” So I gathered my dolls and dishes and went back out of the security line and took everything out of my purse that zipped shut and stood in line again to check the snow globe for a small fee of $35.00 for the second bag. :/ Then I got back into the security line and if you think I was sweating before trust me when I tell you that “mad as a wet hen” does not even begin to cover it. I feel really bad for whoever had to sit next to me at the gate because I was probably giving off toxic fumes by the time I hoofed it all the way to D45. But I digress…

As a family we took a trip to Las Vegas (Zach’s choice) this summer. We love Las Vegas and are able to find a lot of family friendly things to do there. This year we went to Fremont Street in Old Las Vegas. It’s a fun place to go and shop and eat. There are lots of crazy people who dress up as cartoon characters, Transformers, Elvis, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Showgirls, you name it. You can get your picture with them for a tip. Of course there are some racy characters there too. (“racy”… shades if my mother) We walked by one lady who was very well endowed, maybe he most well endowed lady any of us had ever seen, who was taking pictures with people. Keith and I and my sister watched our kids. Holland immediately put her little fan up to the side of her face to hide so she couldn’t see her. She has done this with her hand like that since she was little when she is uncomfortable. Zach just walked on by, cool as a cucumber. Once we had all passed by we started to laugh and kid a little. When we teased Zach he smiled his half smile and said, “Honestly you guys, I saw Batman first.” Classic Zach. Life is hilarious.

Hope your new year is hilarious. Have a very Happy Holiday Season! All our love Keith, DeeAnn, Zach and Holland Beltz…and Bayja.