Corrine's Christmas Letter 2007

Note: This Christmas Letter has been written in two languages: American and English. ;)

Hello to family and friends near and far!

Corrine told us a Christmas email/blog entry is not as cool as an actual Christmas letter tucked inside a handwritten envelope arriving in the mail/post, but we are lazy and have no budget for postage or cards due to the weak dollar. But this one you won't have to throw away/bin, and if you wish, you can take it to Kinko's/Kall Kwik and have it printed and enlarged 10x this size. And, that's why we, Mildred and Henrietta are writing this letter for her digitally.

Year Highlights
In January, she taught Andrew how to ski. In just a day and a half, he had caught up to the teacher proving that a snow bunny learns faster than a snow chicken. Maybe it's because she was a really good teacher? ;)

February was the height of her Landlady drama. She lived with a woman owner who timed and regulated the length of her showers, controlled when she was allowed heat (cold from 9-5 everyday) and gave her a plastic spoon with her name on it so she could put it in the "IN" cup or "OUT" cup so they knew they could set the house alarm, which when it was on meant she could only be in her room or the hallway. She lasted 6 weeks, but we think she has a good screenplay out of the experience.

March was when she fled the house and arrived in a wonderful place with a lovely french woman. Total bliss!

April was the only month during the summer/spring that didn't rain every day. Her mom visited and they went to France in Paris and Normandy. We rented a little car and drove around with a very undetailed map to guide us. Not recommended.

In May, she got tickets to see Tony Blair debate in Prime Minister's Question Time 3 weeks before he announced his retirement. It was a lot of fun to watch them in Parliament. Andrew took the day off of work, and she surprised him with tickets to Wicked, because all guys love musicals right? Great musical, highly recommended.

In the summer she went home for a month to see her friend Shelley get married and attend the last 10 minutes of her 10 year high school reunion. Both were fun. At the end of the summer, she redesigned her breast cancer site and refocused on her PhD studies. She also got to go sky diving in an indoor tunnel and said goodbye to the Ross's, who moved back to the States and took their adorable children with them. Their goodbye was not during the sky dive.

In September she went camping with Andrew's family in The New Forest and traveled to the Isle of Wight, a small island off the Southern coast of England. English caravaning is a lot of fun. Everyone brings their camper to a grassy lot and then you drive out to places and see things like herds of stray ponies walking through town. We also went caravaning at Easter near York. This was also the month Corrine's mom turned 50!

October brought a large traveling family history public exhibition sponsored by her church that meant long hours of preparation, and two radio interviews. Part of her volunteer work at Church is providing local newspapers with news about the church and events (picture above). She also works with kids in Primary and leads the music. She really enjoys working with the children, now she knows a bit more about what her Primary teachers meant when they thought Primary kids were special when she was young. The kids are great!

In November her and Andrew grabbed torches and walked through the streets and crashed a small English village's Guy Fawke's bonfire and fireworks gala. Then she went home for Thanksgiving and spent time with her brother, family, niece and nephews before he entered the MTC last week. He's going to France, but not before he gutted and built a brand new kitchen for the folks. She's home for 2 months! Andrew arrives this Thursday!

And here we are in December, phew! Corrine wanted to let you know that she is happy to have so many wonderfully good people in her life, that make her laugh, feel loved and help her strive to do better in all sorts of ways. She loves you all and wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,
Mildred & Henrietta, on behalf of our employer Corrine

Your Child's Nanny

I guess all of these years I was hoping someone like me could come around and raise my future kids. I am very marketable according to this website (oddly by a non-lds owner). I saw Nanny Diaries last night at the hotel in SLC with my mom while we waited for the car to get fixed. The Nanny Diaries reminded me of Landlady. Ooh, the nightmares.

We dropped Seth off at the MTC on Wednesday and he is now fully into the start of his mission, learning French. It was a great experience to see him off, except for the waiting for the car part which delayed coming home a day. Also, have to say my review of needed a thorough cleaning Steve and Barry's is a 4 out of 10. Thanks to Becca for the good directions (she gave it luke warm reviews), I could browse the racks of cheap stylish clothes by Sarah Jessica Parker, that didn't look as stylish as they did on her fashion manifesto videos blaring all over the store. But at just $9 for anything in the store, it was cheap. Who needs style then?

This post started after I read a Google news alert citing this article:
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_7764608

Win a Ski Instructor

"Switzerland has more to offer than just romantic winter resorts and snow-capped mountains. It is also home to some of the world's best- looking ski instructors."

...and now you can vote for the hottest one, and win him.
Come on, show your patriotism and vote.

My pick is Marco, Mirco and Stefan. The least popular picks according to their stats. As Gob would say...

First place chick is hot, but has an attitude; doesn't date magicians. Second place is someone weird usually, like a Chinese girl or a geologist. But third place, although a little bit plain has super-low self-esteem, so I step in and, uh...