Christmas Letter #1

Dear Friends and Family,

This has been a wonderful year at the Lochia household. Time just seems to fly by and before I knew it, it was time again to send out the annual Christmas letter to let everyone know what we've been up to lately.

Jacob is in 1st grade this year and is loving every minute. The school is positive that he is a genius and that he will be eligible for Mensa within the next year. He is reading at the level of a college freshman and just last week solved an old algebra problem that math scholars had been unable to figure out. The teachers have wanted to move him up to high school so he could be challenged, but we want him to be able to socialize and experience grade school. Should he decide he wants to jump 10 grades, we'll be supportive. Who knows, we could have the next Doogie Houser on our hands! Because Jacob isn't being challenged in school, he's full of energy when he gets home. We decided to let him play flag football this fall to burn off some of that energy, and he has shown mad skills! We are sure that should he decide to wait on college until he's 18, that he may be able to get a football scholarship and play NFL.

Clara can't wait to go to kindergarten. She, too, is showing signs of genius as she is able to read at just about the same level as Jacob. We think she may have a career in singing because she walks around the house singing and if we didn't know it was our 5 year old daughter, we'd think it was a professional opera singer! She has a huge range and can really hit the high notes. Again, we don't want to push our kids too much, so we're taking cues from her as to what she wants to do. When we had family pictures taken this year, several people told us she could be a model and that we should take her to an agent to see what she could do. Maybe we'll pursue that after the holidays.

Isaiah is a wonderfully well-behaved 2 year old. Following in the footsteps of his older siblings, he is quite intelligent. He doesn't say too much, but he has his own language that only we understand. Its really quite remarkable that a child of ours has come up with his own language. We could be speaking Isaiahese instead of English in 20 years! We think he may be great at wrestling as he is able to tackle and take Daddy down to the floor! His charming good looks and personality may also make him a great actor, which we will check into when we book Clara's first modeling gig.

Husband is doing well. He recently got a promotion and is now the owner of a very popular deli-style chain restaurant franchise. The money has been nice. The corporate headquarters got together with a local university and decided to award him a honorary doctorate degree for his exceptional skills as a manager. We are very proud of him! With the influx of money, we plan to completely redo our old house after we contributed to several charities. The state has also classified our neighborhood is a Historic District, based primarily on our house. We have restored it so that it looks like it did when it was first built in the 1800's. With the increase flow of traffic from people sightseeing, we realize we may have to build another house to live in and give tours of this house! There are still some renovations that need to be done, but we're taking our time, as not to disturb the original structure.

As for me, things couldn't be better. I have been given privileges to work as a midwife, even though I haven't gone to school. I just have such natural ability that they decided it would be a waste for me to go to school. Even with such an honor, I have decided to continue to work as a RN because I love my patients and feel I should go to school to make sure there really isn't anything I don't already know. They need me. So far, I am soley responsible for saving the lives of 4 babies in distress! The hospital understands my decision, so they decided to give me a huge raise to entice me to stick around while I go back to school in the future. This past year, I ran 5 marathons and came pretty close to winning the Chic.ago marathon. Yes, I not only reached my lifelong goal of running a marathon, but I also surpassed any expectations on my performance. Next year, I think I'll scale back and run only 4 marathons - I want to give others a chance to win:) I've really enjoyed balancing work, running, the kids and their activities, all household chores, bills and parties. I love having a busy schedule, my immaculate house and getting my hair done once a week!

As you can see, we are all doing pretty well and keeping busy. We are sure there are more exciting things to come in the next coming year. Our hope is that our letter finds you almost as well as we are! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We have enclosed a few dozen pictures of us on our last vacation of the year for you to enjoy!