Never a dull moment at the Burk Motel. We find that this year we have strange, premature vacancies, as we return to being the family of four that moved into this house seven seasons ago. Paul graduated in June and with not even so much as a nudge from us, got himself a job, an apartment and a puppy. He works at Chili’s restaurant and seems to be hardworking and well-liked. Every so often we go to dinner there and leave big tips. He loves the freedom and independence and is really making it all work. Other than a four-pack of toilet paper the other day, he hasn’t hit us up for anything. We recently went over his apartment to decorate a little Charlie Brown tree and hang up some tinsel around the place. Though he protested the whole time, what with the girls leaping and climbing over the furniture and four or five people swarming the little three-foot-tall tree, I think he enjoyed the festivities in spite of himself. He tries to come to dinner on Monday nights to do a load of laundry and visit for a little.

As for the girls, Lacie is with her mom in Manassas, where she is a junior in high school. She is involved with drama and some tough classes, with her sights on college. We don’t see her as often as we’d like, but met a very nice boyfriend this fall and stayed up half the night playing cards. She’s coming for Christmas, and everyone is excited. Ellie hopped on the kindergarten bus in September with a wave and a grin, leaving me giddy with excitement and horror at the foot of the driveway. Sophie was so bored and miserable that whole first day of school, she fell asleep on the stairs waiting for her sister to come home. It’s a full-day kindergarten and the bus comes at 7:20 a.m., so we were all a little bleary-eyed and grouchy right up until November. Her favorite part of the day? Nap time! Sophie goes to the church preschool. She loves to paint and climb trees. Ellie’s 46 1/2 pounds can hoist Sophie’s 34 pounds into one of the many fir and holly trees in our back woods, and then mommy’s (??) pounds have to hustle when they start hollering to get down. I have frequently plucked my monkey-children from heights higher than I can reach.

It’s good to turn them loose out back to the mud or the trees. Though Ellie got a bike for her 5th birthday and claims it to be her favorite gift, bikes are a little tame for us. We prefer scaling the massive trees brought down by hurricanes, shimmying up 10 feet or so the holly tree and, until Daddy and I had to dismantle it, swinging like monkeys from the top of our swing set (a cheapo A-frame kind from the dump). Yikes! All of this hair-raising adventure is offset by the most delightful “girly” world of dress ups and make-believe indoors. One of the recent squabbles I overheard from the back of the van was Sophie to Ellie very insistent: “Well, I believe in Gawd an’ Jesus an’ Petah Pan! Where she gets her Bostonian accent, we don’t know, but we are theologically relieved she’s not a deist. We are princesses and ballerinas almost every day. Though they have the most gorgeous dress-up trousseau, many of Ellie’s imaginative costumes involve wrapping her body in silk scarves, inevitably leaving bared and therefore highlighting the most private of her parts, making photos impossible, lest I mortify her in later years. She once fashioned for herself a complete outfit from paper grocery bags. The cleavage was so revealing you could see the elastic waistband of her underpants!

As for me, I try to dress in store-bought clothes and keep the layers of instant oatmeal from coating the kitchen floor. I am tutoring online with Seminary students and am a “book buddy” at Ellie’s school with a little first- grade boy. I also volunteer at church.

Bill’s year has involved more renovations at church, serving as chair of the Chaplain Services Board of Virginia, much counseling and pastoring to people in illness and need, and overseeing his mother’s estate. He keeps a more regular schedule these days and has done a lot of work on our home as well.

Our Christmas this year will involve a relaxing 12 days of playing and resting, reading Christmas stories and visiting with friends. My mother will be in town, as will Paul and Lacie, and friends of Bill’s will hopefully come after Christmas and before New Year’s. It’s good, having the guest bed set up once again. We hope you will come use it. In the meantime we hope your home is filled with love and laughter this joyous season.

God bless and keep you. Love from Jenny and Bill