Dearest Family and Friends,
It
hardly seems as though a year has gone by since last Christmas. But alas, it is time that I grace you with
the annual update on the Maguire family and their debacles…or ‘adventures’ as
Mom calls them. If the goal was to keep
things busy and fast paced, our family certainly succeeded this year. Even if it meant occasionally neglecting the
world’s most handsome St. Bernard.
I’m not
sure if I mentioned it last year, but it seems to be all Mom and Dad talked
about for the last year and a half: moving.
They put the house up for sale in June of 2010. Sometimes lots of people came and looked at
it, other times nobody did. I did my
best to spruce the place up by sprinkling drool stains and fur throughout, but
I am told it is a tough market for real estate these days. All the while, Mom and Dad kept going out
with Jo, their new best friend and realtor to look at new houses for us. I can’t tell you how many times they found
“the one”, only to change their minds later. All I know is I am never buying or
selling a house. It seems to bring about lots of emotions. I am fine with mooching off my parents for
the rest of my life. I am told it is
standard for my generation.
In
March, Charlie turned two. An
extravagant bash was thrown with a “construction” theme. Family and friends joined us to fawn over
him. I want to say that by two years old
I was quite refined and had become a constructive member of the family. Chuck, on the other hand, is a different
story. Every day it is something
different with that kid. Mom and Dad
were excited at how exceptional his verbal skills were at such a young
age. Neat. One more person in the family who chatters
all day and doesn’t listen to me. Lenny
seems to really like Charlie. He is always
following the kid around and watching him.
I have better things to do than hang out with somebody going through the
“terrific twos” stage. Speaking of
Charlie, he really stepped it up in April.
Being the little daredevil that he is, he tried to scale the sides of
his crib and fell, breaking his leg in two spots. Don’t worry, he is fine now. But let me tell you, if I knew how much
sympathy a cast gets you, I might have tripped on the stairs years ago to get
myself a cast. In case you are
wondering, Charlie insisted on hot pink for his cast.
Despite
having a cast from his toes to his hip, Chuck DID finally manage to master the
art of the toilet. I won’t traumatize
you with the details of what happened when I went in the house, but Charlie was
able to get away with it for two whole years before he was taught about the
potty. There was one very stressful
weekend, but after the process was done, everybody seemed pretty excited. I still think it is easier to just take a
walk with a shopping bag in hand.
Whatever.
I almost forgot… Do you know what you get a two year old
with a broken leg and lots of energy? A
mini John Deere Gator that he can drive around the yard. And by drive I mean
terrorize a St. Bernard by motoring full speed without wasting time on the
pesky brake or steering wheel. Yeah,
that’s right. This summer brought us
Charlie’s first motor vehicle. By the
end of the summer he had actually gotten pretty good at steering and would
occasionally listen if Mom or Dad told him to stop. I am crafting an angry letter to Power Wheels
about this awful invention.
As Mom’s school year wound down and the wonderful winter
gave way to the dread of a hot summer, Mom and Dad got more and more desperate
about the whole house thing. Do you know
how much crap a two year old can accumulate?
A lot. And we were running out of
space. Mom and Dad started to really put
the pressure on Jo to find them a place with a basement and find a sucker, I
mean buyer for their house. They even
decided to rent our house out and put an offer on a house, which fell
through. Dad was convinced he was going
to die in the 7 Mile Rd house. I wasn’t
sure who he thought was trying to kill him.
In July, Mom and Dad went on their now-annual camping trip
up north. I had to stay home and babysit
Lenny, but the up side was that Grandpa Maguire hung out with us. THAT guy knows how to treat a dog. “Treat” being the operative word. Anyhow, I am told that Charlie enjoyed his
first trip on a boat as well as a bike ride all around Mackinac Island. The weather was pretty cold for the time of
year, but I hear that Charlie road the heck out of his trike up there.
Over the rest of the summer Mom, Dad and Charlie also went
on the 2nd Maguire camping trip.
Aunt Bridget stayed in a cabin with Grandma and Grandpa M while Uncle
John and cousin John Maguire IV hung in a tent.
I hear there was lots of swimming, some kayaking, and the smell of skunk
after some genius was allowed to buy a slingshot.
Dad and Lenny also did their summer K9 trips again. They go off a couple times each summer and
certify and compete and try to convince people that Lenny is really a police
dog. This year one of the trips was to
Canada. Finally a chance to take a dog
on an international adventure and Dad chooses to take Lenny… and to a fake
country, no less. Allegedly he won a trophy or two. I’m not buying it.
In August, Dad tried his hand at running. He signed up for something called the Warrior
Dash. He and Shellie (some chick he
works with) signed up for the three mile obstacle course which culminates in a
swim through mud and a leap over a fire.
Sounds like a lot of work to me, but Dad liked it so much he signed up
for another one in November. He went
down to visit his friends James and Luzmilla in Houston and ran the Warrior
Dash there with James. Personally I
think Dad should leave the running to Mom and focus on walking his beautiful
dog.
September brought
about some real fun times. Somebody finally put an offer on the house. Then the rush was really on to find a new
house for us. Jo worked out a deal for
us and got us a great new house. We just
moved in last week and everybody loves it.
Mom and Dad keep saying that things really work out the way they are
supposed to, even if prospects look grim… I wonder where this positive attitude
was a few months ago.
In October, Mom (who is know a class sponsor at work) got to
help build a parade float for the Freshman class. Dad simply wanted an excuse to pull a trailer
behind his truck so he tried to help a couple of times. All of Mom’s hard work paid off and the
Freshman class won the float building contest.
I was sorta hoping for a root beer float, but in the end I couldn’t even
score a dallop of ice cream. It isn’t
easy being so mistreated, trust me.
Charlie celebrated Halloween by dressing up as Dad. He wore camo pants and sported a Police K9
uniform that Mom made. Real
original. He even had a stuffed dog that
looked just like Lenny, but was twice as smart.
He got a TON of candy; his favorite being a Dum-Dum sucker. For real.
By this time of year, Mom was really packing on the
pounds. Thank God it was sweater
season. Oh, I am sorry, I probably
should have mentioned that in July we learned that there will be another little
darling joining our family. Apparently
Charlie hadn’t destroyed enough of our home, peace, or sleep habits so Mom and
Dad thought we needed another one. This
one will have its own room. The gender
is some kind of a secret and Mom and Dad are at a loss for names. However, Charlie has already named it
“Lamppost”. Everybody is very excited.
While this year was very fun and brought lots of exciting
changes, it was also bittersweet. With
the passing of Dad’s Grandpa Dean Hansen and Mom’s Grandma Lois Festerling, we
were reminded of how precious and fleeting our time is here. However, the family was able to use this
time to visit and catch up with lots of relatives who they hadn’t seen for
quite a while. While the loss of our loved ones is hard and the holidays will
not be the same, it reminds us the true meaning of Christmas. The greatest gives we have are those we love.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Beaumont and The Maguires
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