Morrow Family Christmas Letter #3: Christmas 2004

Greetings and a very Merry Christmas to all our dear friends and family. We are now in year three of the Morrow Christmas letter tradition and, as any movie buff will tell you, the third installment of any trilogy is rarely any good. Consider: Godfather III, Matrix Revolutions, even Return of the Jedi lacked a certain pizzazz present in its predecessors. And let’s not even delve into Superman III (Richard Pryor? And no Lois Lane? Come on).

We share this as a way of dampening expectations, thereby raising our likelihood of success. Yes, this is another artifact in the tired genre of The Christmas Letter. But we have come to take it as more than that… it has become our sacred duty. We are but faithful hobbits, if you will, carrying forth the ring of… oh, whatever it is. That story is so confusing!

Point is, you will read many Christmas letters over this holiday season. We know that your time is valuable (mostly) and you probably are not quite as fascinated with the mundane details of our lives as we are. We want something different for you. Something better. And frankly, we want to win. Yes, we know, Christmas Letter Writing is not yet an Olympic event. But hey, we are competitive and brutally honest and yes, we’ll say it: We want our Christmas letter to be the best darn Christmas letter you get in 2005! So, here goes…..

Matt continues to enjoy his responsibilities with the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield. This year the HBA has set new membership and fundraising records, and Matt’s staff and responsibilities continue to grow as a result. Of course any year that includes a trip to the World Series by the Cardinals (don’t mention the Series itself… it didn’t happen) AND big election victories for most of our favorites in November, well, that’s a darn good year.

At year’s end, Rachael will complete her service at Southwest Baptist University. After nearly six years at SBU as Director of Human Resources, she has accepted a position as a Human Resources Specialist with ADSmith Communications. Not only will the new position allow her to put her experience to good use consulting with and helping growing businesses, but it also will reduce her hours, allow her to work primarily from our home, and most importantly, give her considerably more time with new daughter Annie. Cue transition…

If you are paying especially close attention to the Morrow family or just happen to retain the highlights of the annual Christmas letter, you might be wondering if we ever got around to having that baby we so proudly announced last year. In fact we did. “Then where is my birth announcement?” you might wonder. Well, we didn’t send them. Ever. To Anyone. The new grandparents are still asking about them. All that to say, it looks like you just officially received your announcement.

Last year, when we announced the impending birth of a daughter, and our chosen name of Annie, our exact prediction was: “If Annie is born with red, curly hair, no pupils, and a penchant for spontaneously bursting into show tunes… we may have to re-evaluate.”

Well, she’s here, she’s red, and they say the eyes don’t really settle in for about a year so we’ll update you next Christmas on her pupils. That’s right, when a promise (even a promise as bold as predicting a recessive-gene hair color) is made in the Morrow Family Christmas letter, well, we deliver. Her hair is a beautiful shade of red and, yes, even starting to curl a bit. As for the show tunes, well, she’s definitely singing something, but she has no use for lyrics and she inherited her parents’ tone deafness, so we can’t tell whether she is singing Annie’s Tomorrow, or Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It.

Anna Christine Morrow discovered America (with red hair atop what was - at the time - a long and pointed head) on April 6. Since then, her head has rounded out, and she just generally gets cuter every day. We considered sending a timeline of photos beginning from the day she was born (and don’t think we didn’t have the pictures to do it), but postage considerations and our merciful spirit limited us to a Christmas photo.

Many of you warned us, but we now know what you meant when you said, “Your lives will never be the same.” Truth is, we were already pretty satisfied with our lives. We are, after all, a simple people. So the prediction that our lives would be forever changed, when paired with our acute awareness that we were utterly unprepared to be parents, generated a fair amount of angst. Well, we still don’t know much about parenting (do all babies bump their heads as much as ours does? And what about that runny nose, or the bizarre and changing colors we discover in her diaper?). But we know this much for sure: That major life change is all for the better. Annie discovers something new every day. She is crawling and babbling and playing and we just love every minute of it.

We have so much to be thankful for. Above all, we are immensely grateful for dear friends, a loving family, and a gracious Heavenly Father who more than 2000 years ago sent His Son into this world under such humble circumstances, knowing what He one day would sacrifice to pay the debt of our sin. Please accept all our best Christmas wishes, and may God bless you with a joyful 2005.