We hope you’re having a lovely holiday season so far. Maybe some baking has been done, a few presents purchased and wrapped under the tree, or at the very least you’ve already watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or Elf at least twice. But if you’re in need of a little Christmas cheer, we hope you enjoy this year’s Christmas letter in the form of a Seitz Family True or False Quiz. At the end of the quiz, tally up your incorrect answers and if you’ve missed more than one, maybe it’s time for you to plan a trip to Des Moines and visit us! Let’s get started.
1. If Jolie were to form a one woman band and strap every instrument she played to her body like Bert in Mary Poppins, you find a harmonica, drums, the trombone, a violin, the spoons and the didgeridoo on her person. False- Although it would be radical if Jolie played the spoons, and she did play the violin in elementary school, she currently jams on the guitar, bass guitar and ukulele. Plus, she sings like a bird and wants to start piano lessons soon. It’s her sister Ella playing the trombone and piano, Cameron on the drums and piano, and Scott on the guitar. We’re starting a family band as soon as Maggie gets the hang of the tambourine.
2. Scott’s switched careers this year to pursue his life-long dream of being a shepard. False- He does feel like shepard trying to get the four kids to do anything at the same time, but no, his dream job would either be painting happy trees like Bob Ross, building clotheslines for demanding housewives, or getting paid to analyze Fantasy Football stats. In the meantime, he is still happily employed at Wells Fargo where he has approximately 173 meetings a week and occasionally gets to travel to cool places like Charlotte and San Francisco.
3. If you stopped by the Roosevelt High School swimming pool, you would see Maggie shaving time off her personal best in the 50 freestyle and 50 backstroke. False- Maggie did finally conquer her fear this year of going under water at swimming lessons this summer, but it’s actually 11 year old Ella, who cannonballs into the pool 3 days a week and swims like a fish. Freestyle and backstroke are her favorites and she’s gotten faster at every meet. When she’s not in the pool, she’s practicing her handsprings on the trampoline, reading the entire list of the Battle of the Books, or making wallets out of duct tape.
4. The entire Seitz family hit the open road for 2 weeks this summer in an RV, traveled across 6 states, explored the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Devils Tower, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Dinosaur National Monument, Arches National Park, and Red Rocks, and had the most fantastic vacation that was ever to be had. True- Good Lord people, if you didn’t get this one right, what rock did you crawl under this summer? This is all that we Seitz’ have talked about since June and we will probably be talking about it until the end of eternity, because it was that fantastic! If you need a recap, check out the funny I wrote all about it with pictures: https://jamieseitz.wordpress.com
5. Maggie started Kindergarten this year at The Downtown School and her mom lays in bed day after day weeping because she is so lonely with no more children at home during the day. False- The only truth in this statement is Maggie started Kindergarten. The mom actually does a dance of joy each morning in the van as she drops her children off to the school that we all love and then goes home and eats a peaceful breakfast ALONE and drinks a cup of coffee in blissful SILENCE! Perhaps the fact that Maggie is reading and writing and loving cold lunches and Mrs. Jones and school in general is the real reason transition has been a piece of cake…perhaps.
6. Jolie is getting ready to record her first EP of original music called Burning Blue in our make-shift at-home recording studio/sometimes playroom, with her dad. True- Our talented 13 year old singer-songwriter is ready to record some tunes and Scott’s making it happen! He’s transforming the kids’ playroom into a studio so she can drop some beats and then we’ll burn some cd’s. I’m fairly certain that Scott is expecting a Grammy nomination next year for his mixing work and he’s requested to be known only as DJ Scoots from now on. We’ll keep you posted, but if you’d like to check out Jolie’s music, you can find Jolie on Twitter and Youtube under @JolieSeitzMusic. Thankfully all her jazz band/guitar lessons/Show Choir experiences are preparing her for an amazingly musical life!
7. Cameron loves his sisters and regularly invites them into his room to play with his extensive Lego collection, his drum set, and his walkie-talkies. False-Well, I’m sure he loves them, but anyone who knows our 8 year old knows that no one, I repeat, NO ONE , is allowed to touch, move or even think about his Lego’s, and you can pretty much forget about laying a finger on his drum set. Being the only boy in a sea of ladies, we cut him some slack and try to abide by his bedroom rules because he’s such a hilariously, brilliant kid. When he’s not playing Lego’s or the drums, he’s riding his bike all over neighborhood, playing Minecraft with his buddies, playing goalie on his soccer team, or planning an Epic Battle of Nerf Guns with the neighbor kids.
8. The highlight of Maggie’s year was seeing the Broadway version of The Lion King at the Civic Center with her Dad. True- Maggie loves all things Lion King, so when The Lion King came to Des Moines this spring, we knew she had to see it. She loved every minute of it and even had a Lion King birthday to celebrate her 6th birthday this fall. In addition to musicals, Maggie also loves playing animals, gymnastics, drawing, listening to Junie B. Jones on CD, and jumping on the trampoline.
9. Jamie ended her 10 year run as a fitness instructor in November so she could channel her inner Judy Blume and is currently hard at work writing her first novel. True- I have hung up my Zumba shoes and shelved my workout routines for the time being so I can do what I was born to do. Maybe by this time next year, there will be something published that I can send each one of you for a Christmas gift, but in the meantime, you’ll have to just follow my blog. (See the website in #5) When I’m not working on my novel , or this Christmas letter, or running kids to and fro, I’m probably reading or knitting or doing laundry or begging Scott to build me something cool like a clothesline.
10. The Seitz family is planning to boycott Christmas this year in an attempt to save money on scotch tape, wrapping paper and chocolate almond bark. False- Are you crazytime? If there is one thing we Seitz’ do well, it’s spreading Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear. We like to give presents, look at the lights, decorate the tree, hang the stockings, bake the cookies, sing the carols, and celebrate the birth of Jesus. We plan to drink hot chocolate and go ice skating and make gingerbread and make snow angels. We’ve been listening to Christmas music for weeks, we’ve been hard at work like elves making Christmas presents for each other and for our family and friends, and we are gearing up for some serious holiday baking for our neighbors in the next week. In a nutshell, we love Christmas. We love what it means and we try really hard to keep the true meaning of Christmas in the things that we do as a family. And, if you haven’t noticed, we like to share our love-fest that is Christmas with all of you!
So, tally up your score. How did you do? Most importantly, did you get the last question right?! We hope that this holiday season finds you and your family healthy and happy and loved. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and an exciting New Year. We’re so very lucky to have you in our lives and we are thankful for each of you!
With much love,
Scott, Jamie, Jolie, Ella, Cameron, and Maggie Seitz and Harper
“First we’ll make snow angels for a two hours, then we’ll go ice skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookie dough as fast as we can, and then we’ll snuggle.” ~Buddy the Elf
“For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11
Jamie Seitz 