Dear Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We are writing this blog post to keep you all up to date with the adventures of baby James.(And also to let you know what his parents and "big sister" (Portia, woof) have been up to.
This is all in lieu of Christmas cards this year, which, since we have been so busy chasing a toddler around the house, we never got around to writing this year!
Since our last blog post in March we have had many wonderful travels. In late May and early June, I traveled out to Salt Lake City, Utah and spent a week at the Trombone Festival. Highlights of that trip included hanging out with my Dad and my cousing Aaron and his daughter Megan. I also played with the Cramer Trombone Choir there and on the last day of the festival we performed on a program called "Music and the Spoken Word" with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. While I was out west James and Christine enjoyed a wonderful visit with Christine's mother, Judy. The month of June was extremely wet here in the upper midwest. We got some water in our finished basement, which led to us essentially unfinishing the basement to solve the problem. (I will admit it was very therapeutic to tear out a wall with a crowbar!) We had some steel I-beams installed to shore up the north wall of our house and I redid the landscaping along the outside of that wall.
In July we began our yearly travels out west and had the pleasure of introducing James to camping. He had a great time visiting the Badlands in South Dakota, the Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and many relatives in MT. We endured one very cold evening camping up the Hyalite Canyon south of Bozeman. James was a real trooper! We spent time up at the family cabin where James got many bruises, cuts, and scrapes in his adventures there. (Cabins and the Great Outdoors are inherintly not baby-proofed as he discovered!)
James also saw the Grand Tetons and the Flaming Gorge in Wyoming enroute to Breckenridge.
We had a wonderful summer with Breckenridge Music Festival. Christine gave several fine performances, including notably Bach Cantata 51 and a concert version of Porgy and Bess. I performed the Albrechtsberger Concerto and just generally had fun introducing James to hiking and friends.
This picture was taken after the final performance of the season. We had attempted a hike that last morning; however, it was interrupted by quite a storm. As that day went on the tempature really dropped and we woke up the next day to snow. We had planned on our return trip to take James over the pass in Rocky Mountain National Park, but the snowstorm closed the pass, so next summer!We had a very busy fall. Christine, in addition to being James primary source of nourishment, was very busy teaching her studio at Augustana, as well as beginning full time studies and a teaching assistanceship for her Master's at the University of Iowa. The school of music there got completely flooded out this summer so her music classes are scattered in buildings throughout downtown Iowa City, which she seems to enjoy as she is never more than a couple blocks from a Starbucks! Christine has a wonderful teacher, Kitty Eberly, and enjoys singing in Cantorei with Tim Stalter. Christine recently gave a wonderful performance of the soprano solos in a fine performance of Haydn's Creation there in Iowa City.
In this picture from Dec. 7th James is straddling an early Christmas present, a huge stuffed puppy, from his "Grumpa". (Portia gave this puppy quite a sniffing when it came out of the box!) This new puppy has not diminished James's interest in Portia who he is constantly harrassing and chasing all over the house!
James is literally toddling everywhere these days. He spends four days a week in a great daycare here Rock Island and the socialization there seems to be very good for his development. He is developing a nice little vocabulary and is very expressive and communicative with his body language. James is very strong willed and persistent. Though he frequently obsesses with items that we as parents would prefer a toddler not play with, we nonetheless take these traits as a positive sign for his future success in the world!
I write this post on Saturday morning, Dec. 20th. We fly out to Missoula MT this evening and are looking forward to a fun 10 days there with family. Portia is staying with my student Jackie's family and their dogs for the holiday. We haven't begun packing yet, so I will wrap up this post now by wishing you all a wonderful Christmas. Please keep in touch!
Love,
Jemmie (and Christine, James, and Portia)
P.S. See Video below: "James on a rocking horse"
What a cute kid. Also notice his mother oddly seems to be developing a Minnesota accent!
