Merry Christmas!! Once again it is time to write our annual Christmas letter. This year, the letter will focus on one member at a time so you can read all about them without interruption. I will start from the youngest to the oldest.
Oreo
In January we adopted yet our third girl. This one is the 4-legged kind. We wanted to get a family pet who we could train to become a service dog for Sofi by providing her with a special friend. Oreo is a mixed breed of dog that is primarily pointer, but who knows what else. She is a perfect dog for our family. From the beginning she only wanted to be with us not in a cage. Her first night, she slept on the floor next to Jaynee and I and didn’t make a peep. She came to us potty trained, a knack for children, and extremely quiet. After getting her used to us, we started her obedience training. 4 classes, 3 different trainers, and 1 big test later, Oreo passed her Canine Good Citizen test which allows us to begin specialized training and the ability to take her anywhere we go as long as she is working as a service dog. Oreo’s work has included wondering throughout parts of the National Mall, going on vacation and participating in just about everything we did except for time at a water park, visiting several local shopping centers, and visiting some of our favorite restaurants.
Oreo’s most enjoyable experiences over the past year (not counting being adopted) include a couple of trips to see her friend Buddy in Missouri, having her friend Belle from Idaho visit twice, helping dog sit two other friends over a long weekend, running at the dog park, and enjoying long naps out in the grass on warm days.
Oreo’s future plans include more trips and activities with the family, going on more vacations, and additional training specifically on how to be a therapy service dog.
Emma
Having 2 girls only 3 months apart in age can be very difficult to separate when speaking about their accomplishments and the key events they participated in over the last year. Moving to Virginia has been a blessing for Emma. She is so much closer to the love of her life, airplanes. In fact her favorite museum to visit is the National Air & Space Museum located at Dulles Airport. This is not the Air & Space museum located on the National Mall. This museum is larger and cooler museum. She has loved it so much that she is the only Lorenz to see it 2 times this year.
Emma has loved the moving plan we had. She got to spend 1 month in Missouri with her grandma and got to see nearly all of her Lorenz cousins. She loved playing with them all. She seemed to attach herself to anyone who would let her play with them; even with her Goold cousins who came for a visit. We could get her to do anything (except eat anything but her normal food items) by pointing out that her cousins were doing something. She would drop everything to copy them.
Emma can be rather funny when it comes to physical exercise. When she wants to do something the only way to stop her is to drain her energy levels completely. Otherwise, when she doesn’t want to do something, she may try it for a little bit, but always ends up saying she is too tired to finish it and request that someone pick her up and carry her. This can be very frustrating and tiring at times. However, it is rather funny recently because we got the girls some new bikes. They simply love them. It they could, they would be on their bikes 24/7. We usually time their bike rides so that there is something big that they want to participate in to help get them down from their bikes. Emma was so cute when she helped pick out her bike. She must have rode around 40 laps within the bike store trying out her bike. When we got it home she continued to ride for the next hour. I ran most of the time that she rode just to stay up with her.
Sofia
Sofia has had unique year. This has been a rough year for her. Sofi’s biggest struggle this year has been the moves. It was really hard for her to move from our home in Augusta, GA to a compacted townhome in Alexandra, VA and then finally to a normal sized home onto Fort Belvoir, VA. Sofi loved spending time with Grandma Lorenz during the first move, and really didn’t like the fact that she had to leave. She loved playing with her cousins, spending time with grandma, and having a routine that included taking daily walks to get the mail and helping make meals for everyone there.
Sofi has mixed feelings about moving to Virginia. She loves some of the local attractions and some she does not like. She loves the methods of local travel, Metro, bus, taxi, train, etc. She dislikes the long lines because of the number of people everywhere. She loves the shopping experience such as a two-story target that has an escalator for the shopping cart. She hates that my favorite word when we shop is “No” followed closely by “We will see”. She loves the many beautiful parks. Her favorite is nicknamed the Rainbow Park. I can’t remember the name of it, but it is rated as one of the top 5 parks in the nation every year. She hates the national zoo because there are no giraffes.
Sofi’s love/hate relationship also includes Oreo. She loves and wants Oreo to travel everywhere with us, but hates the work that is required on her part to have Oreo travel. Sofi must walk Oreo. Either she can hold onto a special soft handle or wear a vest which enables her to be tethered to Oreo. This cramps her style of trying to wonder off and look at the things she wants to. At least she wants Oreo there with her. The rest will just take time and practice for her to get accustomed to taking Oreo everywhere.
Sofi finally got her wish this year. She has wanted for the longest time to go to school. She longed to ride a bus to school and do whatever happens at school. We were able to get her and Emma into a part-time pre-k. They go to class 2 days a week for 3 hours at a time. It has been wonderful. They have played hard, worked hard, learned that school involved work, and enjoyed coming home and applying what they have learned. The girls learned how to do basic math on their own. It is rather humbling when they ask simple math questions and know instantly when I give them the wrong answer. It is also humbling to ask them for an answer and to hear them talk out how they get their answer. They are very brilliant. There is not a thing that Sofi hears that she forgets. We have to be very careful what we say around her, or we generally have to pay for it later.
Lee
I have had a lot on my plate. I worked hard in my Army networking class (FA24). It was a really tough class and I was able to finish with a 93% overall average and finished in the middle of the class. It was very fun and rewarding. Finally, about half way through the course I got orders that did not include the word Georgia. After nearly 8 years in the Army I would finally be stationed outside the state of Georgia. We initially thought it was going to be Hawaii, then Arizona, then Maryland, but finally it turned out to be Virginia. This move would also require the assistance of the Army to have our stuff moved. I was not going to load up a van with the contents of a 3300 square foot home, especially with all the heavy stuff on the 2nd floor. Got to love those movers.
As a reward for completing my Master’s degree, leaving Georgia, completing the FA24 course and some other minor challenges, I was rewarded with a very nice mountain bike. I love running, but I have not been the same since my knee surgery 2 years ago. I can run for about 10 minutes before I start to feel pain in my knee. It doesn’t matter how fast I run or the surface I am running on, the result is the same, pain at about the 10 minute mark. I have opted to move onto another sport to maintain my fitness. Trying to balance my new position, getting the girls squared away with appointments and school, moving, and the weather has made it a little difficult to ride as often as I would like, but I am still managing. I even convinced Jaynee to join me for 2 rides, her riding my older bike. She survived and did quite well regardless of what she says. I am looking forward to beginning the new year (spring) off by trying to really learn my new sport and seeing what I am capable of doing. Look for a paragraph about it in next year’s Christmas letter.
Jaynee
Moving was a little bittersweet for Jaynee. She got her dream of moving to another state. She was hoping for something a little more westward. Well, Virginia is not Georgia, and it is not westward. The other aspect to the move is leaving our home behind. The economy is not well enough to sell it so it is currently being rented. It has been difficult for Jaynee to adjust to a new home of 1500 and 2000 square feet compared to her luxurious 3300 in Georgia.
Jaynee has been struggling with Virginia. You may not understand what I am saying so I will put it in a different set of words “Jaynee vs. Virginia”. The first time we came to Virginia as a family was the day after Hurricane Irena swept through the state last year. Since we have moved to Virginia, Jaynee has had to deal with a wind storm that knocked out our power for 4 days and the generator in storage, traffic, getting lost, another hurricane – Sandy, and not to mention all the little things that she must accomplish such as the girls medical appointments and the headaches she has received as a result.
Jaynee does love the area attractions. It is hard to say what her favorite is. She has loved visiting the following locations: National Museums, Battlefield sites (Civil War battle of Bull Run), the kid parks, visiting the national mall, Mount Vernon (home of George Washington), our family vacation to Massenutten, VA, going to the sensor friendly movies that are offered monthly at several locations, the marriage retreat to Maryland, seeing historic Annapolis and the Naval Academy, having her mom visit 2 times and her first sibling to visit her since we have joined the Army. Jaynee is making the most of her time her, and don’t let my writings fool you. She really does love it here and is really looking forward to the holidays, the winter, and the rest of the adventures that we will be a part of for the next 2-3 years.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us (Oreo, Emma, Sofia, Lee & Jaynee).
