Christmas Letter 2007

12/11/07

Dear Family and Friends,

As December comes, and our families stop to celebrate Christmas (December 25), Chanukah (beginning December 5), or National Fruitcake Day (December 27), the joy and good fellowship of the season is rudely interrupted by this, your annual spam letter from the Coxe family. Unfortunately, due to the writer’s strike, this year the letter is not being written by your traditional scribe, but is being outsourced to several unemployed Howler Monkeys in Guatemala. (This actually may improve the quality somewhat as they have already gotten the word “Monkey” in this letter. 2nd rule of comedy, “Monkeys are always funny”).

Ella started 5 year old Kindergarten at her first “Big School.” She attends Gregory Elementary which is a public magnet school for math, science and technology. They also require uniforms. My libertarian instincts were somewhat anti-uniform at first, but then when Julie was away for ten days early in the year and I only successfully got her dressed each day after at least 5 discarded outfits, I became pro-uniform. Julie has been volunteering about once a week in Ella’s classroom and really likes it. She keeps mentioning some boy named Zach. I hope I’m not being traded in for a younger model.

Ella did a lot of dancing this year, with a ballet recital, tap and ballet lessons and her first school dance, a sock-hop in her four year old pre-school class. I wonder if she will let me hang around and video prom night as well? She “graduated” from that pre-school with a ceremony describing what she wanted to be when she grew up (which prompted the question to me “what do you want to be when you grow up Dad?” I told her I hadn’t figured it out yet, but she’d be the first to know). She decided she wanted to be a Dentist Mom because they fixed people’s teeth. I suspect the real reason is that the dentist has a “treasure chest” in his office. My suspicions were supported when later she decided to be a pirate for Halloween.

Ella got to go to both a North Carolina basketball game and a football game (against Duke) this year. I believe in letting the kids make their own choices so since I am pro-UNC and Julie roots for Duke, I told Ella it was up to her whether or not to root for Duke or Carolina. (However, I did point out that they shot off fireworks when Carolina scored, but not when Duke did).

However, Ella and Gavin’s favorite sport is neither football nor basketball but seems to be “Ninja Warrior Challenge.” For those of you who seldom venture into the 70s and 80s in the cable channel lineup, this is a game show that is a cross between “American Idol” and the old obstacle course from “Battle of the Network Stars.” And did I mention it comes from Japan? Ella frequently asks me to turn up the volume to hear the show, which is a reasonable request except THEY ARE ALL TALKING JAPANESE!

Gavin is going to a 1 year old pre-school two days a week for 3 hours a day. His class is just 4 boys so it’s like a little mini frat house going on. He turned one on January 11, and rumor has it he will turn two on January 11, 2008, but you’ll have to read next year’s letter to find out (we call that a “tease” in the Christmas-letter-writing biz). At his one year old birthday party, Ella and I gave him a little puppet show before she got a little diva and walked off the job. Crazy, temperamental Talent!

Gavin went from crawling to walking in a short period of time, and from walking to running in an even shorter period of time. He only slows down for a little ice cream after dinner, (or as we like to call it in our house “quiet time”). Our weather this year may cause him confusion in years to come as our Easter Eggs had frost on them in 29 degree weather, but as I write this in December, it is 70 degrees outside. He probably thinks we live in Australia (A notion helped by watching “The Wiggles” all the time. Folks with young kids, help other people out with the reference for me).

Julie took a long and exciting trip abroad this year. She was a little nervous and overwhelmed trying to navigate through a large, strange place, where all the signs and all the people talked in a foreign language, but eventually she got out of the Miami airport and made it to Argentina. She had a great time and ate the best steak of her life every day she was there. (Meanwhile in the US, fried Spam sandwiches didn’t go over so well). And, with efficient use of the Argentinean cows, she also came home with five pairs of leather shoes.

Working off some of that red meat, Julie is now taking tennis after talking about it for a number of years. She is finally putting into use the tennis racket I got for her 2001 Christmas gift, two weeks before morning sickness kicked in. She is doing very good, learning all the strokes; forehand, backhand, talk to the hand; learning how to serve; learning how to curse at a line judge (is it still relevant to make McEnroe jokes? How can you make a joke about Roger Federer?). The latter is especially impressive considering that her coach hasn’t gotten around to telling her the rules or how to keep score.

I took a long overdue trip to Vega$ this year where as far as Julie knows, I didn’t win anything. Speaking of steak dinners, some of the restaurants we ate in had steak from $75 to $250 dollars. Despite that, the only expense Julie questioned was the $45 to the “Star Trek Experience.” On a different trip, I got to go whitewater rafting where I drank most of the Lower Gauley river in West Virginia. I had not done any whitewater activities since high school and I was astonished to see that kayaks are now smaller than a size 10 running shoe.

That segues nicely into my 20 year high-school reunion, where defying the conventional wisdom, my entire class got BETTER looking. Maybe the girls would have looked this good 20 years ago without the big ‘80s hair, but I don’t know.

Hobbes the cat has had a mid-life crises and rearranged her entire life, going from eating and sleeping to the more modern sleeping and eating. How she can nap more than 24 hours in a single day is a question better left for Stephen Hawking.

Our newest member is Dot the fish, or as Hobbes likes to call her, “Emergency Rations.” Dot briefly had a roommate, “Red,” but Red had to uhhh….go live on a farm.

Ok, wrap this one up with a bow and stick a fork in it because we are done! Stay tuned for next year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays


Bradley, Julie, Ella, Gavin, Hobbes, Dot