Their assignment: Write something about yourself and at least one sentence for each of your siblings. That’s how our Christmas letter is made. I write mine last filling in any details.
Dear Friends and Family,
We hope you are well! It’s been a big year for us here in Fort Worth, Texas.
Mike continues to work for the company in southern California from his office in our house. After having to stay home during the pandemic, he decided to move out of his downtown office. We’ve adjusted to keeping his corner of the house calm and quiet. He enjoys Sous Vide cooking and is on the school board for our kids’ school.
I nearly doubled my class load this school year and am now teaching pre-algebra, algebra, algebra II, pre-calculus, and AP calculus. I took a class to be AP certified, and it was both challenging and fun. I continue to blog at syrasscribbles.com and have started work on Syra’s Scribbles IV. This year I learned Brazilian Embroidery and have great plans for making beautiful and useful things with it like Orthodox wedding crowns–for Esther and her fiancé Joshua Moore who are engaged to be married May of 2023!!! I’ve also joined the church choir and am attending more services because of it. It’s been so good for me.
I flew to Albuquerque for my birthday, visited Sophia’s college campus for Make it Mercer Day, and took a cross-country drive with Sophia to move her to Georgia for college. We are so proud of our new high school graduate! Otherwise, we have stayed in Fort Worth. Instead of traveling, we enjoyed spending time with our college kids touring a different local restaurant each week of their summer break. We spent one week hosting the chaperone from the Ukraine who brought orphans over for a summer program with Open Hearts and Homes for Children. We also had Mike’s mom with us over Thanksgiving.
It’s a big change seeing the kids go off on their own one by one, but it makes me appreciate every moment of connection I have with each child. Basil is learning to drive. Jonah started middle school. Xenia and Justin are growing up too. I want to write all about the milestones the kids have had, but the kids do such a great job of sharing that I’ll leave their updates to them.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love,
Syra Divine
Dear Friends and Family,
Merry Christmas! This year has been wonderful and exciting in all sorts of ways, but the most exciting news of all is that I am engaged to be married! My boyfriend Joshua Moore proposed to me on May 12th, 2021, to the delight of both our families. It looks like our wedding date will be right after my graduation. Even though we got engaged a couple months ago, I am still walking on clouds. Joshua is my best friend and I’m so excited to spend the rest of our lives together. As for now, I just finished the first semester of my junior year at Thomas Aquinas College. This academic year has been the most thrilling yet, including classes on Thomas Aquinas’ Five Ways, Galileo’s Two New Sciences, and Cervantes’ Don Quixote. But as fulfilling as my classes are, I’m ready to return to Texas for the holidays and see my family again. Sophia is pursuing her own academic goals at Mercer College as a college freshman, even though it seems like just yesterday we shared a room. Basil has become a dashing young man with a really witty sense of humor. I’m really proud of all his growth this year, including about two feet vertically. Jonah has been playing more board games with my parents and I and it’s been great seeing him develop. Xenia is wickedly smart and talks almost as fast as I do. Justin is still the baby in my eyes, and I look forward to going Christmas shopping with him. There’s no place like home!
Cheers,
Esther (last name pending)
Dear friends and family,
Merry Christmas. This year has been so amazing for me, I found Mercer university in January, and everything started moving so quickly, flying out and getting an interview, getting a scholarship and an acceptance letter, and preparing to move all the way to Georgia. I spent the last few months of my senior year spending as much time with my friends, my boyfriend, and my siblings as possible. My mother and I had an amazing trip on the 14 hour drive to get me to college, with spa days and confusing soap stores for soup stores. My first semester in college has been so much fun and I’ve already made some wonderful friends who I am up at all hours studying and hanging out with. My major is in Economics, and I plan to get a PHD. I am finding myself staying after class to discuss economics with my professor and will bore my friends with explanations of terms and concepts. From what I know from earlier this year and the phone calls I’ve had with my siblings, Basil spends a LOT of time in his room, Jonah is still an avid reader, Xenia is bored with the world and wants to go off and adventure, and Justin is living his best life with his best friend back at school with him. I am getting a kitten this Christmas (that I am planning on naming Tax Fraud) who will be a lovely companion through the rest of my college career and hopefully many many years past that. I wish you well and have a spectacular Christmas.
Sincerely, Sophia
Dear relatives, well-wishers, and distant relations,
The tenth was my sixteenth birthday! I am looking forward to getting my license this spring, and I plan to hopefully work at some fast-food place to save much money for all the commodities I could wish for. For the past year my day to day has much consisted of School, Extra-curricular activities such as Shakespeare, in which I played the main role of Benedict, archery, student council, and National Honor Society meetings. At home I have been playing a lot of Minecraft and other video games, and whenever the opportunity arises, going out to drive with mom and dad. My relationship with Lorena is going very well, and we have officially been dating for over a year! These next few years are so far headed in a very good direction.
Regarding my siblings? Well:
Esther is a distant memory; may she rest in peace (in college studying with her fiancé Joshua at Thomas Aquinas College).
Sophia is also resting in peace, at Mercer University in Georgia, although we text more often, and seems to be having a great time! (Has a Cotton Candy Machine.) Apparently, she might be bringing a cat to the house for a couple weeks, as she cannot buy one directly at her dorm but must bring her own from home.
Jonah has been gradually getting less annoying but still manages to be the bane of all existence from time to time. He enjoys playing Player Versus Player in Minecraft and playing games with his siblings.
Xenia enjoys listening to podcasts, playing phone games, doing literally anything athletic, or daredevilish, being brave as a lion and stubborn as a mule. Xenia enjoys playing with her friends and has playdates relatively often but looks forward to upper/middle school where all the after-school activities are available.
Justin is the youngest and likes to play games with all age groups he can, and is very friendly, his biggest friend group is his grade at school, whom he invites individually to his house every two weeks or less. He enjoys playing any game he can on the computer and has fun playing with his siblings.
Merry Christmas!
Sincerely- Basil
Dear friends and family,
My name is Jonah, and I am 12 years old. I really like middle school especially math class because my mom teaches it. This autumn I was in a Shakespeare production called “Much Ado About Nothing.” My character was Verges, the second watchman.
I went to Albuquerque this summer and spent some time with my friend Alex. After we went camping in Arizona, I spent time with my grandparents in Albuquerque. When I spent time with my grandma, I got to play around with her dog Lucy, and I had a grand time. When I was at my grandfather’s house, I was allowed to play with the train track cars that he made, and I played pool with him. With Jan, grandpa’s wife, I spent time talking and at one point I played Super Stick hockey with her. I had fun going to Six Flags with Sophia, Xenia, Basil and Justin. I went on Superman two times!
Esther is now going to Thomas Aquinas with her fiancé Joshua Moore. Sophia was accepted into Mercer University and is now going there, but her boyfriend Anthony is going to join the air force. Sophia has taught me how to make dragon eggs out of thumbtacks and Styrofoam eggs. Basil has lately been getting along better with me. We play chess together and also Minecraft. A lot of the time I don’t see him because he’s with his friends or his girlfriend Lorena. Xenia and I as often as we get into fights play nicely together games like ping pong. We hang around. She does gymnastics tricks in the playroom which has a pull up bar. Justin, my youngest sibling, has been very fun and plays with me a lot, sometimes we play with boxes, making ourselves into robots.
Sincerely, Jonah
Dear humans, animals, other distant relatives, and colleagues,
As you might already know from above, my name is Xenia. Most people can’t pronounce it. X as in fox. As you might probably know I am ten years old and am in fifth grade. I was in the Shakespeare play for school in Much Ado About Nothing. I was Margaret the friend servant of Hero, Leonato’s daughter. My favorite color is brown, second green, and favorite shade is black followed by white. I know that that may be weird, but I am stranger than that. I am supposedly very fast and surprisingly don’t have a concussion (yet). I am not married. I am a kid, and I am proud of it.
Mom (Syra) loves embroidery, and she always wears a scarf that matches her shirt. She is a great mom. Even though she is often on her phone.
Dad (Mike) is a good reader, cook, driver, and dad. He often read books to us. He and I are reading the Lord of The Rings right now. ‘Without his Sam?!? Even without his Sam. Oh that’s hard very hard.’
Esther is twenty and engaged to Joshua. She is in Thomas Aquinas College in California with Joshua, and she loves Chick-fil-A. She loves music and reads and listens to a lot of books.
Sophia is eighteen and has a boyfriend Anthony who is going into the Air Force. Sophia is in Mercer College in Gorgia. She likes to take naps and we are getting her decorations for her new dorm.
Basil is sixteen, and goes to the same school as me, Justin, and Jonah, St. Peters. He has a girlfriend, Lorena. He is addictive to the computer, and he is good at chess. He also loves sushi.
Jonah is twelve, does not have a girlfriend, and also goes to St. Peters. He is mediocre at chess and loves many board games and books like Mom and Dad. He especially likes Arkham Horror the Card Game which he often plays with them. He always seems to annoy me a lot.
Justin is a little boy of eight. He maybe or maybe not has a girlfriend, and he goes to the same school as his older siblings except for Sophia and Esther, St. Peters. Like me he likes the audio books but unlike me he often forgets to keep it down. He and Jonah play many games. Many of them I disapprove of.
Cordially, Xenia or Susha
Dear friends and family,
I am Justin. I am in third grade. This fall, I was at the Botanical Gardens. I went two times this year. This year I also was in the Shakespeare puppet show. We did, “Taming of the Shrew.” I was Traino. I like to climb. I have some new classmates this year. I like to be with my friends, and I hope you have a nice year.
I have five siblings, Jonah, Basil, Xenia, Sophia, and Esther. My brother Jonah loves to read books like “Percy Jackson,” “Ranger’s Apprentice,” and “Brother Band.” My brother Basil loves to play Minecraft. He plays Java edition. He has a giant castle in Minecraft, and he is also very nice and kind. Xenia loves to play Minecraft too. She doesn’t have Java, but she has Bedrock edition. Me and her love to play ping-pong as well as Jonah. My sister Sophia is very kind. She loves making you feel better. She loves making projects. My sister Esther is a very good sister. She always makes you feel better. She helped me keep track of the calendar. She always brings something for my birthday and Christmas.
I hope you have a happy New Year!
Sincerely, Justin
Syra's Scribbles 