[Oe List ...] Xmas letter

[rmxbutcher at aim.com]

I'm Genevieve, I'm?9 (months).? I'm the last in line of my cousins and so my grandfather is going to have to figure some other way to write a xmas letter pretty soon.

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He likes us kids and so i report on them.? As for me, I'm little.? i can commando crawl and stand up by furniture.? I laugh when?my parents?encourage me 

and even when they don't.? During the day, I watch sunlight in the window and the dust bits in the air, fuss when I'm hungry, get fed, screech a tad when I'm wet(and?usually?get pretty good service).

All in all?not much pressure--a top of the line life.???

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My brother Caden is four.? He's always coming up with what the?grandparents?call "charmers" or "Cadenisms".? Stuff like changing his identity to Lightening McQueen or Spiderman or Tyrannosaurus Rex--all without warning.? He still looks the same to me but he says he's not.? Or he asks my grandparents if the music on the car radio is classical.? Or, for example, he asked what street is this when they pulled up to granddad's house? last?Xmass??? While he's not so big that he goes to school he does that thing?called reading which seems to tickle quite a few grownups--a little trick he picked?up when he was two or three and which made them all blink.?

He's nice enough?to me?though he did say?he wasn't quite sure why he?needed a baby sister.? Still he's nice to me.? But I do wonder if I'm supposed to pick up all these tricks he does early on.? I kind of hate to turn out to be Forest Gump if he's going to do all that.? What would my parents think.? I hear most parents love their kids?regardless.? They're not going to be able to find out about me for a while any how.

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My Mom and Dad are?both social workers. In Michigan.? Cold.? He finds jobs for people without jobs.? Mom does counseling or psych assessment for people who've lost their mind--temporarily lost?lost their mind?but some are trying hard to find it again?.? She has?surprising but sometimes sad stories from her job.

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My mother's other two sisters?and my Granddad and Grandmother Butcher live in Los Angeles.? 

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Chris and Katie Smith live with my Aunt Carol and Uncle Walt. Actually they live with my granddad and grandmother while their house is being rebuilt.??I go to see them three or four times a year.? Katie is six and a girl like me.? She goes to kindergarten.? She loves to read and is a pretty happy girl.? When my grandparents ask her?how she is doing she nearly always says she's doing great.? I thought "great" was supposed to be something very special but I guess she is something special.?? Her brother Chris, age eight,?is the same way.? They're always doing great--maybe unless it's just a few minutes before it's time to go to school.? Chris loves to construct things, but he often complains about the reading part.?My granddad says some researcher?claims that girls play with dolls and make up complex social?interactions?while young boys?just grab a toy car and go "udun udun".? Hence this researcher proposes one shouldn't teach boys to read until the third grade.? Chris agrees.? One special quality about Chris though leads my grandfather?to believe?Chris will be a great Buddhist.? Chris sees the suffering in every moment.? If Chris has a couple hours to play and is having a great time he starts crying with an hour and a half to go because he knows the play time will end.? Other people?may not be?that sensitive to the end of good times coming before the ends comes.? I'm not, I just keep commando crawling around.? But Chris knows the end's coming and responds.

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My Aunt Carol, their Mom, counts money,lots of it,?for a living.? She counts a billion dollars?that's scattered around all over the place and she has to find out where it went.?? One of their sister company did lose a million. So Aunt Carol and some people called muckity mucks went back east to find out what happened.?The guys back there said "We didn't know.??We had that million right here just the other day. Darn it where did?we put it."? Carol said it was a sad day for them.? I hear Aunt Carol gets paid a "bundle" but I'd rather have cash myself.

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My Uncle Walt is building their house just about all day and sometimes all night.? Somehow he even keeps the rain from falling on the house.? I guess that somehow requires a lot of plastic and a lot of climbing around on the roof in the rain.? Uncle Walt is fighting the elements?like Captain Ahab fighting Moby Dick.? My uncle doesn't have a wooden leg or anything, but he has Captain Ahab's intensity.? Again I'm just a kid on the floor and I plan to stay down there.

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My other cousins don't live in Long Beach--they live in Thousand Oaks.? Both are parts of Los Angeles.? My Aunt Elaine and Uncle Greg have three kids.? Brooke is the oldest and has an occasional sickness called a "tude"--that's due to another longer term condition--adolescence. ?I guess people learn a lot in that condition and then sometimes find out there's still a lot to learn.? My granddad?was quite proud of Brooke because?she worked so hard when they?went?to Mexico to build a room on a house along with Aunt Elaine, grandma and 12 other people.? The wind was blowing and dirt was flying.? But Brooke was working all the day long--while some other teenage boys were temporarily, at least, sitting down at ten in the morning?and whimpering "Is it time for lunch yet?"? And Brooke's awfully nice to me, though she has a lot of work to do because she goes to some Catholic school where there's a lot of?school work that?that they try to make you do at home.

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David, 11, is?as he says, a double digit boy.??He is one of my brother Caden's favorite cousins.??Caden tells him a lot of jokes that I don't understand--nor do I?hear?many other people laughing.? But David still listens.? He a good boy.? His mom is researching a performing arts/science junior high school for him.? Sounds like a good match

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Michael is the other brother.? He loves spelling and soccer.? He?organized a spelling bee for his birthday.? He plays soccer here there and everywhere.? They even put?milk cartons?in their backyard?for targets for?Michael's??soccer practice.? I don't quite understand but he sure is hard on those milk cartons.? I can see I have a lot to?try to figure out?as I grow older.

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My Aunt Elaine is a traffic coordinator for the activities of?her children and one evening a week she teaches classes to?moms who are about to have children.? She is also a manager for Michael's travelling soccer team and teaches Japanese one day a week at her kids school.? My my how those kids do keep her busy.? And she loves it--especially when she can get enough sleep.? Uncle Greg is in charge of a boys and girls club.? He was going to change?jobs but the people cried when he?told them so they made him an offer he couldn't refuse.?? He stayed--and he works awfully hard on behalf of those kids.

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My grandparents started teaching English as a second language and health classes in Tijuana, Mexico.? They've done?several 6 week sessions three days a week and have left their small RV?in Mexico.? They build houses in Tijuana?on the weekend--especially my grandfather.? Occasionally the old man wants to go overboard on such things, but my grandmother pretty much sets it up so he can follow his passion without getting hurt or getting in over his head and without sucking her down the drain in such efforts.? Woman's probably a saint.???I will say?somebody may be pulling some of my granddad's hair out--that plus?bleaching it.??? Kind of a splotchy job.??Maybe it's?a beginning beauty school student;?if so,?I'm a little worried about their graduation.? The old folks still are pretty?much in the go go elder phase.? They've tripped around the states a bunch.? They?went to Japan for meeting near the Japanese Alps and to see old friends in the northern island.? They also feel lucky to have Aunt Carol's whole family living with them in the house.? It's a little tight but granddad gets to read some fairy tales and rub their backs at night as he did to my mom and her sisters.? Indeed?my grandparents?feel blessed and they're hopeful you and all yours and indeed all the world?is blessed this year and into the future.

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Cheers

Genevieve Butcher Mahaffey



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