Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to all! This year, busy with visitors, travels, and three children, has slipped by seemingly faster than the last.


Time may be speeding along, but Mackenzie and I travel quite slowly. It's a bit like we're riding a motor scooter on the autobahn of life. She is often walking backwards, hopping, balancing, kicking leaves, splashing in puddles and needing the toilet at the most inopportune moments. Efforts to assist her are often rejected with a resounding, "No! By mineself!" Her smile is a ray of sunshine in rainy Belgium but, as with all 3-year-olds, she can also make her own storm clouds. The rug in front of the TV is her dance floor, the couch is often a boat, at times there’s a snake in the room, and any doll or stuffed animal is named "Ella." She no longer asks permission to be a princess, instead she simply strips down to her underpants and brings me her gown. Mackenzie has accepted that to play with her brother she's going to occasionally carry a weapon. Quotes: When she was angry recently... “I don’t wanna be happy!” She's still trying to figure out English: "I want some little bit of that." When she was pessimistic: "I'll be crying when I wake up." She takes things literally: "Hold on a minute, Mackenzie!" has her grabbing for something: "OK, I'm holding!" To Mackenzie lip gloss is to be used all over the face, comments are to be repeated until they are acknowledged, and sports school is the best part of the week. She understands Flemish but doesn't speak much, although she's begun correcting our pronunciation. She comes home from school sometimes with random things belonging to other children after telling her teacher they are hers. Thus, for awhile, we jokingly called Mackenzie "the liar!" She tries to be helpful...after shattering 2 glasses recently she scurried off to get some tape. Mackenzie shows she loves you with soft hugs and kisses (usually at bedtime).

In constant motion, Dylan bounces his head and swings his arms even when he's running or skipping along. He's kind of like an out of control bobblehead with arms and legs (our Belgian friends might have to google that). Sitting still would be a form of torture for Dylan. It's not unusual for him to do a headstand on the sofa while watching TV. Dylan is not an actor. He can't keep a straight face when he's trying to fool you, and when he's guilty he looks oh, so guilty. For a short time he was a collector of beer bottle caps to the point of pushing beer on Amy and me to feed his addiction: "Dad when you're done with that beer are you going to have another?" He still collects dirt and sand, but not intentionally. Other things Dylan has uttered: "Can I play Legos at soccer today?" "What kind of bomb do you choose?" "I don't like it...I love it!" "I have lots of good toys that I can never play with because I have to go to school." To Dylan force fields are real, sound effects are necessary, chocolate can also be worn as a goatee, and it's OK to wear yesterday's socks and hide his clean ones in the dirty laundry. His rating scale is simply the thumb: up, down or sometimes in between. The training wheels came off his bike this past Spring. This was a momentous event for Dylan's self confidence. Pool and cabin life over the summer were the perfect things for him: Swimming every day, fishing off the dock, boat rides, and water sports put some needed adventure in his life. He matured more in those few weeks than he did the previous six months. He now goes to the English speaking international school and loves it. He really enjoyed clay creations and soccer, his out of school activities, and I think he'll want to continue with both. Dylan shows he loves you through physical contact.

Taylor is a safety watchdog: "Dad you're not buckled in." "Dad you're only supposed to go 50 km/h here." Keeping a secret is difficult for her...she can do it but she drops a lot of hints. The honeymoon with school and Taylor is over. As a 5 year old she would pretend to do homework. Now she's 7 and homework is to be avoided, negotiated or sometimes forgotten. Still, she's doing fine in class despite the language difference. Her Flemish is good enough that recently a woman, hearing Taylor speak both languages, commented on how good her English was. She says she doesn't like Dylan's shooting games but she'd rather do that than play alone. Taylor is the talker in the family and, as Amy says, we're not really sure where she gets that! The tooth fairy is making Taylor wealthy. While Dylan laughs at my jokes, Taylor rolls her eyes, "Daaad." Her life is filled with play dates, tennis lessons, and sport academie. Taylor loves horses and movie nights. She's also a big fan of telling the same joke we've all heard 20 times and still expecting a laugh. The moment I first held her I told myself I would see her not only as a child but as what she would become. Instead, nearly every day I think of her as that child I held in my arms just moments after she was born. How can it be that she's come so far, so fast?

Amy's still hot! She loves the croissants, waffles, Belgian chocolate and baguettes that are so prevalent in Belgium. Now she's found a place that actually serves bagels (although they don't taste quite right to me). Luckily for her she's had a resurgence in her passion for running which offsets the outrageous amount of carbohydrates in the foods listed above. The alarm doesn't drag her out of bed for early morning runs much, however. Instead, it wakens me, which may be some sort of revenge for me coming to bed at 2 in the morning from time to time. She manages to get her runs in anyway. Amy is also running from the cops, or at least trying to avoid them, as she cruises around Europe in her company car. Her need for speed has resulted in a handful of tickets I know of and probably some I'll never know about. She still loves to pass time reading and she joined a book club shortly after we arrived in Belgium. Her latest hobby is creating photo albums of our travels. I like this better than her reading because, although she competes with me for the computer, I get to spend time with her past 10 in the evening. Secretly I think Amy enjoys playing Legos more than princess pretend stuff, but I'm not sure. Amy's first and foremost passion is for family. She is exactly the mother her children deserve and just the right person for me.





I'm doing well. Just trying to keep the hair on my head, like most guys. At 41 that's not the only problem a guy has to deal with. I don't need to get into that, of course, since it's the same for all of us (sooner or later). I will say that there are times I feel 25 again, at least until I look in the mirror! I play basketball once a week and although I'm not as quick as I was 20 years ago I still have the same knack for missing even the simplest shot. Lately the guys have been going out for a beer after hoops, which I hope will continue in the new year. I've really come to enjoy cooking, which is mostly because I like to eat. This goes well with my interest in surfing the net, of course, since there are limitless cooking tips, ideas and recipes on the web. Although my meals can be hit or miss, it's safe to say that I'm better with a spatula than a mop. I enjoy playing poker with dads from Dylan's school every couple of months and I'm also in an American football pool (i.e. not soccer) with my sister, Lisa. I'm guessing I'm the only guy in Belgium that's participating in Pappy's Corner Pub's football contest in Fort Collins, Colorado. Mom and Chris (also my sister) are in the pool as well and they are still in the money while Lisa and I are in need of a miracle (with only 2 weeks left in the season). You may have noticed from this letter that I also enjoy writing (or typing in this case). I'm sure you can also gather from this letter that I consider myself very lucky for the family I have.

Murphy, the black labrador, now has more than a touch of gray. She's a survivor at 13 and, if you've read previous blog posts you know that she scared off a burglar this past year. She was quite a hero. She's as neurotic as ever, which is fine since we wouldn't know how to act if she became normal, at this point. We love her, and I remind myself of this at 5:30 in the morning when she starts whining for food.

The year was packed with travels, most of which should have been blogged by now, but haven't been. I joined mom, my sisters, and brother in law for the annual Vegas trip. Amy met her sister Julie for a long weekend in London. Lisa and Chris came for 2 weeks in April which was highlighted by 6 days in Scotland. John (Amy's brother) and Kim came soon thereafter and we journeyed with them to the Loire Valley (France) before they set off on their own romantic adventures. My nephew, Toby, traveled Europe in true American fashion (i.e. doing as much as possible in as little time as possible). I took him to Amsterdam for a day and then met him in Italy for a few days as he drove around the continent in a last gasp before medical school. After a fun visit to the States we wandered around Tuscany for a week with Grandma Rosie, Theresa, Fred, Julie and cousins Trevor and Lexi. We visited a number of towns and villages and still managed to get some pool time. Mom visited for 10 days in October. Since we didn't travel she's our first visitor to get a taste of our day to day life in Belgium. The next week just the family bolted for Strasbourg and Chamonix (both in France) with a night in Luxembourg City on the return.

We hope your year was as wonderful as ours. To all of our family and friends, we wish you a happy holiday season and all the best in 2008.

Love,
the Brownes