Christmas letter for you

Dear Friends and Family: We hope that 2008 has continued to keep you in high spirits and good health! This has been a very busy year. Pravan is now 6 years old and has started first grade. He enjoys riding the school bus, loves going to school and has a great teacher “Mrs. Ferguson”. Pravan’s independence has grown right along with him as he has joined the Cub Scouts and recently learned to ride his bicycle without training wheels. He is a pro at math and can do math problems on a third grade level and has taken the best speller award in his class. He has exceptional handwriting and we are proud of his achievements. He also has a larger Transformer & Bakugan collection than Toys-R-Us. Priyasha is now 2 years and 9 months old. She will tell you that she is two going on twenty. She is completely independent and does everything by her”t”elf. She can even have a political conversation with you and tell you more about Barack Obama than some grown ups such as what his daughters’ names are and what number president he will be. She is fascinated by the presidents and can recite the first 15 in order and working on more. She can also spell most of her colors and can read simple words. She has moved on from Dora to Strawberry Shortcake and even is getting into Bratz Girls and Hannah Montana. She is growing up too fast if you ask us. We kicked off the New Year with a major snow storm and a sad goodbye to my mother. My mother returned to South Africa after a 6 month visit and I was lucky enough to escort her to New York City and bid farewell to her. She is doing okay now, but recently experienced hypothermia, pneumonia and a heart attack. We are glad she is tough and is still alive. In April, Grandma and Grandpa braved the skies and came from Vermont to Reno to visit with us. We had a wonderful time and went to the Sacramento Zoo and to Lake Tahoe with them. The kids certainly enjoyed them at our house. Reno was shook by a series of earthquakes in May, including a 4.9 magnitude quake. There was no significant damage to the house, but we had several frames fall of the wall and some of them had their glass broken. Over the July 4th Holiday we went to

San Francisco as Pravan wanted to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge and mommy wanted to go to Chinatown. The kids loved that trip although we didn’t have time for a cable car ride…next time. In late July we went on a volcanic themed trip to Oregon via Crater Lake which was breathtaking! Along the way we explored Lava Beds National Monument, Mount Shasta, and Lassen Volcanic Park. We also spent a day shopping and exploring in beautiful Ashland, Oregon. This fall we visited pumpkin farms and did all the usual fall traditions. On Thanksgiving we drove to Anaheim to visit Disneyland. We all had a magical time. Priyasha was in absolute awe when she saw the princesses, the Disney characters and especially Tinkerbell. Pravan was so brave and he went on many scary rides including Space Mountain. Mommy was the biggest kid of all since it was my first time too…if only I could get a job there. I continue to enjoy staying home with the kids and volunteering at Pravan’s school. I baby sit a couple days a week and hope to someday nurture my love of photography into a fulltime job. I have created my own family website http://www.twoworldsunite.blogspot.com/ so please check it out. Todd has now been at the Town of Truckee for over 5 years as a civil engineer managing capital improvement projects. We are also awaiting the arrival of another niece from Todd’s sister and the kids are thrilled about having another cousin. We can’t wait to see what the New Year has in store!

We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Love,

The Landry Family