Jacobs Family Top 10 for 2007

And just like that, another Christmas has come and gone. It was a good one, though, thanks to an abundance of family, friends, food, and snow. (It's been a while since it actually snowed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, at least for our family. In Washington we were lucky if we saw snow once or twice all winter.) We wrote all about it on Wednesday. By Thursday all the family had gone home and we breathed a sigh -- not so much of relief, but of sadness to see it end.

On Friday evening we drove down to Lehi for a get-together with a bunch of my old roommates and friends from college. It was fun to hang out and reminisce about the good times at BYU and see how well they're all doing now. A lot of them live down in Utah Valley but there were several families who were in town from out of state and we hadn't seen many of them since graduating. We didn't bring our camera but hopefully they'll email us some of the pictures that were taken.

Yesterday was pretty boring; we stayed home and cleaned the place up. But it's always nice to get the house back into order. One thing that has helped is that Christy's dad, brothers and I put together three sets of shelves for our food storage room downstairs, so we were able to get a lot of food out of our upstairs pantry.

And now, with 2007 just hours away from becoming history -- it's time to bring you.... (drumroll) the Top 10 Jacobs Family Moments for 2007! (Hey, where's everybody going? This is way more exciting than our pantry clean-out!)

10. Riley's non-emergencies. Our 2-year-old took us to the emergency room twice this year, both times at night after the Insta-care Clinic had closed (of course). The first time he dislocated his elbow, which the doctor fixed in two second flat after we waited around for an hour. The next time he attempted to O.D. on flouride toothpaste. It turned out he hadn't had near enough to cause permanent harm, but he complained of a tummy-ache and he got all the way to the parking lot before mom and dad, after calling Poison Control, determined he was fine (especially since he was singing in the parking lot by that time).

9. The family fights off vicious attack by man-eating rattlesnake at Kodachrome Basin State Park in southern Utah. Okay okay, so it was a baby rattlesnake that slithered under our picnic table but it still caused quite a stir!

8. Christy bakes an amazing red chile chocolate cake for her birthday. If you think a cake shouldn't be in the top 10, much less at number eight, then you obviously didn't have a bite of this cake!

7. Bruce fulfills a long-time ambition by making a movie. Yeah, it was our campaign video and it was just 7 minutes long, but it was fun to write, produce and help direct it. You can learn about being a 2-Minute CFC Hero by watching the movie at www.intermountaincfc.org (Dan, Christy and I have some cameos)

6. Mom and Dad Jacobs leave for the mission in Spain. So this wasn't really our moment, per se, but attending their farewell was one of the spiritual highs of the year, and getting to read about their experiences and see the amazing pictures they send back has been great. Thanks for the great example, Mom and Dad.

5. Riley gets potty-trained. Need we say more?

4. Sammy starts pre-school. This one was a great moment for him of course, but also great for Mom, who gets a 2.5 hour sanity check three times a week.

3. Family comes for Christmas. We got to spend Christmas and several days before and after with Christy's whole family. Having lived in Washington for six years, we seldom got to spend Christmas with family. Now we've had that blessing for two years in a row, with my family last year and Christy's this year. And we all got to hang out with Dan & Deanne and Leah & Joel for Christmas Eve this year. (See previous post).

2. Christy's Choir Christmas Program. Several months of preparation and hard work went into this one. Part of that work was convincing the bishop to allow the choir to run the program at all! During the performance the choir sang better than it ever had, and the music and message were terrific. I was really proud of Christy and really touched by the whole program. Some of you got to be there; for those who didn't, we wish you could have.

1. The arrival of Ezekiel (Zeke) Leo Jacobs on December 5th. Well, you knew this would be #1 by far. For all the details, see our letter from the day after. We'll get pictures up on this site soon.


We wish you all a happy 2008!

Christmas Letter 2007

Seasons Greetings! The year 2007 is nearly behind us, and the Jacobs family is happier, healthier, smarter and more talented than ever. Perhaps not as happy, healthy, smart or talented as your family, judging by the epistle in your homemade Christmas card that arrived on December 1^st… but at least we aim for full disclosure! SO, now that we have the Christmas letter pleasantries behind us, let’s get down to business here.

This year we’re pulling out all the stops (and clichés) to share something really intimate with you. Not as intimate, perhaps, as our near-naked newborn son tucked in a Christmas stocking (see card) but almost as good. Yes, we’ve decided to give you a front-row seat to the Jacobs family dinnertime ritual, with the play-by-play called by ESPN’s Dick Vitale. Take it away, Dickie.

Dick: Ba-boom, baby! I’m sitting tableside with the Jacobs tonight and it looks like Mom has cooked up another delicious and nutritious dinner! How does she do it!? Didn’t this beautiful woman give birth to her third, yes third, son just one week ago? And here come the oldest two now. Dad is shepherding them into the bathroom to wash their hands. Oh! They just executed a textbook scatter move to avoid hand-washing. But it looks like Dad’s got ’em cornered. I’m telling you, this man has the size and weight advantage and he’s not afraid to use it, baby! One under each arm—look at the determination on his face!

OK, hands are washed and they’re sitting down for the meal. Here comes the blessing… and Sammy jumps off his chair! He’s off to the races… but no! Brilliantly corralled by Mom, and I’ll tell you what, she had the foresight to strap Riley into his booster chair first to prevent another scatter play. This woman’s seen it all, folks. Oops, boys are fighting over who gets to say the blessing again. Let’s see how Mom & Dad handle this one. Yes, Sammy admits he said it at lunchtime, and he’s, he’s… calming down. Whew! This 4-and-a-half-year-old is really showing signs of maturity lately… maybe it’s the preschool class. He wows his teacher every day with his reading and phonics skills!

Dinner is served. Dad dishes up Sammy’s chicken casserole while Mom helps Riley. And Sammy’s off his chair again! There he goes! He’s off to the potty races folks. Boy, you get that body sitting still for five seconds and look what happens. Now Sammy’s back. He goes for the rolls---ooh! Rejected by Mom! No bread until you’ve tasted your casserole, young man! Meanwhile Riley uses the distraction to tip his chair backward—denied by Mom again! But good try. This is one almost 3-year-old whose competitive fire is only matched by his vocabulary! Was that an adverb he just threw out there like a champ? Maybe, but what do I know, I’m a sports broadcaster…

And now timeout is called by baby Ezekiel (Zeke, baby!) who just pulled a hat trick by interrupting dinner for the third straight night. Kid’s got moxie, I tell you! And check the stats on this little guy: 7 lbs 13 oz, 21-inch vertical, with a head like a beach ball! Good thing he was born a week early! OK, Mom plugs him with a binkie and we’re back into action! Sammy and Riley still refuse to try the casserole… uh-oh baby, this one could go the distance! Mom and Dad are busting out all the moves: bribery, super-heroes and villains, cajoling, begging, pleading... Did Dad just threaten a college tuition blackout? Yes! Will it work…? No! Would you look at the recalcitrance on those angelic faces! The sheer defiance! Their lips are sealed tighter than Daddy’s wallet, and they COULD—GO—ALL—THE—WAY until bedtime!

But no! Christy pulls out the last-resort: dessert! We’re headed to overtime with double-chocolate-chip cookies! (Would you believe Bruce made them?) She and Dad are eating them in front of the kids… The boys are eyeballing the treats, now looking back at dinner. I don’t know, I think their will is crumbling… and they’re eating! Whoa! And just like that, dinner is devoured in unbelievable time and it’s all over but the face wiping. Another thriller! This has been Dick Vitale, and I’m out!

Thank you, Dick. And thank you, bewildered reader, for your love and friendship, and for braving yet another year of the Jacobs Family Christmas Letter. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful, prosperous, and of course, Happy New Year!

Marshmallow Battle Royale

Our week has been go-go-go, and the weekend was even busier, but now that Christmas is in the rear-view mirror I thought we should catch you up on what’s been happening. Christy’s mom, Luana, flew in on Saturday the 15^th, which allowed me to go back to work and focus on final Christmas shopping (Christy’s shopping had been wrapped up for weeks). It’s been a slower pace at work lately, so it leaves me with flexibility in getting other things done as well. However, I’m happy to say that the CFC campaign has raised more than we did last year ($2.3 million), although we might come up a little shy of our goal ($2,450,000). Still, I don’t feel too bad about that because I pushed for us to set a very ambitious goal and we won’t be too far short of it I believe. That’s all I will bore you with regarding work.

On Thursday Dec. 20^th we had quite a snowstorm here. It started about 3:30 p.m. and by the time I got home around 5 p.m. we already had about 4-5 inches. Sammy had a preschool Christmas performance that night, which Christy and Luana attended but unfortunately I had to attend traffic school because I’d been cited for making an improper left-hand turn in Ogden (I didn’t turn into the closest lane). It’s just a good thing that Ogden doesn’t have any crime or safety issues so its police force can spend so much time at the end of each month issuing tickets to meet their “performance standard” a.k.a. quota. By the way, the officer teaching traffic school openly admitted there is a quota and that most of the policemen hate it. Luckily it had stopped snowing while I was there so everyone made it home that night without incident.

Christy’s brother John flew into town on Friday, and the rest of her family came the next day. I picked him up at the airport after having dinner with Uncle Bill, Scott and their family at Rodizio’s Grill in Salt Lake – Uncle Bill’s treat – since Scott was getting married the next day. On Saturday afternoon I drove down to the 5-Star Ranch south of Provo with Dan and Deanne to see the wedding, which was a lot of fun. Scott’s new wife is a spunky woman, so I see this marriage working out pretty well. Christy had her family Christmas party that evening, so she couldn’t make it – but Dan and Deanne dropped me off at their party in SLC on the way home. I came just in time for our family’s part in the program – we sang a Christmas song Luana wrote called “Once Upon a Silent Night.” I say “we” sang the song but in actuality it was Sammy, who stood on a chair, grabbed the microphone and belted it, word-for-word and with perfect pitch, at the top of his voice. There is no such thing as stage fright for that boy.

By the time we left I was on pins and needles because BYU was in the middle of their Las Vegas Bowl game vs. UCLA. We had set up the VCR to record it, and after getting home and making sure the game was over, we rewound the tape and started watching. Dan had listened to most of it on the radio but he stopped listening with about 1 minute left, so even he didn’t know the outcome. As most of you know, BYU blocked a 28-yard field goal with 3 seconds left in the game to preserve a 17-16 victory. They also ensured that yet another year of my life was taken from me thanks to another gut-wrenching, hand-wringing, nail-biting, down-to-the-last-second game.

Sunday brought our ward choir's Christmas program in Sacrament meeting. Christy is our ward choir director and, despite her self-critique, did a wonderful job in preparing the choir. The music was terrific and the choir sang better during the performance than it ever had in practice. For me it was a spiritual highlight of the year, although admittedly some of that was probably due to the fact that we didn't have to wrestle with two children throughout the meeting. Music is often my favorite part of worship.

Fast-forward to Christmas Eve. We all headed over to Dan & Deanne’s house, during yet another snowstorm, at about 5 p.m. and enjoyed a delicious meal of New Mexico tamales, posole (Deanne did a terrific job on that one!) and afterwards, Ris Krem – and yes, that should be capitalized along with all proper nouns. We exchanged a few gifts for the boys, but far and away the most entertaining thing were Deanne’s gifts: 8 homemade mini-marshmallow blow-guns made of PVC pipe. For the next 20 minutes chaos reigned supreme as marshmallow pellets whizzed through the air and many a casualty was incurred, thanks mostly to the aiming prowess of Tracen and his surprisingly powerful lungs. I guess all that pretend webbing and lasering has paid off for him. Dan actually got a marshmallow going with enough velocity that it stuck permanently to the wall… and rumor has it that more than one of the little white bullets were extricated some our underclothing that evening. Oh, but I nearly forgot to mention that before “Mini Iwo Jima” we had a nice Christmas program in which we re-enacted the Savior’s birth with a nice Christmas program in which the boys fought over which costume they got to wear. Sammy got to be the angel but was chagrined when we had to reprimand him for pulling a gun on the shepherds. He defended the action by claiming it was “a gun that shoots stars.” Well, we tried.

Christmas Day was great, of course. Riley got a mini-kitchen, which thrilled him to no end. Sammy received a kid’s digital camera and by the end of the day he’d snapped more pictures than I have in my lifetime and nearly drained all the battery power. But I’m sure there are some Pulitzer-prize winning photographs of our carpet, the TV and Grandma’s chin in there. Santa brought me a carry-on suitcase and Christy got me a Shop Vac – both things that I’d wanted. Christy received Crème Brule bowls, perfume and the Dan-in-Real-Life movie soundtrack on CD. And of course there was tons of chocolate, stollen toast and other goodies. That evening we dined on a delicious ham, fresh orange rolls and topped it off with carrot pudding and coconut cream pie for dessert. We also had some fun playing outside in the snow.

So you see, it's been a great week -- made even better of course by having Christy's family here to share it with us. There is nothing like being with family for the holidays. I wish we could have seen more of you, but I'm sure we'll have that chance in Christmases yet to come.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday, Baby Jacobs!

Dear friends & family,

Tuesday evening, after Christy had been experiencing relatively mild but steady contractions all day long, we decided to take Sammy & Riley over to Dan and Deanne's house for the night. It was a good decision. Christy woke me up at 2 a.m., which seems to be her body's scheduled time to get the "real" labor underway. She had pretty steady contractions for a couple of hours before we decided to call and let our midwife know, not wanting to leave anything to chance what with morning rush hour traffic, etc.

I guess you could call her labor experience a "normal" one, although there's really nothing normal about the birth experience. Each one is unique and wonderful. I can't speak for Christy's experience of course, which was FAR more intense than what I went through. All I can say is that it's humbling to watch the woman you love go through intense physical trauma in order to give birth to our child. The actual experience of watching your son make his entrance into the world is tremendouly emotional and even spiritual -- mixed with relief and gratitude that everything went well. It's amazing to watch that instant connection between mother and son, as the previous hours of discomfort and pain are almost all forgotten right away.

Our little guy was born at 9:20 a.m., weighing in at 7 lbs, 13 oz and 21 inches long and with an extra big head. He came exactly one week before the official due date of Dec. 12. (It's interesting that all three of our sons came at roughly the same time of morning after starting labor at about the same time during the night. I guess Sammy left a blueprint behind for the other two to follow.)

Well, you all know how we are with names. Sammy went nameless for three days and Riley for almost one. We had a short list of names we liked and wanted to see which one "fit." Well, this time it happened a little sooner, which is a first for us. We have decided his name will be Ezekiel Leo Jacobs, but we'll call him Zeke. Before the birth, Zeke was alternating between my first and second choice but was probably third or fourth for Christy, yet when I told her which name I liked best for our new little guy she surprised me by saying that she was thinking the same thing. So there you have it.

Thanks to all of you for your love and friendship. We hope you'll get to meet our little Zeke before long.