Dear Friends of the Sharritts,
Ajlnele lnljenion. Jnaiijj[ji[, kkkkiehhihl. Jjio . . .
Wait a second! Wait a second! Let me get the assistive tech activated without waking Grandpa (Arch Duke Ferdinand—as he likes to be called). I can’t believe that it is the 27th and he and Grandma have not started their Christmas letter. Who lets the adults decide what we, the hope of the future, would call them? Mom and Dad didn’t even let me name myself. Instead, I came out Margaret Rosemarie on August 12. Don’t get me wrong, Margaret is a great name. Especially when they shorten it to Marge. Marge in Charge as I like to say. Don’t believe me? Let me loosen my vocal cords and Mom and Dad will snap to attention. Ssshhh! They're crashed on the couch after a big Christmas brunch.
Isn’t this assistive tech great? At 4 1/2 months, my hands are just starting to grab things and shove them in my mouth, so without it, it is all Ajlnele Inlienion, Jnaiiij[ii[, kkkkiehhihl. Jjio. With it, I can start and finish Grandma’s and Arch Duke Ferdinand’s Christmas letter. They say they’re busy. But really, its just 1000 words of narrative that practically writes itself.
Speaking of assistive technology, Grandma Bev continues to work at PATINS, the assistive technology specialists helping schools test, install and utilize many gizmos that help kids with blindness and low vision and their pals navigate their academics. It is a great job that takes her all over the state in search of the perfect piece of diner pie. She also spends weekends from May through October putting together cut flower bouquets for Garfield Park’s Farmer’s Market. Stop by Flying Dirt Farms booth next summer on Saturday mornings and meet the cutest member of the sales force (me). See you then.
Gran . . . “Arch Duke Ferdinand” has too many hobbies. Besides his day job, he continues to make dirt fly tilling the flower gardens. He may be going a little bit deaf as I heard grandma’s admonition on several occasion as clear as day,
“No more perennials for the flower beds out east. We have too many the way it is.”
The next week he would be sneaking out to the perennial garden with another box full of plants and a hoe. An hour later he would come back in, the box empty, with dirty knees and a smile on his face. That’s not all. There are bees, and sometimes bike riding, and less often blog writing. Finally, he just finished off Christmas presents in the shop for practically everybody. Well not exactly finished. He still has a couple of tables to finish for Mom and Dad and Aunt Lisa and Uncle Ben. He says that he is close and that he would love nothing more than to visit us in Indianapolis and Lisa and Ben in Cincinnati to deliver the goods in the new Honda Pilot.
What do my Grandma and Gr . . . Arch Duke Ferdinand need with a big ole Honda Pilot? They should be thinking about downsizing. What about saving the planet for little ole me in a Prius? Well even though they know better, their family just keeps getting bigger. Last year you met their foster son J.D. and this year Viki and Vaeh, two sisters returned to the end of the driveway in June after being with their dad for a couple of years. The Subaru Forester was suddenly full with five people. Any time a friend came over (and what jr. high or high schooler doesn’t want friends to come over) the family would have to take two cars to the destination to transport everyone.
I can’t wait to get in the back seat to watch Little Mermaid on the in-car entertainment system. In the mean time, making sure that homework is done, going to band concerts, and monitoring Snap Chat with the fosters makes time fly by for G & ADF and eliminates all of those ridiculous questions about “what were they going to do when they were empty nesters?”
I know what you are thinking. What about you Maggie? What did you do during the past year? Well I started out January the size of a raspberry. I bet you’re wondering, “what can a raspberry get up to?” As it turns out, I was very good at making my mom sick and tired. As I grew through the spring I mastered bladder kick boxing—delighting mom and dad as they anticipated my arrival. Admittedly, even I was a little bored in the summer months while I waited to become a fully cooked watermelon and apparently with me it took nine months and 9 days. Those last few days were pretty stressful.
The families came to Michigan for my big debut and I was a little shy. While the fam was starting to feel like witnesses in a safe house, I grew to be 7 pounds, 4 oz with a 98th percentile head by the time I was born. Since August, I have slowly but steadily been learning new tricks.
I can smile, laugh, spit up on my mom and dad with incredible accuracy, and I’ve already moved to a new state and visited two more. Mom in particular enjoys my sleeping all night trick, which I’ve been doing since I was six weeks old. Currently I am working on my first tooth and my Uncle Ben is teaching me cool dance moves, photoshop fun, and the difference between wood, yarn, and drywall. My best trick is getting grandpa to fall asleep when he gets cranky. Shhhh, he’s asleep he’ll never know that I called him Grandpa. That Arch Duke Ferdinand stuff is such a wacky mouthful.
Jdgghsj kki nnnnhy,b dddd us. Well it looks like jioyhlkjljl technology is about to run out of llttrnny, battery. It has been a lovely and blessed year. I am pretty happy to throw my lot in with this bunch for it is a house of many blessings.
Merry Christmas, Maggie Kozak
