Campbell Christmas Letter 2013
This year, we decided to crowdsource the family Christmas letter. Each member of our family was randomly assigned to write about another family member. Here’s what we came up with:
Scott (by Jerome) - Scott Campbell, patriarch of the Ohki-Campbell household, is currently employed as the president of Decagon Devices, a position which he has held for a little over two years. His main athletic achievement for the year was finishing a half-ironman triathlon. Unfortunately, your correspondent was unable to witness this endeavor because Scott’s wife didn’t want her children to be present when he was in “racemode”. In preparation for the family’s Oregon Coast trip, he painted the family travel trailer, transforming its surface from a dingy off-white to a brilliant pearl sheen. The only downside to this project was that your correspondent had to assist with the sanding of the trailer’s surface prior to painting. His passion for cooking has continued, resulting in the perfection of “sauce-ome” (sauce+awesome), which can make any old hunk of meat into a first-class meal.
Marie (by Scott) - My wonderful wife continues to make the Young Women’s organization run smoothly, mostly by keeping the girls well-fed with cookies during the last hour of church each week. Upon re-assembling her sewing area after last year’s renovations, she fueled her insane quilting sessions with web-streamed episodes of “This American Life”. I convinced her that buying a road bike was a good idea. She sometimes rides it on a trainer indoors, but I think she’s still pretty skeptical about the whole thing. Marie sometimes reprises her role as home “creative director”, most recently as the master-mind of a stairs wainscotting project.
Jerome (by Asha) - This year Jerome turned 14, and started 9th grade at Pullman High. Every morning, he wakes up at 6 am on his own to head to early morning seminary. While not busy with school and cross-country, he loves to watch BBC’s “Dr. Who”, which he has hooked me on as well. He also makes small-scale props from Dr. Who using cardboard, balsa wood, and hot glue. He enjoys choir at school, and this year was the first freshman from PHS accepted to All-State Choir.
Asha (by Quinn) - Asha has a door alarm. I think she likes it because if someone tries to steal something from her room, she knows, unless she’s at school. Asha started middle school and Young Women this year. Asha likes gymnastics. She gets lots of medals. Asha likes Taylor Swift, but she listens to it so much that I get a little tired of it. Asha plays pretty music on the piano. She practices all the time. I like the song she’s learning now. It’s the hard one that has a note that is hard to reach - “River Flows in You”.
Kai (by Marie) - If you want something done and you can convince Kai to do it, he will deliver. Incidentally, that’s one of the first things Scott’s mom told me about him. If you are Kai’s younger brother, luck is on your side. He will share everything and let you in on all his adventures. In fact, Quinn wanted to invite all of Kai’s friends to his birthday party because he always includes Quinn when he has friends over. Since I know Kai to be a boy who hates sitting still, I’ve been surprised that he likes school, and proudly lays out tests and papers for me to admire when he gets home from school. He is often busy building something with Lego bricks. His favorite bedtime activity is listening to books read by Scott, with his favorite being “The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear”. This is actually one of the only times Kai will sit still.
Quinn (by Kai) - Over the year Quinn started kindergarten in August, started loving Transformers Prime in July, started liking Tron Uprising, and had a birthday in November. I like to play with Quinn because we sometimes get in fights but we always work it out and he likes what I like. Quinn started swim lessons again this year, and Mom says he has good form because he floats.
Merry Christmas!
