Dear family and friends,
As they seem to do every year lately, the holidays have managed to sneak up on us. In an effort to take at least one thing off our plate, and since we still have this fancy website, we’ve decided to once again take the easy way out and write a family Christmas letter in lieu of sending out Christmas cards. Since Cynthia wrote last year’s update, it’s my turn to tell you about all the goings-on in the Allison family in 2019.
Henry
Henry turned one in February and, somewhere along the way, progressed from crawling to walking. He sometimes walks with his hands clasped behind his back like a minor British royal, which is slightly hilarious, and has started climbing on the furniture, which is slightly worrying.
He is still in daycare full time and loves his teachers. Maybe even more than he loves us, which we don’t take personally. At. All. He also loves freeze-dried strawberries more than perhaps anyone on earth has ever loved anything else. He isn’t quite talking yet but he’s very good at signing, especially when he wants more freeze-dried strawberries, and he’s become quite the expert on animal noises.
George
George is now three, which doesn’t seem possible since he was seemingly just born a few months ago and also somehow several years ago. He is also in daycare, though he spends part of his week in a pre-school class at the T.K. Martin Center on Mississippi State’s campus, where they are helping him with his speech and motor-skill delays. Even though he doesn’t have a diagnosis, he also gets one-on-one therapy once a week at the Autism Clinic, which is also on the Mississippi State campus, and is already making lots of progress.
He loves movies (especially Toy Story and Coco), books and swinging at the park. His favorite word is “bye” because, in true Allison fashion, he is more than happy to leave wherever he is.
Neither George nor Henry talk, but if they did, this is what we imagine they would say:
We are very busy boys. We like to run and play and spend a good bit of the day hitting our parents and each other. In fact, the most frequently spoken phrase in our house is “no hits.” It doesn’t work. We continue hitting. Hitting is literally our favorite thing.
There is no end in sight to this phase. We really wish our parents would just accept this and move on. Other than constant hitting, we enjoy playing at the park, being read to and looking through books, throwing dirt, eating freeze-dried yogurts and strawberries, watching movies, and going on walks around the neighborhood.
Merry Hitsmas!
George and Henry
Cynthia
Cynthia is now working full-time for the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, where she seemingly gets more responsibility every single day. It also means she knows more about what’s going on in Starkville than I do, which is an unexpected – though welcome – development.
She is also, in my not-at-all biased opinion, the greatest person who has ever lived. And this is on the internet, so it has to be true.
Philip
As for me, I am still managing the marketing and communications efforts for Mississippi State’s Bagley College of Engineering. I’ve taken over hosting duties for the college’s monthly television show, which is both exhilarating and terrifying, and recently installed a new gas dryer, which was both exhilarating and terrifying.
Happy Holidays!
It’s certainly been a busy year for all of us, and we’ve likely experienced every single emotion known to man over the course of these last 12 months. And maybe even some that were heretofore unknown. But the bottom line is we are happy and healthy and extraordinarily blessed.
Here’s hoping you and yours have a very happy holiday season and a terrific New Year!
Love,
Philip, Cynthia, George & Henry