Presumably, it's 2013's final post.

This morning my mom e-mailed me to tell me that she still had not received my Christmas card. So first I growled and silently badmouthed the mail system. But then I did some investigative research and opened up my master Christmas card address list. I found some interesting pieces of intel—mainly—that I never even sent a Christmas card to my own parents. Whoops.

So to anyone else that may not have received a Christmas card from the Giles family, feel free to blame it on the fact that my incompetency increases with the rising of each day's sun. And here it is.

AND! As a bonus, I'm even throwing in a teensy-wheensy family update! Just completely for fun! Exclamation mark!

MAREN (17 months)
• Without anyone's permission, Maren is soon headed into nursery. Don't look at me! I don't know how it happened either.
• She LOVES to brush teeth. About once an hour she says something that slightly resembles the word "teeth" and motions me to the bathroom so I can lift her up to the counter to brush her pearly baby whites.
• Maren makes super-awesome facial expressions. We all know who she got that from. (Note: See my Inheritable Hopefuls list from 2009.)
• Maren doesn't talk too much, but when she does talk, it's completely incomprehensible and in total whispers. So it's like everything she has to say is a deep, dark secret.
• Lastly, she just loves poking people in the eyes. She gets a real kick out of it. Laughs her little curly head off.

CLARA (4 months out from 4)
• A week from tomorrow she'll be a Sunbeam! I can't even believe it. She's pretty pumped.
• Clara is an awesome storyteller. Sometimes she'll make announcements like "I have a story to tell you in 30 minutes." Other times she doesn't make us wait in anticipation—she'll just lay right into it. For a long time, all her stories started out with the phrase "A long time ago there was a very old man..." But since the Christmas tree popped up, her old man main character has taken a hiatus and has been replaced with a Christmas tree character who walks and talks and shops at Costco. So, he's pretty much just a Christmas tree version of the old man.
• Clara really rocks at the big sister role. She's a great mentor and so, so protective of Maren. If I ever get after Maren for doing something she shouldn't be doing, Clara gets all puppy-eyed and comes to her defense. Isn't that just adoracute?

SEASON (nearly 29 and a half)
• Goodreads e-mailed me the other day with a summary of the books I've read in 2013. It said: "Congratulations on reading TWO books!" This, friends, is a bold-faced lie. I've read plenty more than 2 this year! But who to believe? It's my word against Goodreads'.
• In November, I was given a directive to go gluten free or die. (It wasn't that dramatic.)  I've been gluten free for 2 months and feel pretty amazing. Maybe I'll do a full post on that someday. (But let's be honest. With my year's track record? Probably not.)
• Being a mom is a joy and a challenge. Before becoming a mother of two little girls, I used to see little girls with completely wild and unkempt hair and I'd think, "How hard is it to comb your daughter's hair???" Well, as it turns out: IT'S VERY HARD. Nay—IMPOSSIBLE. As a result, my daughters run around with completely wild and unkempt hair MOST of the time. Also? My girls watch a lot more TV than I ever imagined they would before I had kids. The way I see it—if anyone in this family wants to eat dinner, then My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake it is. But the good news? At least now I can give a total plot-summary and character analysis to each of these stellar shows. Plus: sing along to all of the songs. (Fist pump!)

TOM (32 and 13 days)
• Tom has had a work-filled year at the LDS Motion Picture Studios. He works in the visual effects department. You know—explosions. (It's no secret that church films have a lot of explosions.) He's not technically "full-time," even though he works full time (and then some); he was brought on for some specific projects and we don't know how much longer those projects will last. As such, he's been polishing up his portfolio in case he needs to start doing some job hunting.
• He's taken on about a million (I'm rounding up—but barely) illustration and story board freelance projects in the last month or so. He keeps busy.
• Also? He keeps funny. (That sentence was not grammatically correct. Rest assured.)
• Maybe Goodreads was referring to Tom when it mentioned 2 books? 'Cause homeboy has definitely not read as many books as me this year. Is it too obvious that I'm really ticked off at Goodreads for defaming my reading ability?

BACK TO SEASON
• This year I've read:
The Princess Bride
Moonlight over Manifest
Nothing to Fear
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Fault in Our Stars (twice)
Edenbrooke
Dead End in Norvelt

And I almost finished Ender's Game and I re-read The Book Thief and I skimmed The Hidden Gifts of an Introvert Child and Wheat Belly (a skim counts, right?) and I'll be done with Wonder before the year's up so take that, Goodreads.

BACK TO TOM
• Anything else about Tom, you'll have to ask him yourself. He's like an open book, just waiting to dish out details of his life.

Merry Christmas three days late. Here's to 2014!