Merry Christmas!

Any year that ends with one more Klau than it started with has to go down as a good year. Certainly the biggest news of 2005 for us was the birth of our daughter, Rebecca Adeline Klau… she arrived on October 21 (like her brothers, nearly 5 weeks early - or maybe we just can’t count?), a healthy 6 pounds, 15 ounces and 19 inches long. (Sound familiar? Ricky: 6 pounds 15 ounces, 19 inches, 4 weeks early. Robby: 6 pounds 14 ounces, 20 inches, 4 1/2 weeks early. Are we consistent or what?) Life with a third has not yet dramatically changed our routine, unless you count the no sleeping part! We’re very lucky that Becca’s brothers adore her; Robby in particular has taken to his new role of big brother with gusto.

The boys

Ricky turned five in March (a pirate birthday party!), earned his yellow belt in karate, played league T-ball and soccer this summer and started kindergarten in September. He’s loving school and especially enjoys the library and P.E. Ricky just recently made the transition from reading letters to reading, and his ability to spell an ever-growing number of words has significantly limited the a-d-u-l-t c-o-n-v-e-r-s-a-t-i-o-n at the dinner table. We’re thinking about taking up Latin, er, L-A-, oh, nevermind. Along with his brother, his favorite song is Crazy Frog, which, God bless them, they’ve even invented their own dance for. (Yes, we’ve got video. And yes, we plan on saving it until they’re in high school.)

Robby turned three in March (a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday party!), took swimming lessons this summer, and art/creative play classes through the park district last year. He continues to progress with his speech therapy through the local school district. He’s got a wonderful sense of humor and finds joy in just about anything he does. He and Ricky now share a bedroom (bunk beds!), where Robby has the bottom bunk. This fall Robby’s at Creative Nursery School again, which he attends three days a week. He enjoys learning, and has mastered all his letters, numbers and colors! His hilarious knock-knock jokes prove that comedy’s all about delivery.

Robin

As excited as we were about Becca’s arrival, we were equally saddened by the passing in May of Robin’s grandma Helen. Helen lived a remarkably full life in her 96 years. We were fortunate to get back to Boston in May for her funeral, which was a wonderful celebration of her life and which saw more laughter and smiles than tears. Raise a Whiskey Sour in her honor this holiday, I’m sure she’s doing the same for us up above.

Robin continues to serve on the Missions Board at our church, and was recently asked to serve on the board of the Napervile Mom’s Club, where she’s responsible for producing a monthly newsletter for the membership. Compared to the simple schedule I have at work (go in, work, go home), Robin’s days are an incredible mix of drop-offs, pick-ups, lunches, trips to the store and playdates for the kids. Somewhere in there she also manages to find time for the boards she serves on. The kids are incredibly lucky to have such an accomplished multi-tasker for a Mom, and I’m equally lucky that she’s such a wonderful Mom for our kids.

Rick

In April I changed jobs, joining a Chicago company called FeedBurner. We help publishers manage subscribable content (this includes news headlines, podcasts and related types of content), and we’re already working with some of the largest publishers and entertainment companies in the world. It has been an incredible ride already, and 2006 will be a big year for us. I remain politically active as Chair of the Naperville Democrats, and I even ran for local office in April. Though endorsed by the local paper (who, it should be noted, called Naperville Democrats the “Rodney Dangerfield of local politics”), I came up short when the votes were counted. And unlike our President, fewer votes in my case did not lead to victory. (Gotta look into that one!)

In other news, we took a week-long trip to Disney World in April with my brother’s family and my parents to celebrate my parents’ 35th anniversary. While the whole trip was fantastic, getting to spend a day with the boys’ great-grandparents (who live 45 minutes outside of Orlando) was by far the highlight. As for Disney, I was even more excited than Ricky was to get back to the Buzz Lightyear ride in Magic Kingdom, proving that those years spent playing Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 left me well-prepared to fight Emperor Zurg. Surprisingly, this skill isn’t genetic, as I consistently smoked my Dad in the scores. Ricky and Robby loved spending time with their cousins Maggie & Sydney (even if the whole Princess thing was lost on them, little did they know they were about to get a full-time Princess of their own!) and it was very special to be able to help my parents celebrate 35 years together.

In August we got to spend some time at the beach with my parents in Avalon, NJ and discovered that the boys are naturals in the ocean! Watching Ricky body surf head-first was quite a thrill, and Robby very quickly mastered the art of jumping waves big and small. The boys even got a “sleep over” with their grandparents while Robin and I went to New York to visit our friends Jim McNeal (a groomsman in our wedding) and his wife Lisa Wilson, where we asked them to be Becca’s godparents.

We drove from Avalon to see Robin’s parents, and did quite a bit of exploring in Northern Virginia. Robin felt quite strongly that the boys needed to see real mountains, if only so that the on-ramps and off-ramps off of the expressways here in Illinois stop qualifying as “mountains” according to the boys! And if you’re ever near Dulles Airport, you should definitely go to the new Air & Space Museum out by the airport - the boys couldn’t get enough of the many jets, planes, and even a Space Shuttle that were on display. (We even got their Halloween costumes there, which they insisted on wearing all day inside the museum - priceless.)

Robin and I celebrated our 8th anniversary in October, and we continue to love living in Illinois. We did some more work on the house, where the basement is so very close to being done (for those keeping score, we’re coming up on the three year anniversary of that project’s beginning!), we painted a few rooms and had some work done in the family room. We’ve now been in this house longer than any other, and look forward to many more years of memories in it (but not many more years of “finishing” the basement!).

We’re blessed to have seen so many friends this year, and had such great time with both sets of family. We’re looking forward to next month when Becca is baptised, when we’ll see both sets of Grandparents as well as Becca’s soon-to-be Godparents, Jim and Lisa. It will no doubt be a great start to 2006.

As for resolutions in 2006, I pledge to use fewer parentheticals (such a cheap device), rely less on the rhetorical question when writing letters (are you tired of them yet?), and avoid exclamation points except in cases of extreme excitement (I’m blaming their appearance in this letter on the overabundance of caffeine necessitated by that whole lack of sleep thing!). Beyond that, we wish you all a healthy and happy year ahead, and hope that you’re enjoying a wonderful holiday season.

Love,

Rick, Robin, Ricky, Robby, and Becca

PS - Let us know what you’re up to! Send us a note at family@rklau.com.

Posted by Rick Klau