After posting the 2007 Nostalgia video a few days ago, I was chided by several people who felt underrepresented, or rather absent, from the video. So, for all of you whiners (you know who you are), here's a more recent take on the same concept. Welcome to 2009.

I stumbled across this video I put together a few years back and thought I'd share... You know, because everyone loves looking at my family videos as much as I do. Duh!

No one has ever accused our clan of being traditional, and we're not about to start now. So without further ado, here's the 2009 Merritt Family Christmas Card - in digital form. Enjoy.

It seems every post I make to this blog starts with an apology or excuse for being remiss in providing new content. Nonetheless, here we go again. One more time.

I suppose the purpose of this site has been superseded somewhat by other social media outlets. When I began this web site back in 2001 it was done primarily as a means of keeping my parents and other family members up to date with photos of the kids, and the general goings-on of our family. Over time it became somewhat self-serving and I envisioned it as a means of maintaining a digital photo album and living journal of our accomplishments, our memories, our experiences as we grew and aged... with hopes that one day it would provide a richer means of looking back than would a traditional photo album.

Times have indeed changed. Ironically, at the same time when life began to become too busy for me to keep up with this web site as well as I would like, the purpose it served began to be absorbed by other means. Instead of me posting creative blurbs about the kids' recent accomplishments here every few days or weeks, the kids now update their Facebook status from their cell phones several times daily. Photos which I used to maintain here frequently have moved to flickr, then to Facebook, and more often than not, exist only in my digital archive waiting for the time to review them all.

In short, I don't have the time to effort this adequately, and I'm not going to keep posting quarterly updates which try to cover several months worth of family activities in a couple of paragraphs. Perhaps I'll repurpose my desire to verbally chronicle our lives in another medium, but not right now. We've covered nearly a decade this way and I believe it's time to move on.

Thanks, Mom. By now you're the only one reading this stuff anyway. ;) But even you have a Facebook account now, which only proves my point. So long.

-Shannon

As summer draws to a close I am reminded of a number of milestones we saw this summer. As this web site serves more as a digital family diary than anything else, I wanted to take a moment to chronicle a few of these memorable moments before they escape my memory -- especially since I'm getting old, as my children frequently remind me...

Andrew attended church camp this summer and spent a ton of that time doing volunteer work, which he really enjoyed. He made some new friends and has grown a ton during the last few months. More recently he started learning to drive and even spent some time learning to drive a stick shift -- big deal for Andrew, no doubt. He's starting 9th grade here in a few days and it's just hard to believe he's that old already.

Logann is going back to public school for the first time since 5th grade. He'll be attending Lees Summit High School starting on the 18th of August as a Junior. Apprehension and excitement are very intertwined in his expectations about this upcoming shift in his education. Also this summer Logann has taken on a part-time job working for Up a Creek as our "Events Coordinator". He handles our incoming contacts and triages them for the partners. What's best about this is that I can now officially call him my "minion". And last but not least... he's driving. (Gulp)

Martin is leaving behind not only Kindergarten, but also daycare. He is entering the big scary world of first grade -- lunch at school, you know? We will certainly miss Ronda and her wonderful daycare, but King Martin is moving on. Recently at the river levy trails, Martin learned to ride his bike on two wheels and his training wheels officially moved to the trash. While he made great strides with his 2-wheel riding, he may have hit a bump in the road to bicycle freedom -- his river levy ride ended in a face plant which left him discouraged. He'll get there though.

Jessica has had a great summer. Recently she conquered the diving boards while at a birthday party. Then last week she took that experience and expanded on it as she took on the high dive at the Lawrence outdoor pool. It's so cool to see her challenge herself like that. She's been enjoying her summer and she's certainly becoming an older kid, preferring to stay up until near midnight reading and then sleeping in until 9:30 or 10:00am.

Kaysia has moved to morning shifts at work and likes that much better than the late night shifts she had previously. She is also officially the owner of her first car! Bought a 1991 Honda Accord last month for which she is taking care of all of the expenses, insurance, etc. Ah, adulthood.

Jeannie is... (drum roll, please)... officially finished with her Masters degree!!!!! She finished her final paper just days ago and we're having brunch to celebrate tomorrow. This wraps up years of hard work, late nights of writing papers, and seven semesters of straight A's. I couldn't be more proud of her. Though I am sad to see her go back to work this coming week. I've so enjoyed having her home this summer.

As for me, I've been on sabbatical since July 13th and I have to say... I am ready to retire. I haven't thought about, let alone "missed" work. I've spent 4 or 5 days per week paddling and am nearly finished with my sabbatical goal of kayaking the entire Kansas River from Junction City to KCK. I'm ready to find a way to be independently wealthy and just eat out, kayak and stay up late indefinitely. ...Unfortunately, I have four more days of freedom before I am relegated back to the cubicle farm.

As always, this is too brief and without photos to back it up. I'll work on that... but then I say that every time.

The holidays are over. The kids are back in school. Jeannie and I are back to work.  ...Bleh. Two weeks off work is just enough time to really get used to things and question this whole 5-day work week concept. (I think Jeannie and Craig have both heard my rants this week calling into question the societal expectations with regard to weekday versus weekend. Thanks both of you for your patience.)

In the meantime, we find opportunities to enjoy the time off.
Bottom line: work hard; play harder.

Not since Jessica was only months old have we taken the kids to a professional portrait studio for family photos. And while I'd love to say that is due to my raw skills as a photographer, it has much more to do with the fact that the task of trying to coordinate cooperation and simultaneous smiles out of our kids is something I would not wish on any poor, unsuspecting and underpaid studio photographer. And in that vein, after last night's living room studio session I've decided to post not only the picks, but also a handful of the shots that would have normally landed on the cutting room floor. Click on the photo below for a sample of what I'm talking about.

They might not be your typical family album fodder, but we had a blast during the shoot.

This past weekend we decorated the house for Christmas -- which basically consists of pulling our fake tree out of the basement, hauling boxes of red and green stuff upstairs, then scratching our heads trying to figure out what to do with all the furniture that had to be moved to make room for the tree. With some Christmas-esque music playing in the background, the older kids decided they would show off their mad dancing skills. True talent, that is.

Jeannie has spent considerable time over the past few days painstakingly hand-sewing our names into Christmas stockings for our family. Over the last couple of years we have lost several that she made years ago, and as you know we have added a new family member this year (enter Special K), so Jeannie has been busy bringing our Christmas decor up to speed.

So here's a special thank you to Jeannie. We appreciate all the times you shove that needle into your finger. And the kids no doubt appreciate the new words they learn from you immediately afterward.

Along with about a zillion other firsts this year, Kaysia experienced another one this past week. And how cool for Jeannie and me -- first kid in the family old enough to vote!

The sticker stayed on for at lesat a couple of hours after we returned home -- either a sign of patriotism or merely that she forgot she plastered a sticker to her face at the voting booth.