Swinton Family Christmas Card 2011

In case you missed our Christmas card this year, or your letter was lost in the mail here is a digital copy of what we sent out! Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Dear Friends and Family!

2011 was a wonderful year, full of blessings, travel & fun times for the Swinton Family.

After 4 years in Australia, we were able to cross off a few of our ‘must see’ destinations with a trip to beautiful New Zealand with the girls and a few days just Stan and Alisha scuba diving The Great Barrier Reef for Stan’s birthday. It was our first time scuba diving together and very memorable! Aside from getting to see more of the region, we have had a few trips ‘home’ to the good old USA – Stan had two trips for work to L.A. and Miami, I had a trip to San Diego for my brother’s wedding and to Salt Lake City for my Grandpa’s 90^th, and the whole family went to D.C. for two weeks of Deep Creek Lake with the Swinton family.   

This year has been very good. Stan is still busy at Bain & Company, and Alisha has been at home with the kids – she is looking forward to deciding what to do with her free time come the new year when all three kids are at school.

Olivia (8) had a very good year. She was fully discharged from her urologist and gastroentologist and now only sees an endocrinologist to help her grow. Olivia was cleared to play sports and I signed her up for ballet, tap and soccer on top of swimming, piano, and voice.  Next year we are going to just pick two things to make sure we have enough time for homework and play dates!  Olivia completed year 2 in school, got her ears pierced for her birthday, and on a beautiful sunny day in November was baptized in the ocean. One of Olivia’s new favorite past times is to read joke books!  

Mary (6) completed kindergarten this year and will be starting year 1 in February.  She has turned out to be quite a good reader and loves to have some one-on-one time with a parent so she can read to them. Mary also participated in ballet, tap, swimming and soccer this year.  She loves to dance and can never get enough of the dress up.  Mary is still very loyal – her BFF is a girl named Georgie and they are always together at school.

Thomas (3) was potty trained and will start preschool 2 days a week in February.  He has gotten very cheeky, but Alisha loves her ‘baby bumpkin’ so he gets off light on most occasions.  His favorite toy is a stick (we can’t go anywhere without picking up a few good ones.

We continue to love life in Australia and are always ready to welcome more visitors. Come January we will be moving from beautiful Sydney to stylish Melbourne for a short work transfer. We are excited to explore more of Australia from a new vantage point and can’t wait to share it with all of you!

We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Stan, Alisha, Olivia, Mary, and Thomas Swinton