Merry Christmas 2012

Greetings! And Merry Christmas!  It’s so hard to believe that 2012 is almost over! It has been quite a year in the life of the Santora Family! If you have been following us on Facebook all this news may be old news! But here it goes…in print!

 

In January Michelle left the United States to go to Bangalore, India where she spent three months nannying for a missionary family there. It was a great experience for her and a great time of trusting for us. She would love to go back to Bangalore for a visit in the fall. Michelle is now employed in both Florida and Georgia! She is doing some trraining work for the Chick-fil-A home office in Atlanta. She will travel there once a month for several days. She is excited about getting to see her sister and spending time at the amazing home office!

 

The year started out quiet and then got crazy!…a trip to Atlanta in January to see Kathi for her birthday and at the end of January joining a  new local community organization called Central Florida Community Arts (CFCArts). They have a choir so we thought we would check it out. We attended their first rehearsal for the Spring season. We were blown away by the sound of almost 200 people! This organization was, at that point, only 1 year old. You can visit www.cfcommunitychoir.com for more information. It is a great group of people and we have enjoyed having something like this to do together. The rehearsals are super fun and the director, Josh Vickery, is amazing! Our Spring Show was of Broadway caliber and the summer and Christmas seasons were incredible. There were over 3,000 people who came out for the Christmas show called Christmas at the Movies. Featured were 220 voices, dancers, 30 piece orchestra, soloists, actors, lights…the works. This organization has exploded (in a good way!) and who knows what will happen in the coming years. We are excited to be a part of it.

Rehearsals are very Monday evening and we have three months of rehearsals before a show. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time listening to our music and singing our parts! Spring, 2012 they are doing a Disney Theme so we will be singing all Disney music. It should be fun!

 

There was a huge tremor  in the force when we found out that Chris and Ai were expecting a baby to be born in early October! We were going to be grandparents! It’s a boy! Tell you about it later! Needless to say we are very excited about this season of our lives and so excited for Chris and Ai to finally be parents! Ai got an ultrasound which revealed the sex of the baby. We planned a big party with many friends and family and even some who skyped in on multiple computers for the big moment. The results were sealed in an envelope and delivered to a friend who filled the middle of cupcakes with the appropriate color...blue or pink! They cupcakes were iced and with the answer hidden within, the party began! Everyone got a cupcake and on the count of 1, 2, 3, everyone cut into their cupcake at the same time. Even Chris and Ai didn't know...we thought it was a girl and BOY were we surprised when we found out it was a BOY!!

 

 

In April Chris celebrated his 30th birthday with a Star Wars Party! It was super fun! Everyone wore costumes and we guessed who each one was. Ai was an Ewok, Kathi was Princess Leah from Endor and Chris...you know...storm trooper! Michelle was the Universe and Lon, Josh and Emily came as themselves!

In May, Lon’s Aunt Kathleen came down for a visit and to come to our Spring Show, The HeART of Theater. It was so great to have her here and to get to spend some time with her. She is quite spunky at a young age of 86!

 

 

In May Debbie was laid off from her job of over 11 years. What to do next?! She became interested in being a Professional Nanny…looking for a way to get paid for doing something she loved…and she did! NannyPoppinz is a kind of agency that matches Nannies with Families. Debbie began working in June with a wonderful family, helping with their newborn baby boy, Gage,  and sometimes helping with their two year old. It was a great match. When Gage was seven months old they were ready for him to attend the daycare where his brother goes. She still keeps in touch with Gage and his family and misses him and those sweet chubby cheeks!

 Debbie went back to NannyPoppinz to inquire about another position.

Debbie is now working full time with another great couple with a newborn baby name Dorian. He is a sweetie! We will be together for at least a year.

 

In June we celebrated our 31^st anniversary! We are glad for the days we have together and that we can enjoy these days of just the two of us….and grandparenting days now!

 

In early June, we started rehearsals for CFCA’s summer classical concert series. The theme was a Night of John Rutter, which included his famous piece, Gloria. That concert was in August, just before going on a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas!

Love those cruises!

 

 

 

 

With September came the start of rehearsals for the Christmas season. No rest for the musically inclined! Another perk of being in this group is that we are singing in the Disney Candlelight Processional at EPCOT! There are 200 of our choir going on December 29^th and we just found out we also get to sing in the Candlelight Processional the day after Christmas! Wahoo! Last year Debbie said that in 2012 she wanted to go on a cruise, hold my grandchild and sing in the Disney candlelight processional. Voile!!

 

Chris and Ai’s baby was due around October 5^th. The doctors were monitoring Ai closely because she had not gained much weight during the pregnancy. The baby stopped growing in early September.  After several weeks of monitoring, the decision was made that she should be induced on September 17^th because the baby was losing percentile in his weight. He did not handle labor very well so was delivered by C-section on the morning of the 18^th of September. Luke Mitsugi Santora made his appearance at 9:00 a.m. and was a mere 4 lbs. 13 oz. The first couple of weeks were stressful as we all watched to see that he was gaining weight.  He had lost down to

You can see how tiny he was!

 4 lbs. 8 oz. so we were all relieved at his two week check, when he weighed  4 lbs. 15 oz.  Luke is now three months old, weighs 10 lbs. and is definitely  a bright little spot in all our lives.



His Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents can’t stop doting on him!

 We all took on new names…Auntie Kathi, Auntie Michelle, Auntie Em (hehe), Uncle Josh, and of course, Nonni and Papous…We love him soooo much. It’s so amazing when your son has a son. Instantly he understands the love you have for him. Chris is such a good Papa and Ai is an amazing mother…so nurturing and attentive to Luke.

They are a sweet little family.

 

Lon’s office at Akerman moved to Maitland the first weekend in December. He now works about 2 miles from home! We are still adjusting to him not going downtown, and it’s mostly all good!

 

Chris got a new job which started on December 3^rd. He now works about 2 miles from our home and about ½ mile from Lon! We are looking forward to some lunches together! His new job is with EA Sports.  Pretty cool that he is doing the programming for John Madden Football! If all goes well with this job, he and Ai will move from the East side of town to our side of town! Yippee! That will be so awesome!

 

Josh and Emily (and Dakota, their sweet doggie) are living in Titusville and Josh continues to work for NASA. Emily has been doing some Mary Kay sales and enjoying being at home. She has a couple of things on the back burner for work so we’ll see what happens. They are going to Bolivia for Christmas. There is an orphanage there where Emily has gone for many years. Her family supports three brothers there and they will go to see the boys and help out for 10 days.

Kathi continues her work in the Learning and Development Dept.  at Chick-fil-A’s home office in Atlanta. She loves Atlanta and loves her job. She gets to travel, teach and is quite well respected. She ran her first half marathon this year and survived to tell about it! She is singing this Christmas with the choir at her church and is really enjoying that. She comes down whenever she can so she can see her sweet  little Luke…and us, of course!

 

Michelle continues to live in Jacksonville. She just moved out of the big house where she and Kathi lived with a couple of other gals. She has a roommate and lives much closer to Chick-fil-A. She is also now employed in Georgia as she has been contracted to do some training at the home office. This gives her a chance to travel to Atlanta every month or so and be at the wonderful home office of Chick-fil-A. She also gets to see her sister! At the store in J-Ville, she has been given more responsibility for training so she is quite busy! All our kids have such cool jobs! God has blessed us beyond our imagination.

 

“For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given’ and the government shall be upon his shoulders. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

Merry Christmas from all of us!

Kathi, Emily, Josh, Etsuko (Ai’s mom, visiting from Japan!) Luke, Chris, Ai, Michelle, Lon and Debbie