2012 Christmas Letter

(Author~Mr. Chad Clifford)
Give me a C, give me an H, give me an E, give me another E, give me an R… what does that spell? (Deep breath) Practice 4 days a week, games on weekends, competitions every other weekend, broken fingers, sore legs, back handsprings, right splits, middle splits, split lips, hair bows, hair parties, hair spray and of course enough chanting to make a Buddhist monastery feel jealous. (Deep breath) Yep, 2012 is the year of cheer. Kate and Emily cheered for La Costa Canyon Pop Warner’s competition team. But the real kicker (pun intended) is that Michele signed up (campaigned like a White House candidate) to be the assistant coach. Andrew was the honorary yell leader. Let’s say that Andrew knows all the cheers better than the girls. He’s quickly figured out that by hanging around the cheerleaders, he gets tons of hugs and kisses. He’s no dummy!

Andrew: 6, hip-hop mogul who’s in need of a gold grill ‘cuz he’s losing teeth like a heavy weight boxer. At this point, all Andrew wants for Christmas is SOME teeth. Chewing food might be a pipe dream if all of his loose teeth all go at once. Andrew and his gold grill had a hip-hop dance solo in the school talent show and also the company dance performance in front a billion people. He was like Vanilla Ice working his moves. Vanilla also starred on his soccer team, played his first year of hockey (hence the lost teeth??), playing his first year of basketball and is swimming like a fish. 

Andrew is a big first grader at his school and he’s killing the grading curve with A’s. He struts around looking fly in his designer clothes (that he shops for) with his gelled hair (that he styles) touched with Abercrombie cologne (that he applies) and of course rocking his basketball high tops. Ladies don’t have a chance. 

"Ice, Ice Baby…"

Emily: 11, braced-face middle school fashion icon and social butterfly. Emily loves to star in, plan, and host parties. She loves the clothes, the friends and the fun. She even hosted a murder mystery party for her own birthday. Emy is into so many things it’s ridiculous. She’s plays the flute in the school band, plays piano, does gymnastics, dance (lyrical and ballet), track team, and of course cheerleading. Emy recently entered a jumping contest doing toe touches at a huge cheerleading competition.

She was pitted against tons of older girls and even a few teenaged boys, kind of like The Hunger Games but with pom-poms and spirit fingers. She beat ALL the girls and took second place overall to a high school boy who was part kangaroo. Emily also took home the MVP award at a BYU cheer camp over the summer. Emily loves cheer. Bring it ON! Emily is acing school and was recently the school president. I always remind her she has the trilogy: looks, brains and ambition. I already have her under contract to be my CEO in 10 years.

Kate: 14, Straight A, Thrill seeking, clarinet-playing cheerleader who’s known as THE Total Package. Kate is devastatingly beautiful and has boys literally lined up around the street waiting for 703 days until she can date. She recently tore up the floor at her first boy/girl stake dance. Oh yea! Let’s just say her dance card will not have cobwebs. Kate played softball, her first year. She also had her first experience rafting the San Juan river with the Young Women's high adventure.

Kate recently combined two of her great loves, cheerleading and riding death defying thrill rides at Magic Mountain. She actually tried to kill me through a number of rides that turn you, drop you, shake you and roll you… and then they really start moving! There’s a point when you know you’ll lose your appetite for a month, but you can’t back down because not only is Kate riding these horrible rides but also 6 year old Andrew. So I strapped on my puke bag and hung on for the “fun”. What’s amazing is that Kate can ride X2 and Tatsu, two monster roller coasters and literally 15 minutes later can walk out and perform her cheer routine and take first place. That’s our Kate: fearless, unbridled… a champion!

Michele: (chant) “Michele is back in cheer… this is her year… breakout the curls… cuz she’s cheering with her girls! Go Mavs!” Michele has trekked back to Mecca, to the homeland of cheerleading and she’s never been happier. She can afford to be the cheer coach because she was released as Relief Society President after 4 years of service. Now she’s teaching Sunday school to the 16-17 year olds. Michele is also busy volunteering at the San Diego Temple and at Andrew’s school.

Michele had plenty of time for play: shopping with friends, girls trips to women’s conference, midnight Hunger Games premiers, and of course running her third Ragnar Relay race. 2012 was a milestone for her because she got to relive her childhood dream of going back to Yosemite National Park with the family where we hiked the falls, rode horses and we biked all over the park to see half dome, El Capitan, and take in the scenery.

Chad: Same old stuff you are used to hearing every year. Varsity scout leading river rafting brute, surfing icon, body building champion, Andrew’s soccer coach of the world renown “Red Hot Chili Peppers”, father and son camping specialist, base jumping Everest… again, and of course a Turkey bowl flag football first team all-american selection. I had the chance to go to Notre Dame to watch the fighting Irish play football against the BYU Cougars. That was a bucket list experience. 

2012 proved to be another accident riddled year for this manly daredevil, but what can you expect when you’re living on the edge! While surfing last January, my board came flying up and hit my face with the leading blunt edge. The board did a fair amount of damage. Right after I was mauled by my board I cried out, “Oh my beautiful face!” as I reached up to feel the gnarly gash that opened all the way down to my cheekbone. After about 15 stitches and 10 months of healing, I’m back to being stunning. 

Though that nasty surfboard beat-down hurt like a &^$%, I was more deeply wounded when I sold my beloved 2-door Jeep surf mobile this year. (Sniff) It was a miserable day. (Tears falling…) But, after watching my Jeep drive off with its new owner I turned around and was instantly comforted by (cue music…) the sight of a military grade, Moab rock crawling, back in black hell-cat on wheels… my new 4-door Jeep Wrangler that was sitting in my drive way! I’m just living the dream baby!

Family: Sea world attendance was above par, plenty of fun RV trips including Yosemite, attended Padres games (this is our year baby!), BYU football games, beach trips and plenty of Disneyland outings.

Snowball: Our little white dog aptly named Snowball is now 3 years old. She went with us on a few trips to Palm Springs and Yosemite. We bought a little bike cart for Snowball to ride around in at Yosemite. She was quite the celebrity as onlookers commented on the cute dog riding in the bike stroller. She earned the name “Dirtball” after those trips. She’s really doing well and the kids love her to the point of exasperation. Let’s just say that as the father, I’m not the top dog of the house.

We hope you all had a great year. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!

Love, The Cliffords