Happy holidays from the Lundgren-Small family! It has been a huge year. Our family expanded by one! Grace finally moved in with us at the beginning of the summer and we've been pretty inseparable ever since. Life will never be the same again! There's so much to share with you. We hope you enjoy this snapshot of our year.

Grace is a smart, talented, energetic, hilarious young lady. She loves to bake, to sing, to act, to play, and to dance.

Sometimes we have been her dance partners, helping her recreate videos she found online.

At other times, Grace has gotten Raku and Ruby to show off their dance moves.

Grace has lots of hobbies. This year she has been active in gymnastics, ballet, theater, and student council.

She is a real performer.

Grace loves doing things for others. She loves making strange, funny creations for us, like cakes that stare into your soul.

In the future she wants to be an elementary school teacher and go to Marist for college. But we could also see her becoming a successful actor or baker or whatever she truly puts her mind to.

Teresa has entered her Mom era. A lot of what she enjoyed about teaching was interacting with kids, and becoming a parent has been relationship building on a whole other level. She is re-learning how to be playful and how fun it is to play pretend. She's also learning how vastly different teaching and parenting are, and that no level of experience with kids could have prepared her for having one of her own.

Work in the world of teacher policy continues to be good. Teresa still feels that she has really found her calling. It's also been a source of travel for her, including twice this year to New Orleans, once to Washington, D.C. ...

... and once to Salt Lake City. While in Utah she met up with her co-worker, Lindsey, and her favorite teacher of all time (and one of her all-time favorite people), Lisa. Teresa hardly sees her co-workers in person and hasn't seen Lisa in well over a decade, so it was especially fun to see them both and have parts of her world collide.

At home Teresa has gotten even more into cooking and gardening, even making her own ceramics for both inside and outside the house.

And her ceramics have become more intricate and more whimsical. (For this she credits Grace, her art director.)

Tom has been enjoying being a dad, especially eliciting eye rolls from a dad joke or some light-hearted ribbing.

Grace and Teresa gave him an amazing first Father's Day. There was cookie-cake, giant balloons, games, and a pizza-shaped piñata. He loved it all.

Tom got to see his family more this year than he has in recent years. He had a great weekend in Pittsburgh with his sister and mom ...

... and got to spend a few days at, and introduce Grace to, his family's camps on Big Wolf Lake. That's one of his happy places and it was so good to be back.

The pets are doing well, too. Ruby, now 10, loves to be wherever Grace is.

Raku, now 6, likes to watch Grace get on the bus in the morning and waits at the window for her to get back in the afternoon.

All of his time in between is spent happily on the couch.

And Traila, now 13, continues to be Teresa's micromanager.

Even before she moved in, we spent most of our thoughts, time, and effort on Grace. We visited her in her hometown at least once a month.

She was also able to come stay with us for Spring Break. We celebrated Easter together.

Grace discovered a hidden love for baseball. (Go Gades! She even got a game ball!!)

And we went to The City for the first time to the Bronx Zoo ...

... where Grace was our videographer and caught some toucans in action.

In May she had a lot of year-end events to close out one chapter before starting another. Grace's wonderful, loving foster family threw her a Farewell Fiesta. So many people came out to see her off and celebrate her in the way she deserves.

Grace finally moved into her new room in June and made the space truly her own.

Early on we started making crafts together, like tie-dye shirts.

And we spent a lot of time with family and family friends, including Tom's sister Kayleigh, her husband Alex, and their kids ...

... the newly named "Grandpa Mike" and "Gigi" (short for "Grandma Gaye") ...

... Teresa's cousin, Breanna, and uncle, Bob ...

... Teresa's former roommmate, Molly Jane, and her family, and plenty of others whom we forgot to take photos with! (Whoops!)

A highlight of summer was taking Grace to New Mexico on our first family vacation. She was anxious about taking her first flight, but she survived it, and has even been asking recently when we will fly next!

In New Mexico we hit up some classics, like going to Meow Wolf ...

... shopping in The Plaza ...

... exploring Banelier National Monument, and (not pictured) meeting up with Teresa's friend, RJ, at a feast day dance at Santo Domingo Pueblo.

We also did some things that were new for all of us, like visiting a cat cafe (perhaps the highlight of the trip for Grace) ...

... visiting El Rancho de las Golondrinas with Carole and familiy (thank you for the phenomenal tour, Ross!) ...

... and riding the Sky Train to see some epic desert sunsets.

On the whole, a successful first trip together with lots of memories.

Grace has a summer birthday, and we were able to celebrate it with her for the first time together with family at Hersheypark.

We rode lots of rides together for all ages.

Dinner, presents, and ice cream cake (with trick candles) concluded the festivities.

Before starting school, Grace was able to participate in multiple local day camps, including ceramics camp and playwriting camp. Her play "The Dreaded Pencil" is sure to become an instant classic!

Since early fall we've been down to New York City a few times to get Grace used to the hustle and bustle. We met up with Teresa's cousin, Elizabeth, and her family at Hamilton's Grange up in Harlem.

We went shopping at the Harry Potter store (seen here), the Lego store, and ate dinner at the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park.

And we took Grace to see her first show on Broadway, Wicked. (First of many yet to come!)

In September we also went to the New York Renaissance Faire with Kayleigh and Polly.

The sights, sounds, and crowds there can be overhwelming, but as long as we've got each other, things will be alright.

And what is fall without Halloween? Our group costume this year was centered around Grace's favorite Disney movie, Tangled. Grace was Rapunzel. Tom and Teresa were her real parents, the king and queen, who'd been searching for her her whole life. Ruby was her pet chameleon, Pascal.

Traila was the evil witch, Mother Gothel.

And Raku was her faithful steed, Maximus.

We are so glad (and lucky) that Grace seems to love Halloween as much as we do.

We spent our Thanksgiving with family in Buffalo.

We will be back again for Christmas, right after Grace's adoption. She is loved. We all belong together.

May your 2026 be filled with new adventures ...

... surrounded by friends ...

... and filled with love. Merry Christmas from all of us, and a Happy New Year.

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