Merry Christmas from Sammie Claus and Cash Kringle! (Our family's annual Christmas letter)

Hello, everyone. Since my mom hasn't updated her blog in several months, I decided to write and post our annual Christmas letter that I wrote this year. This version contains photos of our 2011. Hope you enjoy it! Merry Christmas!

Internationally-known feline writer Sammie "Claus"

Hello! It’s Sammie Ann Beutke DeVito, the friendly feline daughter of David and Allyson, writing again this year with our sixth annual holiday letter. I personally don’t think I have lots of exciting news to share about our lives (I think my feline brother Cash is on his 8^th one as much as he gets into trouble), but since so many of you think this letter is the greatest thing since the McRib sandwich at McDonald’s, I feel obligated to tell you about our 2011!

Cash gets into everything...literally. He is so curious and loves to help decorate for the holidays!

We’re still living in the Bluegrass region of Lexington, Kentucky. We figured out it’s called the Bluegrass because bluegrass is a type of grass that grows in many of the pastures in the commonwealth. Yes, that’s right… we don’t live in a state anymore. We live in a commonwealth. I wish someone would share some of this common wealth with us.

My dad finished teaching his chemistry classes at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in May. A week later, he started a summer job at a company called Lexel (how original) in Lexington. He made radar tubes for military aircraft and realized why he is going to school to become a dentist.

Here is our dad on his first day of dental school. He purchased an actual fishing tackle box to put all of his dental instruments and supplies in for his classes. He added the UK stickers. :)

He started dental school at the University of Kentucky in late July and finished the fall semester on December 15. He is 1/8 of a dentist now, which means he is officially qualified to work on plastic teeth. His spring semester starts January 3 and goes until late June. He starts his second of four years in late July. He is the oldest, I mean wisest, person in his class, and some of his classmates were born in the 1990s, a few years before he graduated from high school.

We like to help Dad study, especially when the subject is dental anatomy. It's our favorite!

He took the equivalent of 28 credit hours, including biochemistry, dental anatomy, public health, and histology, which is not the history of teeth but the study of tissues, and not the Kleenex kind. He also had to learn more than 30 dental instruments, and some of them have strange names such as Dr. Felt’s #6, the amalgam hoe, and the football burnisher. You should ask for one of those the next time you visit the dentist.

Look at all the dental instruments my dad has to know how to use. Our favorite is the football burnisher!

He also learned that while all 32 adult teeth (fewer for some Kentucky residents) look similar, they are very different in terms of shape and size and each one has a name such as the right permanent mandibular second molar. (Imagine if you were a baby tooth and had to learn how to spell your long name!)

I helped Dad inspect his dental school supplies. Cash climbed into the boxes they came in and tried to eat the plastic wrap. Crazy Cash!

During the spring, he’ll take gross anatomy, where they will dissect a cadaver. Won’t that be fun! I don’t know why they need to examine an entire body when they should only care about the mouth.

Our dad had a special ceremony in August, and he received his official white coat with his name on it—it's a way to welcome first-year students into the profession. When he got home, he insisted on a photo with us. You can tell how thrilled we are!

During October, he traveled to the rural area of Ashland, Kentucky, near the West Virginia border, with some of his classmates. They cleaned kids’ teeth (or tooth for some of them. They really do love Mountain Dew up here, no joke!) and put sealants on them. They even made the front page of the one-page newspaper the next day. My dad also received an award from his classmates. During November, the men in his class participated in “No Shave November” to raise awareness of prostate cancer.

In addition to not shaving for a month, our dad also didn't get a haircut, so he was extra hairy!

They didn’t shave their facial hair for a month, and if you know my dad and his Viking ancestry, you know he came out of the womb with facial hair. He received the “Manliest Beard” award, and we have the certificate on our refrigerator. He still has a goatee, and plans to have a Magnum P.I./Tom Selleck-type mustache for Christmas. Oh happy happy, joy joy!

My mom taught at EKU in the spring and again this fall. She taught two classes there—mass media and society and broadcast news writing and reporting.

EKU has a gorgeous new EKU Center for the Arts, and my mom and her students were able to watch a live news broadcast and performance on the opening night.

EKU’s mascot is a colonel like Colonel Sanders who started Kentucky Friend Chicken, but the mascot is an angrier version of him. Maybe the EKU colonel is upset that he doesn’t know KFC’s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.

She also had the opportunity to teach two classes at the University of Kentucky this fall. It’s a new course that combines writing and public speaking. She already knew a lot of students do not write well, and she learned some of them cannot speak well either. She will teach three classes at EKU and two at UK during the spring, which keeps her busy.

This is a view of the University of Kentucky's campus from one of the top floors of the library.

My parents left us when they visited Florida for an oblication (the combination of a vacation and obligation) during June. My mom thought we needed a cat sitter, but I tried to convince her that we would be fine on our own. She said if we could learn to use the toilet and flush, we wouldn’t need a sitter. Cash couldn’t master that after many failed attempts, so this really nice lady named Miss Maria came over and made sure we had plenty of food and water and cleaned our litter box. She is a retired police detective. Cash wanted to borrow her handcuffs, but they were too big for his paws, so he used them as a stylish collar.

Sometimes Cash sits on the stairs and pretends to be in jail.

My parents said it was great seeing their Florida family and friends, but they definitely don’t miss simmering in the sizzling summer heat. 

Florida was hot and humid as usual, but the sunsets are breathtaking.

They spent several days hanging out with my human cousin, Judson, who is so cute and now 15 months old.

My mom and Grandma Sharon put one of my mom's dresses from when she was a little girl on Judson during their Florida visit. They got into trouble with Judson's dad, Uncle Jason, but they both said it was well worth it. At least he'd make a cute little girl too! My mom did the same thing with Uncle Jason when he was little. She also told him he was adopted like I tell Cash all the time.

My parents also gave Judson a little Wildcat towel that he uses at bath time.

Isn't our human cousin Judson just the cutest little wildcat!!!

They also got to meet some young cousins on my dad’s side of the family. If you ever want to visit us, just get on I-75 and head north. You’ll know you’re in Kentucky when you start to notice all the bad drivers from neighboring Ohio.

Speaking of Ohio and the crazy buckeye nuts that live there, I am happy Urban Meyer is headed back. He’s from Ohio and coached at Ohio State before, so once a nut, always a nut in my book. The Gator Nation is much better off without him around, but I’m not too sure about this Coach Muschamp either. Hopefully, they will have a better season next year. I have been watching the Denver Broncos play since my boy Tim Tebow is their quarterback. Cash has been working on his Tebowing pose, but it’s hard to do since he doesn’t have an elbow.

If we’ve learned one thing about living in Kentucky, it’s that basketball is the most important thing ever. People wait in long lines outside in the cold for days just to get on a list to get tickets to a practice game that starts at midnight. We also have the largest basketball arena in the U.S. At least the basketball team is doing well since the football team isn’t very good. Also, the stadium up here is so cute. It’s like a miniature version of a real stadium. I think it could fit inside the Swamp at UF.

We’ve only had two sets of visitors this year. Grandma Betty, Grandpa Jean-Paul, Aunt Allison, Uncle Matt and their canine son, Toby, visited us for New Year’s. We got Toby, a daschund, some small snow boots to wear, but he didn’t like them, and there wasn’t any snow, so it worked out well. We learned that Toby can run up the stairs in our house, but he can’t go down. Gravity plays a mean joke on him and he kind of tumbles down. It was fun to watch. He also went into the litter box and ate one of Cash’s turds. I guess he needed some protein.

Our canine cousin Toby made himself right at home and immediately started eating our food.

In October, Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Amos came for a visit. It was their first time in Lexington, and my parents drove them around and showed them all the sights.

I watched "The Amazing Race" on TV with my grandparents, but the competition was too intense, and I couldn't take it, so I had to turn and face the back of the couch.

We fed them well, and they enjoyed their first Kentucky Hot Brown, an open-faced sandwich with turkey, ham and bacon, covered in a creamy Monray cheese sauce, topped with sliced tomato and broiled until the bread is crisp and the sauce begins to brown. Yummy!

Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Amos shared this Hot Brown at the legendary Ramsey's Diner in Lexington during their fall visit. They loved every bite of it!

We’d love for you to visit us! There are lots of exciting things to do. People love horses up here. I haven’t ridden one yet, but Cash and I might go to the Kentucky Derby in May. It’s actually in Louisville, not Lexington. Don’t you think I’d look so cute in one of those big hats the ladies wear at the Derby?

Our parents visited Churchill Downs in Louisville where the Kentucky Derby race is run each May. It was raining on the day they went in July, so they'll explore the track next time.

My mom is disappointed is hasn’t snowed yet this winter. We had a White Christmas last year, and it was so nice since she had been singing that was dreaming of one for weeks before Christmas.

We had a White Christmas last year, and it was so beautiful!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Remember to have your pets spayed or neutered! (By the way, my parents were watching The Price is Right while I typed this, and they noticed the models are now allowed to talk and have their own microphones. Look how far women have come in the work place!)

Love,

Sammie Claus, Cash Kringle, David and Allyson DeVito

Even though we have our own cat bed, our favorite place to sleep is at the foot of our parent's bed while they are in it.

P.S. My parents got new smart phones (I wonder what a dumb phone is?) in February. Whoever had my mom’s number previously was a meth drug dealer in Hazard, Kentucky because strange sounding people would text and call at all times of the day and night asking for a delivery. As my dad says, these could be his future patients since their teeth (or tooth) will be rotten! Have a great 2012! ☺ Go Wildcats! Go Colonels! Go Gators!