Wrapping Up 2009

From Mike:
Overall it’s been a whirlwind holiday season for us. It seems like Thanksgiving was only a couple of weeks ago! Well, here we are…on the brink of ringing in the New Year. I hope, for you all, 2009 has been full of God’s blessing. I know Kelly and I have definitely felt God’s hand working in each of us, and am so thankful for the lives he has so graciously and abundantly blessed us with. Anyway, here’s the skinny on the past month or so at our house.

A week or so before Thanksgiving, we bought a new car. Although we didn’t really need a new one, all the quirks of my base model Honda Civic were starting to get to me; and since I spend so much time sitting in traffic during my commute to work everyday, well, it was time for an upgrade. Anyway, it’s a 2005 Acura TL (silver with black interior) and it is awesome. It’s got all the bells and whistles one might need to make for a smooth, comfy ride all the way to work and back.

We spent Thanksgiving with my family at my parents’ house just hanging out, watching football, enjoying each other’s company, and doting on Carolyn’s new son—Mason. The day after, when most people do their Christmas shopping, we took Zora to the vet for a checkup, which both of us had feared for awhile. As most of you know, Zora is not the friendliest cat, and we didn’t know how she would react to a stranger poking and prodding her. However, to our pleasant surprise, she was very well behaved and only hissed once despite having to get two shots! The vet also told us that her weight is no longer a major issue and she could only stand to lose another pound or so…great news!

The following week, Kelly was fortunate enough to get jury duty. Despite faithfully fulfilling her civic duty by driving all the way up to Greeley in the snow, she was promptly turned away and sent back home. That same week, we started reading a book called Sacred Marriage with our good friends Heather and Daniel and they came over to discuss the first chapter. That Friday, we drove to downtown Denver to have dinner with friends and watch the Parade of Lights. We finished our dinner a little late, but still got to see several floats, a few balloons, and of course, Santa Claus. Kelly also ran into her friend Rachel, who was in the parade with her show dog. The next evening we made an appearance at a Christmas cocktail party put on by our friends Chad and Kelli.

On December 10th, we drove to south Denver to help celebrate the birthday of our friend Alex, who decided to partake of the all-you-can-eat crab feast at Landry’s Seafood House. He managed to get through an eye-popping 13 plates of crab legs before declaring that he was about to explode. (And that his hands were too raw to crack open any more shells) The following Saturday night we drove back down to Denver for Kelly’s company Christmas party held at the Hyatt Regency downtown. The highlight of the evening was when they started giving away door prizes. Kelly managed to win another bright blue MWH fleece-lined jacket; a duplicated of the one hanging, unused, in our closet at home.

The next day, we got to see our good friend, Carter, get baptized by Alex! It has been such a blessing and an answer to prayer to see Carter growing in his faith. To watch him make an open and outward declaration of his faith in Christ was indescribable and stirred up such overwhelming joy that it brought tears to my eyes. Kelly had been praying for Carter for years and was so excited that she couldn’t wait for him to dry off before giving him a big, wet hug. Afterward, Carter, Beth, Alex, his wife Katey, Kelly and I had brunch at Racine’s and toasted Carter with a celebratory mimosa. That evening, Kelly met up with some girls for happy hour at Hotel Teatro and went to see the play Spring Awakening at the Denver Performing Arts Center. Friday, my office had their Christmas party at Dave & Buster’s, and that evening I hosted a poker night at my house. I managed to win and take away a $35 pot…not something to sniff at if you ask me! On Saturday we went to Heather and Daniel’s for the 11th annual Christmas Movie Marathon. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing that for 11 years! Things have changed a bit (we no longer stay up all night), but it’s still a great time and despite Kelly’s inability to sit in front of the TV for extended periods of time, she managed to go four whole hours without a distraction before pulling out her computer and her cross-stitching!

Christmas started on the 22nd for us when Kelly’s dad and step mom drove down from Wyoming to close on their house in Louisville (Kelly would like it noted how sad she is that her childhood home is now officially sold). We went to a local restaurant for dinner and came back to our house afterward to open gifts. Kelly’s dad recently bought a Playstation 3, so we bought them Guitar Hero 5. We showed them how to play on our Wii; and think, with practice, they’ll be shredding the frets in no time. We spent the next day preparing the house for our Third Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Unfortunately for us, it snowed several inches that night and we only had about half the people that we expected, but it was still a blast and we had some really ugly sweaters! Beth managed to win the title this year with her bright red, half-mohair cardigan. Second place went to Ben Vinson, who was dressed as a Christmas superhero in Grinch footie pajamas and red dinosaur cape. Justin Zuiker came in third wearing a fuzzy red and green tree-skirt, complete with a huge silver poinsettia pinned on the front.

On Christmas Eve, we met up with my family and the Murphys for brunch at the Huckleberry in Louisville. Sadly, on the way there we witnessed a car accident and had to wait for the police to show up to give them our account. Afterwards, we went to see A Christmas Carol, which was actually quite frightening. A mom and her two kids actually left during the movie! That evening, we were supposed to have dinner with Kelly’s mom, but she came down with a sudden illness, so we spent a quiet evening alone at home. We attended our church’s Christmas eve candlelight service at 11pm and managed to make it home and into bed by 1am.

Christmas day started at 9am with breakfast at my parent’s house. We ate; opened stockings and gifts; played with our niece and nephew; and were at Sharon’s house by 3:00. There, we snacked on leftovers from our party, opened gifts, and by then I was thoroughly spent. I had to take a quick nap before we set out in the new car to view the neighborhood Christmas lights. We drove around ooo-ing and ahh-ing at some of the light displays; scoffing at the ugly inflatable Santas and snowmen. After awhile we came home, had a light dinner, and spent the rest of the night enjoying our new gifts.

Last Saturday, we met up with a few friends in Denver for dinner at the Wazee Supper Club. After enjoying some of the best pizza in town, we went and saw Up In The Air at the Pavilions. After church on Sunday, I watched my fantasy football team lose terribly in the championship game, and the Broncos’ chances of making the playoffs slip even further away.

Well, that about wraps it up for 2009. We’ll see you again in 2010. God bless and Happy New Year!!

Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours, we hope this holiday season is fun, memorable (in a good way), and full of reminders of how blessed we truly are. For us, 2009 was marked by a whirlwind of activity and, as always, a ridiculous amount of travelling!

We started off the year by participating in the historical inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president! Well, Mike didn’t actually participate in the inauguration, but he was there to enjoy a bunch of the inauguration festivities, including a great concert held at the Lincoln memorial, before leaving for home on the big day. Kelly toughed out the freezing cold with Tony (from San Francisco) and, after we fought our way through the biggest crowd we had ever seen, we had a pretty good spot to see Mr. Obama take the presidency. That night, Tony and Kelly went to the NJ inaugural ball and saw a few celebrities throughout the day.

In February, we spent the weekend at the Garden of the Gods to celebrate Valentine’s Day and our first anniversary. We also played in a dodgeball league and celebrated Mike’s 27th birthday in March with a party at the Rio in Boulder.

We were fortunate enough to attend a bunch of fun wedding celebrations throughout the year, which is one of our favorite things to do! We celebrated with Katey (Weaver) and Alex Johnson (Denver) in January, Misty (Rogers) and Greg Giunto (Denver)/Susan (Trieu) and Kris Norenberg (Wichita) in April, Monica (Kremer) and Stephen Milburn (Lafayette) in June, Nicole (Biondi) and Ben Vinson (San Jose) in July, and Lindsay (Parrish) and Boris Krupa (Denver) in August.

At the beginning of June, we took a trip with Beth to see Simon and Hannah in England, then on to see Kacy and Tara in Belgium, and finished up with some sightseeing in Amsterdam. The trip was great except that right before we left, Kelly got sick with bronchitis and was pretty ill for the first part of the journey. Despite the coughing, though, it was great to see everyone and Mike enjoyed his first trip to Europe (at least the first that wasn’t just a layover). One of our favorite things that we did was go punting down the Thames River in Oxford, England. We also enjoyed sampling chocolate and beer in Belgium. While in the Netherlands, we took a nice scenic bus ride and got to see windmills, a cheese farm, and a wooden shoe maker. It was also fun to see how our friends live overseas and spend time together.

For the Fourth of July, we went to my dad’s house in Wyoming. We floated down the river, went fishing at a nearby lake, and watched fireworks from a nice overlook on the edge of town. Dad and Crystal have since sold their house in Louisville and retired full-time to their house in Wyoming, where they are enjoying their free time.

We took a bunch of camping trips this summer and the highlight of those trips was one on which we had a visit from a bear! In the middle of the night Matt, a friend of ours in another tent, heard footsteps and then looked up to see the outline of a bear just as it took a swipe at his tent. Matt shouted as loud as he could and the bear ran away. Luckily we hadn’t left any food out, but it did take some bites at our water jug.

This summer we also captained a kickball team—Just for Kicks—and while we did not have a winning season, it was a fun to get outside and play.

We celebrated my 27th birthday in August with a trip to Vegas and had a great time checking out all the flashy sights and fancy hotels. Kelly also took a business trip to DC and got to spend some time with friends there during my visit.

In September, we started what will be a yearly tradition for us—to visit every US state (in alphabetical order). Of course, the first state is Alabama, so we headed down to Gulf Shores for a wonderful beach weekend. While we were there, we went on a sunset cruise where we saw several dolphins swimming alongside, and jumping around in, the wake of the boat. We also relaxed on the beach and did some shopping.

We rounded out the year with some more business trips (to Orlando, DC and Tulsa for Kelly; Ohio, DC, Alabama and San Diego for Mike). We also had some friends from DC in town and Kelly went with them to the CSU homecoming game. We volunteered with the March of Dimes for their annual Chef’s event and celebrated Halloween in Denver dressed as hippies.

The end of the year has also brought the joy of new babies! In November, Thomas and Kristen Milburn had baby Katin, Brian and Brandy Moody had baby Bree, Stephanie and Lloyd Rochester had baby Rylan, and, closest to our hearts, Mike’s sister Carolyn and her husband Adam had baby Mason.

Overall, it’s been a wonderful, busy year in which we’ve seen God working in many ways and which was guided all along the way by love. We are grateful that both of us still have jobs (Mike is still with the Department of Defense and Kelly is still working with MWH Constructors) and we are grateful to be living in Erie, which has grown into quite a nice little community. We hope that you are doing well also and that you are taking the time to see God’s hand in your life.

God bless and Merry Christmas!