Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A Christmas Letter

December 8, 2010

Dearest friends and family:

2010 couldn’t have come soon enough for us. Larry and I were desperate for a new year and a new beginning. We needed this year to be a good year, and God definitely provided.

In January, our sweet nephew, John Patrick, or Juan Patricio as I normally refer to him as, turned one year old. It is amazing to see how much he has grown this year as we are quickly approaching his second birthday in less than 2 months. He now calls me Titi (short for Tia Tina) and I love him more than I ever thought possible!

In February we celebrated my mother’s 50th birthday. Yes, Sieglinde is 50, and I know, she doesn’t look a day older than 35! We had many naysayers, but we were able to pull off a complete surprise thanks to the help of many people! She was so excited, and it was all she talked about for weeks!

In June we were gifted the most wonderful vacation! Larry’s boss (and his very close friend) gave us tickets and spending cash to party it up in San Fransisco for 6 days! Saying the trip was wonderful is a complete understatement. San Francisco was beautiful, we got to see our cousins, Josh and Justin, who live in Los Angeles, and we had the most amazing time imaginable! We are almost scared to go again for fear that the next trip cannot ever live up to our first visit!

Angel and I celebrated our 2-year “anniversary” in July. It’s hard to believe it has only been two and a half years since she and her 3 kids came into our lives. Angel, Erick, Mia and Mariah all have a special place in our hearts. We love them and are so happy that they are now a part of our family.




In August, our cousins Jesica and, her husband, Jeremy visited with their son Seth. It was such a joy to meet their new baby and we were so blessed to witness them having him dedicated at our church. We also got a chance to have some one on one time with Jesica and Jeremy while the grandparents watched the little one. We really had so much fun with them and can’t wait for them to come back!

I also turned 30 in August and had the most amazing almost-surprise party. Some might say that it’s because I “have to know everything” that I “ruined” the surprise, but I say that it is merely because I am observant and inquisitive and that I became the victim! I’m still not sure how it would have worked had I have actually been surprised, but it was a gorgeous party! Twilight Theme (complete with Team Edward and Team What’s-his-face t-shirts), cash bar, and about 100 friends and family – what more could I ask for? It was great!

Erika got married this September! That’s right, I said “married”! Tim is great and he is so good with my sister and the baby. They are expecting a little girl that is due March 8, 2011 and we are so excited to have another baby in the family! We pray for the best for Erika and Tim and we welcome him with open arms to our not-so-ordinary family.

In October we had the privilege of seeing our cousins Josh, Justin, Jesica and Jeremy again when we went to Los Angeles for Josh and Justin’s wedding. We had such an awesome trip and it was great to get to hang out with them. The wedding was in Palm Springs, California and it was gorgeous. Justin was an absolutely stunning bride! We wish Josh and Justin the absolute best and we couldn’t have asked for a better wife for him, we love her and are so very happy for the both of them! And by the way, we are loving the seeing-the-cousins-twice-a-year thing! Hopefully we can keep this up!

November was especially nice this year as we had our first Veteran’s Day sermon at church where our pastor honored Boofie with a special folding of the flag given to her at Papa’s funeral by an Honor Guard. Our cousin, Jacob, drove down from Oklahoma for the service and we were able to spend time with him over the weekend. We truly enjoyed hanging out with him, and we now have some pretty hilarious stories between the three of us.

This years’ Baxter-Byers-Booth-King-Morrison-Perez-Reifschneider-Simpson Thanksgiving was a hit as per usual. My mom, Amanda, Erika, John Patrick and Tim were all visiting our family in Germany and they were missed, but we did have Uncle Bill, Aunt Cindy, our cousin Alisha and her daughter, Elizabeth, join us from Oklahoma, so that was a very nice surprise!

We pray that you are all well and we truly thank God for putting you in our lives. As we reflect on the past couple of years, we know we couldn’t be where we are today without the amazing friends and family that God has blessed us with. We anticipate this new year with faith and excitement about what God has in store for us, and we wish you the blessing of hope and the peace of His love this Christmas and always!
                                                            All our love,
                                                            Larry (Trey) & Christina