2009 Christmas "Letter"

Well, 2009 has been a pretty good year to us. We started off the year as newlyweds! After a great wedding and honeymoon to Cocoa Beach and Orlando, Florida, we were back in KS and starting off our new life together!




We enjoyed a cold winter together - inside by the fire and working on the house. We've been doing quite a bit of remodeling - doing our best to update our house out of the "Brady Bunch" era. Our latest project has been our fireplace. It's a great new focal point in our living room! Our house is definitely coming along...slowly but surely.

April brought a huge snowstorm to our area. We were snowed in the house for a long weekend. We probably got between 2 and 3 feet of snow. Our neighbor had to come over and dig us out of our driveway with his tractor! But the snow soon melted and created one of the most beautiful "Springs" I can remember!

In early May, we decided to add to our family and get another cat. My friend Jill's boyfriend (at the time, but now fiance) had a litter of kittens so we went out to his house and found the perfect one. We decided to name him Grayson and he soon became our buddy!



During the summer, Dave began the process of converting half of our garage into a paint booth. He bought a huge air compressor and we both did a ton of work getting it all hooked up and going. It's definitely coming along...even more recently, the walls are sheetrocked, lights have been put up and now we're working on getting the ventilation system figured out.

The Fourth of July weekend took us out to Ulysses - my hometown for our bi-annual family reunion. Family from the west coast, Texas, Colorado and other states all came for a weekend of fun and family. It was the first time Dave had met many of them, but I think he loved it. :-)





Unfortunately, August brought heartache to our home. On August 9, Dave's dad was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. After a long week of planning and sharing memories with family and friends, a beautiful memorial service was held. Many of Robbie's favorite songs were played and it was a bittersweet gathering of loved ones. Thankfully, God blessed us with the opportunity to spend the evening before the accident with Robbie and Ro. We all had dinner together and were able to tell him that we loved him. He is missed terribly but we are confident that he is with God in heaven and no longer enduring the pain and struggles of the world.





A few weeks later, we were able to get away and take a vacation to Wyoming. My cousin Jessica and her new husband Gilman returned home for a wedding reception with family and friends. We had a great time enjoying the beautiful scenery and being able to be with family we don't get to see often enough. We went to Buffalo and visited my Grandma Betty and to Lander to visit my Uncle Bob and Aunt Jeri and see our cousins Jess & Bill. It was such a nice time. I was so glad to be able to show Dave where I had made so many memories as a kid.







September brought more remodeling - this time to our shed. Dave tore it down to the studs, moved it to a different location and basically rebuilt it. Whoever built it the first time didn't have a CLUE what they were doing, so we had our work cut out for us. We sided it, roofed it, and built doors for it. It was a fun project to do together and it was great to keep us outside as we were able to watch the leaves turn to beautiful fall colors.

In October, we headed to Stafford (Dave's hometown) for their annual Oktoberfest celebration. But this year was special - it was Dave's 10 year high school reunion. I got to meet many of his friends and class members. It was a fun time. The Clarks are the best in-laws I could ask for and it's so fun to get to visit! A week later, we went to Hillsboro, KS for Tabor College homecoming. I can't believe it's already been 4 years since I was there. It's so fun going back with my husband and showing him the place that I loved and spent a few years of my life. We got to see many friends and watch about 10 minutes of the football game before we left because we were freezing!









In late October, Dave and I got the news that we are going to be Uncle and Aunt! Dave's brother Chris and his wife Shaina are expecting a little one in July. I'm so excited to be Aunt Tori and get to see my niece or nephew!!






November soon rolled in and we made plans to go to Arkansas for Thanksgiving. Dave's grandpa Bob and many great aunts and uncles live in Jasper, Arkansas and we decided to go down there. It is so beautiful there! Chris and Shaina made the trek with us and we had a fantastic dinner and great time with family! I am so glad we were able to be with the Clarks for Thanksgiving. What a great family.



Well, it's December now. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary on December 13th. It was a great time of celebrating our love and our thankfulness of God bringing us together! But we did have a disappointing thing happen. We found our little kitty Grayson hit by a car on our way to church. (On our anniversary). It was really tough and still is. We grew so close to him...he was like family to us. We miss him horribly. Dave and I knew we needed another cat and just this last weekend, we adopted a sweetheart from the KS humane society in Wichita. We don't have a name for her yet as we're waiting to learn her personality a little more first. She's beautiful - black and white kitten, 3 months old. We're having fun getting her introduced to our home and getting to know her!

We were able to have Christmas with my parents and my sister Kelsi and her boyfriend Ryan last weekend. It was a nice time to be together and exchange gifts. Kelsi and Ryan are going to Florida for Christmas - I will admit, I'm STINKIN jealous. But I'm happy for them too. We're planning on celebrating Christmas with Dave's family (Us, Chris & Shaina, Joan & Marc, Ryan & Savannah, & Mary) on Christmas eve. We're also hoping to be able to attend our church's Christmas Eve service. But we're expecting this big blizzard to move into our area tonight and tomorrow. Ulysses is on the agenda for Friday, weather permitting. I really hope it works out, but for now, we'll just wait and see what the weather does.

As I close this, I just want to thank all of you for what you mean to us! We've been through good times and not so good times in 2009, but our friends and family are the biggest blessing in our life! We're so thankful for our church, our small group, our jobs, our home, so many things! God has been good to us!

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Dave and Tori