2006

Happy Holidays Everyone! Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Happy New Year to all of you!

I still remember when 2006 began…Billy and I woke up in the wee morning hours, hung over from New Year’s Eve, and walked down the still dark, cold streets of Dublin, Ireland to a 7:30am mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. As we stumbled to church, drunken Irishmen stumbled home from the bars. What were we thinking?!

After spending a week in Ireland, Billy and I headed back home to Colorado via New York and Indiana to see family. January was filled with Billy’s travels with his students from RMSEL down to the Rio Grande and Copper Canyon in Mexico. He brought home more rocks, and new recipes for homemade refried beans and enchiladas.

While plugging away at my dissertation and teaching, I continued my work with the Byrne Foundation, working to try and undo some of the educational inequalities in the Denver inner-city area. We experienced a historic time in Denver with large scale immigration rights protests, many of which were attended by my clients and families. While not an easy issue, we were amazed to be surrounded by people taking to the streets for a cause they believe in.

The spring and summer brought out the full enjoyment of living in Colorado: skiing, skiing and more skiing! My dad came out and we got a cabin at Vail and Billy’s sisters and their husbands came out for a sibling ski weekend at Breckenridge, where I somehow found myself singing John Cougar’s “Little Pink Houses” backed up by an 80s metal live karaoke band. Yeah, bet you’re sad you missed that one.

As summer rolled around, I did some more training for Outward Bound, this time up in Montana, and Billy, the kids and I made our annual trip up to the Northwoods of Minnesota. We also attended a western themed costume wedding of some Outward Bound friends up in Walden, Colorado. Think gentleman and floozy. The red boa made all the difference. We took in some good bluegrass at the Rockygrass Festival in Lyons, Colorado where we heard another good OB friend, Robert Greer, and his band Town Mountain, open the festival. We sat in the creek, drank cold Skinny Dip (New Belgium Brewery’s delicious summer ale) and heard a very young at heart Earl Scruggs tear it up on the banjo. May we all live that fully until we die!

This summer we added a new member to our family, Muchacha, a black lab puppy. Needless to say, Mahalia picked her out and named her. While she used to knock Dubs over and chew on his neck, the roles are now reversed. She is a terror on the leash and destroys anything she can get her teeth on, but since she chews up my mom’s cigarettes and bit the head off of Mahalia’s Barbie, we don’t think she’s all bad, and may even be highly intelligent.

November brought more travels… to a Northwood’s wedding on the shores of Lake Superior for some more Outward Bound friends, and to Indiana for a Thanksgiving family reunion to celebrate the 90th birthdays of both of my grandparents. Both were amazing times of celebrating love, friends and family!

Surprisingly, December also brought travels to New York City, a gift from my sister and brother in-laws! New York at Christmastime is the best, and we got to spend more quality time with family, which is always special.

The kids have obviously been along on many of these adventures, and take to travel and new experiences with gusto. Mahalia is in pre-school, totally into princesses and barbies and all things girly, yet still a lover of bugs and dirt and all things outdoors. She takes gymnastics and spent endless hours at our community pool this summer. She is so funny and verbal, and keeps us on our toes for sure! Dubs is two now and is so expressive himself. Their love-hate relationship is fueled by her flair for the dramatic and his antagonistic tendencies…a brilliant combo! He loves dressing up in Mahalia’s Tinkerbelle dress and trying to commandeer her dolls. He is also obsessed with balls, and currently sleeps with a regulation sized football, basketball and volleyball in his crib with him. So you can see, both of our kids are balanced in all the right ways! He is in pre-school one day a week, and is learning the difference between red and blue (though rather unsuccessfully).

As I write this letter, the streets in our neighborhood are quiet, and the Christmas tree lights fill our house with such peace. I can hardly believe that we are a world at war, and that so many people are suffering right now. For some reason, I count my blessings even more this year. Life seems so precious and fragile, relationships come and go, but in the end, I truly believe that every act of kindness is also an act of hope. Somehow it symbolizes that we, as a human community, haven’t quite given up on each other. I hope you are reminded of that this holiday season, as you drive through your neighborhoods and see the decorative lights, when you hear a carol that makes your heart leap, or when you receive a card from a loved one far away. These are the miracles of the season…yes, even the cheesy, over-indulgent holiday letters of those blathering on about the insignificant aspects of their lives!

All of our love to you and yours in this season of emergent Light…

Billy, Christine, Mahalia and Will

P.S. For all those of you who have been keeping track, YES, it was Billy’s turn to write the holiday letter, but he’s upstairs grading papers, so you’re stuck with the velveeta. Hasta el ano que viene.