Happy New Year! We just returned from spending two weeks with our family in NY for Christmas. We love NYC at Christmastime, and we enjoyed visiting the Museum of Natural History, eating hot dogs and pretzels in Central Park, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and most of all, spending time with family and friends!
Last year at this time, we were blanketed with tons of snow out here in Denver! The snow brought everyone in the neighborhood together and made for some epic snowball fights! It also provided lots of mountain fun, and afforded Mahalia a chance to hit the slopes for the first time!
Winter was a busy time in the Norton household…Billy traveled back down for his second trip to Copper Canyon in Mexico with his RMSEL students. I made time for my job as a case manager for the Byrne Foundation (now named Byrne Urban Scholars), and continued to teach as an adjunct faculty member at DU. I also spent more time in Prescott, Arizona, serving as a Graduate Advisor for Prescott College. Billy and I also spent several days in Eldorado Canyon getting recertified as Wilderness First Responders.
Mainly, I was running around like a crazy person trying to finish my PhD, which I did! I graduated on Mother’s Day weekend in Chicago from Loyola University. The whole family road-tripped there, and had a wonderful reunion with friends and family. At one point in my doc program, Mahalia and Will said, “Mommy, will you ever be done with school?!”
After having a crazy winter and spring, summer couldn’t have come at a better time. Billy, the kids and I took the most amazing road trip to Montana and Idaho (Are you noticing a travel theme here? Thank God, for portable DVD players and Disney movies!). In July, Billy instructed an OB course for Expeditionary Learning teachers from all over the country. He paddled down the Missouri River, through the “breaks,” retracing pieces of Lewis and Clark’s trip. In August, I was invited to go to Croatia to assist Outward Bound Croatia in getting their program with high risk youth up and running. It was a life-changing experience, and a wonderful way to celebrate my 10 year anniversary working for OB. It made me realize how small and precious our world is. I fell in love with Croatia and it’s people, and learned the best curses in the world, which for the sake of not going straight to hell, will NOT be mentioned in this holiday letter.
Mahalia and Will are growing up so fast (did I just say that?!) and it is amazing to watch them learn, laugh and make their way in this world. Mahalia is in kindergarten, learning to read and write. A lover of details, she loves homework and can tell you exactly who is on green, yellow or red light in her class. She absolutely loves art--drawing, painting, you name it, and says she wants to be an artist when she grows up. This has led to discussions regarding the difference between a hobby and a career, to which she replied, “No, I want to do art for my JOB!”(I think my parents may have had the same talk with me about social work!) When she’s not drawing princesses, she is busy with soccer, gymnastics, and the church choir. She recently played an angel (bit part, if I’ve ever seen one!) in the church Christmas pageant. She hardly sang, but she still made her Gadie proud!
Will is in preschool, and whenever I ask him what he did in school on a given day, he breaks into a huge grin and says, “I PLAYED.” We should all be so lucky! He is still our “uncarved block” in many ways, but now he is so verbal and his mouth can’t keep up with his brain (I don’t know where he gets that!). He loves his big sister and his dog (Cha Cha), and he is never without a ball in his hands. He is starting a Little Nuggets Jr. Hoopsters basketball league in January, which should be highly entertaining. Look, if he’s going to play in the NBA, he’s gotta start early! I think he’s ready…don’t worry, though he’s wearing Carolina gear, he is fiercely loyal to the Jayhawks!
Billy and I have done our best to raise good, Colorado children thus far. We expose them to mountain hikes and walks through the tall prairie grass at the nearby reservoir. We’ve taken them to the stock show, skiing, to Rockies baseball games, and to the annual Rockygrass bluegrass festival.
After our summer of adventures, fall was highlighted by the birth of our nephew, Sammy, bringing all of so much joy. Billy and I also did our first triathlon, and had a ball. This fall has been the first time we’ve contemplated leaving these parts, as I am looking for tenure-track jobs in social work all over the country. Don’t really want to leave all of this behind, but we’ll see what happens…
As I reflect on our year, I am reminded of how blessed our lives have been. It’s felt chaotic and stressful at times managing work, school and a family, but through it all, we continue to enjoy life’s crazy adventures. While there have been many things we are grateful for this year, we have also had several friends and family members experience personal difficulties or tragedy. It has been a wake-up call to the fragility of life, and, yet, we have been so inspired by the courage and faith of so many of you (YOU know who you are!).
In these uncertain times, when war continues to rage on, and a presidential election looms on the horizon, many people feel the need to pick between optimism and pessimism. However, we aspire to be like Cornell West, who said, “I’m a blues man. The categories of optimism and pessimism don’t exist. I’m a prisoner of hope.” What a thing to be held captive by!
May this New Year be a time filled with joy, peace, and most of all HOPE.
Love, Christine, Billy, Mahalia, Will (Gadie & Cha Cha too!)
