An Old Fashioned Christmas Letter

As much as I love to write I have never written an old fashioned Christmas letter.  You know the kind, a recap of the year, a time to share with your loved ones what you are thankful for. Written on an actual piece of paper, maybe with a lovely winter scene in the background, hand addressed and sent along to friends and family in an envelope with a Holiday themed stamp. Well I've never written such a letter.  This year isn't the year that I'm going to start.  Well at least not one on a piece of paper with an aforementioned lovely winter scene.  Here's my version of our old fashioned Christmas letter:


Dear Loved Ones,

I have to admit, it's not feeling 100% Christmas-y in my part of the world.  As with most Decembers in Indiana the temperature hasn't dipped much below 40 degrees and it's actually been quite a bit warmer.  I think we hit the 70's a week or two ago. Not that I'm complaining but where I grew up it was almost always frigid by December and there was most definitely snow on the ground.  A little bit of that is required to get in the full spirit but I'm doing my best.  Our Christmas trees are up and decorated, well the top 3/4ths of our Christmas trees are decorated. The bottoms will remain bare to avoid tempting tiny hands that don't quite understand the difference between a soccer ball and a Christmas ball. My Christmas baking is in full swing and Hollyberry and Evergreen scented candles are being burned around the clock. So we are making do with what we have available to us.  But I admit I'm a bit jealous of the multiple inches of snow that my sisters in Minnesota just received. Only a bit jealous though.

This year, as in years past we have so much to be thankful for. In February we moved into a new house and have spent many months renovating, improving and painting and we are happy to say that our new house is now our new home.  In March Corey and I left Oliver behind for the first time and spent a week in Arizona for a trip with other Federated Insurance employees.  It was tough to be away from our little Tiddlywink for so long but we had a great time enjoying time by the pool, at the spa, enjoying wonderful food and catching up with friends we get to only see once a year.  Grandpa and Grandma Rekers came and stayed with Oliver the first part of the week and Grandpa Lisk and Aunt Desi came for the second part of the week. They all had a great time and I don't think Oliver missed us nearly as much as we missed him.

In April we celebrated Oliver's 1st birthday.  He had his first taste of ice cream and loved his first taste of birthday cake. He definitely has his mom's sweet tooth. We are still in shock at how fast the time passes with a little one in the house.  He is such a joy and we try our best to soak up every minute of his childhood.  Even if some days aren't as joyous as others.

In June my sisters and I along with some of our friends participated in a 5K for Pancreatic Cancer research. We walked and ran in memory of my mom and in the past two years we have raised nearly $7000 all going to help fight to find a cure.  Our family is so humbled by the generosity of all of you that have supported us in the fight for this research since my mom passed away almost two years ago.  We know that money is tight and we want you to know that we appreciate and are so thankful for every single penny.

In July we traveled back to Iowa for our annual camping trip with my side of the family. It was hot as usual but Oliver had a great time playing with all his third cousins and got in lots of time with the aunties. After we went camping in Minnesota we drove down to Iowa and Corey rode in RAGBRAI for the second year. For those of you that don't know what RAGBRAI is it is an annual bicycle ride across Iowa.  They start at the western border and ride approximately 60-80 miles a day stopping in towns along the way and make their way across the state and end up on the eastern border.  RAGBRAI is at the end of July every year and if riding a bike across Iowa doesn't sound brutal enough for you factor in the fact that the temperature in Iowa at the end of July is usually somewhere around 80 to 85 degrees and with about 127% humidity. Oh and they camp along the way. Not my cup of tea but Corey loves it and he rides with good friends and his brother and his dad and they have a great time.

In August I enjoyed a much needed moms weekend away and I went to Destin, Florida with three of my mommy friends.  My friend Irene's parents were kind enough to open up their beach house to us and what a wonderful weekend we had!  We enjoyed the sun and relished the time that we had to relax.

Last month we traveled to Iowa for Thanksgiving/Christmas-palooza with Grandpa and Grandma Rekers and Uncle Ryan.  It has been so hard for us living 8 hours away from family and the holidays are always such a wonderful time to spend time with family.  Because we live so far away it's always difficult to split our time amongst families and so this year we made the tough decision that so many others have made and we started alternating holidays.  We spent Thanksgiving in Cedar Falls and we also celebrated Christmas.  It was so lovely to spend almost an entire week there and not have to pack up the car three times to travel and be sad leaving family behind to go and enjoy time with another part of the family. We spent time laughing and enjoying each others company.  Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Ryan spent lots of time with Oliver and we even enjoyed a 60 degree day in November in Iowa!! Old toy ride along tractors were taken out of storage and enjoyed by another generation of child and also enjoyed in a whole new way with earlier generations. We bundled up the day after Thanksgiving to go to downtown Cedar Falls for Holiday Hoopla where we got an excellent view of a spectacular fireworks show after Santa made his holiday debut.  Believe it or not this was the first time Oliver had seen fireworks because we've missed the show the past two Fourth of Julys because of crummy weather. He stared in wonder as the rest of us probably spent more time looking at him and his reaction than at the fireworks themselves. The next day we bundled up again and went to visit Santa Claus at his village.  Fortunately there was no crying when Oliver sat on Santa's lap, unfortunately Oliver was more interested in the ladder and slide that served as an exit out of Santa's workshop. Either way we had a successful trip to visit Santa to kick off the Holiday season.  Later in the weekend we got to see the joy in Oliver's eyes as he opened gift after gift around the Christmas tree as we celebrated Christmas with the Rekers'.  This wasn't his first Christmas of course but each year the excitement grows a bit as he starts to understand more and more about the joy of the season.

In a couple of weeks our house will once again be filled with family.  My sisters and all of their boyfriends, which as fate would have it are ALL named Tyler, weird I know, will be coming to celebrate Christmas along with my Dad, my stepmom and my brother.  I already have dinner and snack menus whirling around inside my head and have about 3 shopping lists started and scattered
throughout the house. I'm looking forward to spending nights snuggled on the couch surrounded by family and seeing the joy and wonder again in Oliver's eyes when we open presents around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.  We hope that this holiday season finds you with many blessings to be thankful for and that the New Year will bring you much happiness and joy.

Love,

The Rekers
Corey, Kinzie, Oliver and Lola

PS I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post. My laptop died a few months ago and I'm trying to figure out the trick to blogging from our iPad. Fingers crossed Santa brings me a new laptop for Christmas.