Holiday Letter 2014 – Yes, I’m a bit late. But our trip to Mexico without internet for almost 10 days was a shocker I’m still recovering from! 🙂 The following is what I’m sending to our friends and family via snail-mail. I think of you, my dear blog readers, as friends as well, so I wanted to share this with you too. If you’re interested, think of it as your personal christmas card from my family to yours. Enjoy and Happy New Year!
As I write this, the tail lights of Christmas are dimming and the bright splash of New Years is calming down and I have to ask myself, “If we were having coffee at the local Starbucks right now, and you asked how my year went, what would I say?” The first thing that comes to mind is that I want you to know how thankful I am to have you in my life. YOU, our friends and family, are the best part of our lives. Your friendship means so much to us. That’s the key take-away from this holiday letter – so if that’s all you needed to hear, go ahead and toss this right now. If, on the other hand, you are curious about what has filled our lives since we last talked, then read on…
You didn’t get a card last year because…oh bother, I guess I was just too disorganized! We celebrated my 50th birthday in October with a long vacation in Hawaii and it threw everything into a tailspin. What was I thinking? The kids missed school so we took their work with us. Big mistake. Note to self. Don’t do that again. But the sun was hot, the resort was cool and all that made turning 50 just nifty. (Where are my hair color and tweezers?!?)
The kids are still enjoying school at Redding School of the Arts. Graham is in 2nd grade and Amelia is in 5th grade. They are both in the full Mandarin Immersion program which means they have half the day in English and half in Mandarin. They also have a full plate of music, art, and all the rest of the regularly scheduled programming, so they’re stretched. They are also taking piano lessons and that makes for a fun time of chasing them around the house hollering for them to practice magical music at all hours in our house. Soccer in the spring and swim team all summer keep us in tip-top-shape…as supporters. The kids love it and we love watching.
On the extended family front, my Mother and Dad are well and doing as much traveling as they can. My Mother took a few cruises and my Dad took trips to Dubai, Australia, and London. I can’t wait until the kids are big enough to go with them. We all celebrated together as my brother Craig (who lost his wife to cancer almost 3 years ago) got married in June to a darling woman, Diana. After such loss before, the celebration was all the sweeter.
When our local Veteran’s Home opened their skilled nursing facility in July, we moved Tom’s Dad up here from his long-time home of Moraga. It has made for an interesting year as Tom figures out how to juggle the responsibilities of primary care giver for his Dad with those of being husband and dad to his own family. He’s doing his usual exceptional job with it all. (In my humble opinion.)
Tom celebrated his 30th! year with his company this fall. He still loves his job and looks forward to going to work. The forestry and natural resources world is full of exciting challenges – so it’s pretty neat to see all the opportunities unfold. He has also managed to fit in finding an occasional geocache – one of his favorite long-time hobbies.
2014 was my big, huge, major, changing year. I decided that I was going to get back to my first love of public speaking. Wowzer! Had things ever changed in the 8 years I had been away. So, rather than just get out and speak, I spent my year starting a blog/website, a podcast, which you can find on iTunes, while continuing to host a local TV Show, The Forum, (episodes available on You Tube), writing a book (check my website and Amazon after January 15th), and filling in with speaking as much as I could, including a terrific Spring Women’s Renewal Retreat at my church.
Oh, and I also ran the San Jose Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon and was chosen to be one of Michael Hyatt’s testimonials for his goal setting program 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever. I think a highlight was having Michael’s film crew come from Canada to film for the day. When they filmed me running down our street, it was too much for our hyper-vigilant cautious neighbor and he almost ran us off the road with his dually truck – insistently questioning us what we were doing filming on the street! Excitement all around. Ha.
We wrapped up the year with a Christmas cruise to Mexico and a few days in San Diego. It was a relief to let Princess Cruises do the decorating and cooking.
So with all of this we are thankful. Thankful for the December rains, thankful for healthy kids and family, thankful for you! We love hearing your updates and seeing you when you pass through. Please don’t be a stranger!
Our homebase for all social media platforms and to stay connected is www.christylargent.com Be sure to sign up for my email list to keep up with all our happenings!
Much love and hugs from all of us!
Tom, Christy, Amelia and Graham