Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010

"O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight."

Sidebar Fun Facts

Merry Christmas!

We are enjoying a quiet Christmas in Colorado this year. It is pretty warm in the Denver area, but we hope to get to the mountains to play in the recent 8 feet of snow.

We have finally convinced a family member to move to Colorado! Britta’s sister Krista is living in Denver and working at Denver Urban Ministries through the Urban Servant Corps.

We continue to do well in our careers. Ryan is a Software Engineer III at Comprehensive Software Systems. He is also Lead Developer on an important project at the company. He travels occasionally to Dallas and Little Rock to work onsite with clients. Britta continues as Executive Director at Wheat Ridge 2020. She is busy buying foreclosed homes, renovating and selling them to income-qualified households.

2010 Destinations

- Minnesota (x4)
- South Dakota
- Washington
- Oregon
- British Columbia

On our vacations we ended up playing Settlers of Catan with several friends and family.

Recommended reading from Ryan:

Seeker by Jack McDevitt

The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System by Charles Gasparino.

Decision Points by George W. Bush

National Parks Visited:
- Voyageurs
- Olympic
- North Cascade

Our travels this year focused on Minnesota. We went on an early summer trip to celebrate sister Krista’s and sister Tabitha’s graduations from college and Mom Denise’s graduation with her Doctor of Physical Therapy. We are proud of all their accomplishments and were happy to be able to celebrate with both our families. We spent about 10 days there with the bulk of the time being up north, one graduation in Bemidji and another in Duluth. We visited lots of state parks and Voyageurs National Park. We really enjoyed our time in Grand Marais with our friend Connie. The restaurants there are awesome! We enjoyed exploring the parks along the North Shore and suggest a visit to Cascade River State Park.

In June, we traveled to the Pacific Northwest. We started with the fun wedding of our friends Tori & Tom near Mt. Hood. We were also able to visit the Wu and Myers families in Portland. We enjoyed the many waterfalls and wines of the Columbia River Valley. Seattle’s Pike Place Market was fun. We ate the best chowder ever at a little shop in an alley near the market. We were disappointed that there was still too much snow in late June to explore Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helen’s. We did enjoy the rocky beaches of Olympic National Park and then crossed the border via ferry to Vancouver Island, Canada. We enjoyed a short cruise for Ryan’s birthday and then traveled to Vancouver before heading back to the US. We enjoyed our best weather and scenery at North Cascade National Park.

Our other trips involved some sadness. While on our northwest trip we learned of a terrible accident in which Britta’s Aunt Jeanne was killed and Uncle Dennis critically injured by an RV that decided not to stop for a stop sign. We traveled back to Minnesota for the services and stayed for the 4^th of July weekend. We also traveled to South Dakota for the funeral of a friend and back to Minnesota this December for Britta’s godfather Bob’s funeral after battling cancer. We experienced quite a season of loss with the death of Ryan’s uncle, a former co-worker and other dear ones. Thank you to everyone who has supported our family and friends with prayer during these difficult times. We are happy to report Uncle Dennis is back home for Christmas.

We returned to Bemidji, Minnesota, in the fall for the happy occasion of sister Tabitha’s marriage to David Hoffman. We enjoyed time with family and friends.

TV Shows on our tube:

- 30 Rock

- Big Bang Theory

- Castle

- Chuck

- Psych

- Survivor

Life in Colorado

We continue to be active at our church, Ecclesia Denver, where Britta serves on the Elder Team. Ryan continues as a regular blood donor (5 Gallons!) and Britta continues to support the work of The White House Project, which encourages women to vote, run and lead. This year Britta graduated from Leadership Jefferson County and enjoyed the experience of learning more about our county with some great people. A unique experience included racing police cars at the Colorado State Patrol track in Golden. Ryan was the Chair of the Wheat Ridge Board of Adjustments this year.

For fun we continue to hike and Jeep to beautiful places we can photograph and enjoy. We play kickball, Britta is in a women’s golf league at Fossil Trace, and Britta is still in the Drinking Club with a Book Problem. Ryan’s summer activities and biking took a hit as he had pneumonia in July.

Other big happenings included remodeling our bathroom this spring, turning 30, a little beaver trapping adventure for Ryan, and buying our new home. We moved about 15 blocks the weekend after Thanksgiving and have enjoyed settling in for the holidays.

If you are planning a trip to Colorado, we are happy to tell you more about our favorite places. We were glad to host Britta’s brother Garrett and sister Lauren as well as Ryan’s dad Paul for visits and to see many other friends as they passed through Denver.

We hope you find yourself counting blessings this holiday season.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2011!

Britta & Ryan