A Blessed 2010

Happy New Year, Wonderful Friends and Family!

We have enjoyed hearing from so many of you through your holiday cards and emails. Thanks for staying in touch and keeping us updated on your lives in 2010! After some good post-Christmas R&R, we are finally ready to return the favor. Please click on the banners below to see more of the pictures. Many good things have stayed the same in 2010—a welcome change after the good-but-hectic transitions of 2009. We are still very much enjoying being married, living in our Lafayette home with the addition of eleven new spruce trees, waiting a few more months before thinking about kiddos, and gratefully engaging in our chosen careers.

Nils continues to do web development for RealEyes Media. The company bought and moved into an old mansion in the Capitol Hill area of Denver and hired quite a few new folks, so Nils’ commute has gotten longer and his family-size work environment has changed a bit. Recently, he has been enjoying some free time programming for upcoming Blackberry technology. Nils also braved a vein-removal surgery in April to significantly reduce the odds of another blood clot scare like we had on the way back from our honeymoon.

After more than six years of education and supervised client hours, Jen completed her licensure requirements this year, so she is now a Licensed Professional Counselor! Despite the challenges of working with people who are sometimes slow to change, she very much enjoys the breakthrough times, successful terminations, and the excitement of ongoing learning. She continues to offer Spiritual Director training courses and seminars periodically, and is currently learning more about listening prayer.

After work, we spent lots of fun times with friends. Jen continues to meet with her women’s prayer group, now in their tenth year together. Nils stays in touch by phone and GTalk with lots of out of state friends, trying to meet with his new parent friends in between their sleepless nights and crazy schedules. We’ve enjoyed getting to know the couples in Cool River, our new little church over in Superior, through Friday night get-togethers and other dinner dates. We’ve also stepped up our game nights with friends who share our passion for learning complicated board games and playing them until the wee hours.

This year featured a lot of travel, at least for our taste. In early May, Nils’ company and significant others took a trip to rural Idaho for some relaxation, punctuated by rounds of paintball (Welts! Ow!), and a day trip to Yellowstone to check out the bison. In late May, we went to Harvard for Jen’s 10-year reunion to reconnect with dear old friends and attempt to show Nils around the campus, only to be foiled by strict building security. It made Jen miss the good old days before PowerPoint, pervasive WiFi, Facebook, and attack-proofed classrooms. June took us to Nils’ hometown of Gold Beach and to visit his family in rural Oregon, since we had visited the Portland and Seattle city folk in 2008.

Jen’s sister Christine married Lt. Joseph Darcy in Long Island in July, so we went out there for the lovely wedding and then walked the Brooklyn Bridge over to New York City to say a quick “hi” to some childhood and college friends. August weekends featured camping trips with people from our church. We finally got to use all the camping gear we received at our wedding! November brought a trip to Oklahoma to visit Jen’s mom’s side of the family and help with The Pink House, the family’s tea, lunch, catering, and gifts business. Travel concluded in December with a too-quick jaunt to Maui for Nils’ parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. All six of his siblings and almost all of their spouses and kids were able to come, attend a luau, enjoy spicy Thai cuisine, play games while it rained, and roam the island together. It was unique and special time.

Knowing the sorrows, frustrations, and stresses of years before, and knowing that many hard times lie ahead because even good life is short and contains so many challenges and losses, we are very grateful to have so many joys to share with you from 2010. Each one is really a gift. And it is a gift to have each of you in our lives and our memories as well.

Happy New Year, with Thanks to You All!

Nils & Jen