Christmas letter

To say that we have been busy and didn't plan ahead in sending a Christmas card would be the statement that sums today's blog. While I had the best of intentions, before I knew it, the day to make sure mail was sent out in time to make it to the states came and went. So while I did not get a Christmas card out, I am going to write today what I would have otherwise written. Sorry it is so long, we have been busy this year. So here it goes:
Dear Family and Friends,
When thinking of what the last year has meant for us we come up with two words: change and movement.
In February we headed to San Diego for a little relaxation and warm weather.

In March Nathan received his orders, finally, saying that in one week he would be leaving for Missouri for 4 months and after that he was heading for Germany. This left us with a lot of decisions to make in a very short period of time. We decided that we wanted to move together so we headed for the DMV and were legally married in the state of Colorado. We have still not had our ceremony, we are planning it for August 2011, we are just hoping that orders turn out the way they are supposed to or we might be changing it.
In May I made my way down to Socorro, New Mexico to see my brother graduate with his bachelor's degree in physics from New Mexico Tech! I was so proud and happy to be able to watch him receive his diploma on his birthday (did I mention that his professor even wrapped his diploma in birthday paper)! He now studies lighting while working on his Master's at New Mexico Tech. I made my first trip to Missouri to visit Nathan over Memorial day, the 4 months apart was good practice for when Nathan deploys soon.

In June/July I made a trip up to Minnesota and Wisconsin to see my college friends again before we moved. I hadn't seen them since the year before and it was good to reconnect. As I said my good-byes to them I realized that these were the first of many good-byes to come. When my week in Minnesota came to an end I headed for North Dakota where we celebrated Grandma Ferne's (Nathan's Grandmother) 90th birthday! I met most of Nathan's extended family on his dad's side at the birthday celebration.  I made my way back out to Missouri just 10 days later to see Nathan graduate, was proud of my new US Army Engineer!
In the beginning of August we made our great move to Baumholder, Germany. We had been here in Germany less than 2 weeks when my mom sadly passed away and we found ourselves returning to the states to say our good-byes at her funeral. We were devastated to say good-bye but knew that she was in a better place without the pain. We were also grateful for the time that we did have with her, she was able to see both Jake, Nathan, and I graduate from college, Jake's exciting new research, Nathan and I starting our lives together. I think she knew that we were all finding our way on this road called life and knew that she didn't need to suffer any longer.
In September we made our way to Rudesheim, a city on the Rhine river that is proud of the wine that it produces (it was very tasty). A couple of weeks later we headed for Cologne and enjoyed the incredible cathedral and gorgeous city. We made our way to a wine fest in Bad Durkheim. It was not a wine tasting as we thought it would be, it was more of a get drunk on wine event, they served the wine in big beer glasses. At the end of the month we made our way to the pumpkin festival, we found pumpkins that were big enough to hold me.
In October Nathan was gone training so I didn't do a lot of traveling. Instead, I started taking German cooking classes, classes on being an Army wife, started leading 2 Girl Scout troops and started unpacking all of our stuff.
In November we were busy we started out by spending a weekend in Luxembourg, one of our favorite countries and cities so far. The next weekend we went to Mainz for the beginning of Fasching (see my previous posts for an explanation) and then to Paris that same weekend. We loved Paris, a definite return trip is in order for us. For Thanksgiving we went to Porto, Portugal. We enjoyed the city, the tours on the river, and the tasting of the Port wine.

In December we have busied ourselves with Christmas markets. We have seen lots of snow come our way the last couple of weeks, they closed the airport and violence erupted between passengers making the international news. We have been on a hunt for a new house the last couple of weeks and we are happy to say that as of yesterday morning we have found a new place and will be moving in Feb. 1, more details to come later.
2010 has been busy for us:
Trips across the Atlantic: 3; states we have been in: 10 (we had some road trips back and forth to places); countries we have been in: 5; graduations: 2;  memories made together and with friends and family: countless.
We hope you all have a beautiful and wonderful Christmas and may God bless 2011 for you.
~Katie & Nathan