2007 Holiday Greetings

Colorado Edition "Davidoreen" Family Newsletter – December 2007

Colorado

Welcome to the 17th annual edition of the Holiday tell-it-all. No moves for us in 2007 - Yay! We have been trying to do all the things that Colorado has to offer before we move again. We finally visited The Shrine of the Sun at the top of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo www.cmzoo.org/shrine.html . It was one of those things that we always said we would do after our trip to the zoo and never did because we were always too tired after climbing the zoo. So this time we did the shrine first and climbed all the way to the top. Great views of the city, but Erin didn’t think it was worth all the stairs. Every time we have a day off school, we try to see a different attraction or museum. In June, we took the kids to Denver to see the Colorado Rockies play the Cincinnati Reds. I think the kids enjoyed the playground at the ballpark as much as watching the game.

As much as we enjoy Colorado, we decided to drive across the country to visit family this summer. David had a summer full of trips around the world so I thought we might as well travel, too. The highlight of our trip was meeting our new cousins Sophia Lippe and Cyrus Hartley. We had so much fun we plan to do it again next summer. If we missed you on our 2007 cross-country tour, we will try to visit you in 2008!

David is a Busy Man!

After 18 months in command of the 22d Space Operations Squadron and over 50,000 miles on United Airlines, the Air Force has decided that David is ready for a new opportunity. In February, he will move to Thule, Greenland, for a one year assignment as the deputy commander of the 821st Air Base Group.

The 821st operates and maintains Thule Air Base in support of missile warning, space surveillance, and satellite command and control missions. The group provides security, communications, civil engineering, personnel, service, logistic and medical support to remote active duty units in a combined U.S., Canadian, Danish and Greenlandic environment of approximately 800 military, civilian and contractor personnel. We will miss him but understand the Air Force’s plans don’t always match our plans. We assumed that when David was on Diego Garcia in ‘96-‘97 that we were done with year-long family separations. But we also know that many families are enduring their third deployments to war zones, so we also know we are very fortunate.

Doreen is Crazy

I decided that I didn’t spend enough time volunteering at the kids’ school so I decided to also volunteer as Brownie Girl Scout leader for Erin’s troop. It has been fun and challenging but reminds me that my gifts are not actually working with children but rather in planning and coordinating fun things for the kids to do. I do what I can because I think it is important, not because I think I am the best qualified to do it!

Erin’s Update

Erin turned 7 on Jan 30th. She had a bowling party with her friends from school. She is still taking piano lessons and gymnastics. When people ask what grade she is in, she answers “part 2nd and part 3rd”, which is one of the joys of her Montessori classroom.

Kit’s News

Kit is still enjoying school 5 mornings a week in a primary Montessori class where he is reading and writing. He started taking piano lessons this summer and was thrilled to be able to play the same song at his first piano recital as his sister played at her first recital. He is still taking gymnastics and had his 4th birthday party at MyGym. He still loves cars and sports.

Other News

David’s parents and brother Marc joined us at Thanksgiving. It was a lovely visit and it was the most time I have spent with Marc in about 20 years! We’ll travel to South Carolina for Christmas with my parents.

We hope to hear from you soon. Plus, for those of you with internet access, we’re always putting up pictures and telling stories on our family blog. There’s even a video of the kids’ piano recital this year! The address is above.

Until next year we pray, “Bless our loved ones everywhere and keep them in thy loving care” (Moravian blessing). Happy 2008!

David, Doreen, Erin, “Kit,” & Rigel the dog!