Christmas Wishes!

I thought this year it would be a good idea to put my annual Christmas letter online rather than in the Christmas cards I mail out. I always love to get the annual letters to catch up on what family and friends are doing, but I feel bad when I just throw it away after reading it! So, this my attempt to "go green" :)

2010 has been a great year for the Casper family! Let me give you the highlights -

This year, I changed jobs! I enjoyed two great years at the Family Center of Durango, but ultimately decided it was time to go back to teaching. Part of the drive behind my decision had to do with the fact that I started work on my master's degree a year ago in English Language Learning. I needed to get back in the classroom and work with ELL students to really get the full benefits of my learning. I managed to land a high school Spanish/ELL position in a tiny town just 30 minutes from us in Mancos, CO. There are probably only 100 students in the high school. Needless to say, I was really nervous about teaching HS students, but it has been a wonderful experience. I can honestly say that I laugh everyday working with those kids. Not only are they funny, but they can handle the work I give them without five different explanations to Sunday. I'm also teaching middle school Spanish, and after Christmas I'll be teaching Junior English and elementary Spanish as well as Spanish 2 for HS, and ELL for middle and high. Lots of hats to wear because it's a small school, but the staff and kids are great, so it makes it easy :)

Steve is now the station commander at the Durango recruiting station. He's been in that position for a little over a year. They've downsized the station so he only has one other guy that works with him, but they still exceed the numbers every month! This coming week we will go to his annual training conference when they also have the awards dinner. I'm sure he'll be receiving more awards this year :) I'll take pics and be sure to post next week. Another highlight for Steve this year is that he bought a 2010 Mustang GT in grabber blue. It is his baby! Unfortunately, it is in the garage for the next couple months due to the snow. He's also put a different engine in his 1984 Jeep, which is his project as well as his winter transport.

Anna is now in 7th grade and getting more beautiful every day. I posted her picture above just to prove it. She's 12 going on 16, but I enjoy her more everyday. I think Steve has a hard time understanding her most days, but I guess that is to be expected :) She still competes in gymnastics and went to state again last summer where she took first on beam and third all around for her age group! We are very proud of our amazing gymnast! While she was hoping to play volleyball this year, we didn't make it back in time from Oregon for her to try out. But with four days a week of gymnastics practice, I'm not sure how we'd fit another sport in. Now that she's 12 she's anxious to start babysitting - she loves little kids and babies. We have her signed up for a babysitting training in February that she can't wait for.

Seth is growing like a weed. The pants we bought this summer for school are now above his ankles. He gets around this by sporting the baggy pants look which Steve and I hate. I can't tell you how many times a day I tell him "pull up your pants!" This summer he played baseball and also took a skateboarding class. He really loved the skateboarding! It was great to see his skills improve so quickly over the short period of time he was in the class. He wanted to play football this fall, but we didn't get back in time from Oregon for him to join. I was okay with that considering the last time he played football he broke his arm. He is signed up for basketball which starts in January and I know he will really enjoy it. That was his favorite sport last year and for the first time ever he didn't complain about going to practice. He's moved up to Webelos 1 in cub scouts this year and seems to be enjoying it although he protested at first. I'm hoping he decides to continue into Boy Scouts, but we'll see. Other than that, he spends his time as the video game master!

That's it from the Caspers! Enjoy Christmas and the new year with your family. We hope that your family, like ours, enjoyed a wonderful 2010. Blessings to all in the coming year!

What a great Thanksgiving we had today! We started with watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Steve made pumpkin pies and got the turkey and stuffing ready. Yes, he does the cooking! Okay, I did make the gravy and potatoes. Anyway, after the parade we decided to take a walk down to the mailbox (about a mile and a half walk there and back). We thought we dressed warm enough, but mind you it was -4 when we woke up this morning. By noon it was a balmy 21 degrees! We were all frozen by the time we got home, but we got some great pics while we were out. See the "footprint"? The kids thought they had found a bear track - which would not be beyond reason in our area. Can YOU figure out what kind of track it is? :) Once we got back home and warmed up again it was time for family games - all afternoon! First we played Monopoly and for awhile it looked like the land baron Seth would win. But he got too greedy with his houses and hotels on Park and Boardwalk and they were his downfall. In the end, Slumlord Steve won the pot. After a GREAT dinner of turkey (of course) we settled down to another game of Sorry! This time I won, but the kids did their best to prevent that. Finally, pie and mind numbing TV before sending the kids to bed. All in all, while it was an uneventful day, it was the nicest day we've spent together as a family in a long time. There were more smiles, laughs and giggles even though Seth struggled with losing two games in a row (he's a sore loser just like me!). I hope your Thanksgiving was just as blessed and "uneventful" as ours!

Today was a fun-filled day of errands! One of those errands was getting Seth's hair cut. Lately he's been sticking with a do that is short over the ears and in the back, but long on top. Today, the hairstylist was feeling a little bored, so she made the long part on a top a purple spiked mohawk! Don't worry Grammy and Nana! It's just purple gel :) I'm not sure it's exactly what Seth expected. He looked a little scared when he left the chair. Within 15 minutes of being home the gel was gone, but there is now a pink tinge to his hair where it was. I'm sure Dad will be thrilled!! If you're wondering why the mohawk is purple, it's because he told the stylist that was his favorite color. In the car he told me his two favorite colors are purple and hot pink...should I be worried?? I think it's just that the new styles coming out are retro 80s with all the neon colors. I remember Anna going through a "black" stage when she was in fourth grade (same age Seth is now). She refused to wear pink and dressed like a boy. She had Tony Hawk skater shoes and could always be seen with her black Jack Skellington sweatshirt on. She scoffed at all the girls who wore pink. Hannah Montana was on the top of her hate list. Maybe age 9-10 is the beginning of the experimenting stage where kids realize that they can be someone different just by changing their clothes or hair. Anna has since left the "black" stage and adores pink again. I guess I just need to wait patiently for Seth to leave the "pink" stage and find black again :)

Yesterday Anna and I got to spend some "girl time" together at the salon. We had a great time! She asked me on the way to the salon if she could get a blonde stripe in her bangs - hmmm. I wasn't so sure about that at first. Mostly because my mom never let me color my hair, and as a parent, you tend to fall back on how you were raised. But, I've also learned to choose your battles, and hair color is not one I choose to fight. Besides, it was just one little stripe of color - not like she wanted to dye her whole head pink (which her dad would NOT have allowed anyway). I did warn my husband when we got home that the stylist let her in on a tip: If she puts a packet of kool-aid (whatever color she wants) on the blond streak in the shower, she will have instant color for a day or two. While I don't think Steve is thrilled about the idea of her sporting a purple stripe in her hair, I think it is harmless. Anna had fun taking lots of pics with the camera at the salon. We both have before and after pictures, although she didn't make my after picture very attractive! She, however, looks really cute (or cool I should say). Of course the first thing she had to do when she got home was upload her new cool do to her Facebook page. Who got her into Facebook?

Back after a LOOOOONG absence!

I have a couple friends who have inspired me to get back into blogging. There are links to both of their pages from my page. Thanks Rachel and James! Originally I started this blog to post pictures of the kids when we lived in TN for family and friends back in Oregon (original blog name was Oregon Girl in Tennessee). I saw this mostly as an online photo album for grandparents. Then around the time of my last blog post, I discovered Facebook and decided it was much easier to share photos through that medium. Hence, the long absence. I've been engaging in Facebookery ever since and lost touch with this blog! Now after checking in with my friends' blogs, I see the value in this page of mine as more than just a photo album. It really is a place to record thoughts and memories as well. That really appeals to the writer in me! While very few (or no one at all) will probably ever visit this site of mine, I guess I will have to be content with the idea that it is a place for me to revisit my own thoughts, memories and pictures. After all, I don't have anything nearly as exciting to share as my two friends do in their blogs! Every time I come back to this site I enjoy reading about what was happening with us in years past and looking at the pictures of the kids (how much they've grown!). It occurred to me that I've really been remiss in recording our current happenings and realized I have few current pictures of us together as a family. All the Facebookery and working on my masters is responsible for that, I think. So, I'm going to start today by posting the last pics I have of us as a family together - 4th of July 2010. I'm also going to work hard to take more pictures of us together - which I think means we need to start doing more things together as a family so I have something to take pics of! I've realized after reading through Rachel's post on bringing home their new baby Grace that I haven't been cherishing my own family enough - and the kids are growing so fast! I don't want to regret lost potential family time together when the kids are grown and gone. I know my new job and working on my masters degree is partially to blame for us not spending time together, but I am working to find the balance that allows me to still have time to nurture relationships. Perhaps this little blog will help propel my motivation to spend more time with the family - I'll have to have something to blog about! Wish me luck as I work to find that balance, but for now enjoy the pics of our 4th of July on a pontoon boat at Vallecito Lake.