Last year, for various reasons they will not list here, Ian and Anna were not able to complete their 2010 Christmas letter. Realizing they had left their devoted readers in the lurch, they decided to make up for it by packing in two years of updates into a single sheet of digital Christmas letter goodness/awkwardness. Without further ado...
Right after sending Christmas letter 2009, Anna’s grandpa passed away following a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s; the Christmas season now carries a new layer of memories and emotion.
A few months after moving to Boston, Anna got a job at Sasaki (yes, the same firm where Ian works) as an administrative assistant and she still loves it: she even gets to do some writing and editing. And speaking of writing and editing, the blog, Life on the Green Line, garnered a March 2010 Blogger “Blog of Note” mention by Google. In May, Ian and Anna headed back to Kansas to watch Anna’s biggest little brother graduate high school. Between June and August, Ian and Anna hosted six groups of visitors and had a blast showing off their new city. In October, after getting fitted for a special contact lens at the Boston Foundation for Sight, Micki treated them to a weekend in Nantucket (free hint: visit in the shoulder season to avoid crowds and peak prices, but still miss the nasty New England winter). Ian and Anna also got a lot more involved at [REUNION] Christian Church, leading music and running media (respectively) and co-leading a community group (with their good friends Brett and Emily).
Ian and Anna started 2011 with Financial Peace University and managed to pay off the last of Ian’s student loans by the end of the class. THEY’RE DEBT FREE! And they were so impacted by the class, they decided to help lead FPU in the fall (with the debt-dumping rockstars Ben and Amanda). This turned out to be a bit of an overcommitment once Ian realized he had also agreed to take on more responsibility with music and the arts at [REUNION] and had signed up for Landscape Architecture Registration Exams in September and December (with a grand total of $1400 on the line if he didn’t pass, as only passing scores qualify for reimbursement at work). With some late nights (Ian) and some tears (Anna) they made it through the fall with flying colors, and Ian passed the first three of his exams. He won’t get the results for the last two exams until the new year, so stay tuned for the Christmas 2012 edition to find out (or read the blog).
In the middle of their FPU sandwich, Ian and Anna enjoyed the summer with a visit from Anna’s family, and with a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. [REUNION] partners with a church in the DR, both financially and relationally. After hearing so much about the Vargas family, Ian and Anna knew they had to go (THANKS TO ALL THEIR SUPPORTERS!). Ian led a worship clinic, i.e. hung out and jammed with the youth group kids, and Anna helped with construction, i.e. carried around buckets of cemento and concreto with lots of breaks to let little Dominican girls play with her hair.
Dane and Micki visited in the fall for Micki’s now-annual eye exam at the Boston Foundation for Sight (she’s doing great!), and took Ian and Anna to DC for a day, where they squeezed in no less than four tourist sites in 24 hours. Ian and Anna followed that trip with a weekend in NYC to see David Crowder Band on their final tour, fulfilling a promise Ian made to Anna years ago.
Ian and Anna are conspiring this advent season, giving relationally and worshipping fully as we remember the true reason to celebrate. They wish you a merry Christmas and are praying for you in the new year.