End of the Year Recap from MJLs

Hola Mi Familia:

Since this is year two of this email, I guess you could call it the start of a tradition of sorts. Given the events that have taken place over the past few days, this is obviously being written with a heavy heart with the passing of the best friend a guy could ask for. I especially think that Pat, Lara and Stacey could attest to that and we are unfortunately looking forward to being able to spend some time with our “other family” back in Denver in the next couple of weeks to share some memories about Donny and tip back a Budweiser or two in his honor. The past three days have been tough but to be honest, Thomas has been the biggest rock for Stacey and I, there’s something to be said about seeing life through the eyes of a 2 year old.

On a lighter note, we approaching what is supposed to be happy time of year and a time for reflection. We’re in year two of this grand experiment we call Seattle and despite a little complaining about weather (mostly on my end) we’ve settled into a nice little life here. We’ve been blessed with an addition to the pale skinned, fair haired arsenal of kids we have rolling around and wouldn’t change our life right now if I had the option to. There’s nothing like coming home to smiling faces and a happy dog after a long day at work to make one gain an appreciation of the important things in life.

Our new Christmas traditions are starting to actually become traditions so while we’ll miss all of you next week, it is nice to be able to start some things of our own. Mitch has been up to his old tricks and I’ve had a few conversations with him about Santa helping out with some spray tanning sessions for Elin…I didn’t think anyone could be pastier than Thomas and I but I think we’ve succeeded in creating a new breed.

Thank you to everyone for everything you’ve done to help us get to this point in Seattle, 2012 has been a very good year to us and while the last few days have been some of the hardest we’ve encountered, we still have all of you to be thankful for. We’ll see all of you over the next 90 days or so, love ya all, keep our dear friend Donny and his wife Katie in your prayers and have a very Merry Christmas…even though we’ll all talk and skype before then.

Here’s to many adventures in 2013, live every day to its fullest!!!

MJL’s