The Christmas Letter We Never Wrote

I'm not sure what has happened in the past three months, but I have had neither motivation nor inspiration to add anything to our blog. Apparently I also didn't have enough motivation to send a Christmas letter. I had great intentions. I even bought cards early this year (early for me means before about December 20). But I could never decide which picture to print, so the letter never got written, the cards never got sent, and you don't have a photo of our family hanging on your fridge (or filling your recycle bin). In the spirit of it's never too late, here's the letter we didn't write.

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas! We hope this Christmas finds you filled with joy (etc., blah blah blah). 2010 has been a year filled with learning and adventures for the Gilchrist clan. This year we've learned...

• How to buy a house without really looking for one
• More about safe asbestos removal than we've ever wanted to know
• Renovations will always longer than you anticipate
• How to walk (Laurel learned this one, Jon and I already knew how)
• How beautiful Kelowna is
• How to get rid of pink eye
• How to tile a backsplash, refinish hardwood floors, and install baseboards
• How to say lots of new words, like: mommy, daddy, no, up, open, orange, blankie, eat, sit
• How much we love the splash park in our neighborhood
• That we're expecting baby # 2 in May

Our adventures have included lots of long bike rides, a weekend camping and biking trip in Banff, our first stay at the Banff Springs Hotel, a trip to Kelowna, a friend's wedding in Colorado, great conversation and fellowship with friends for a week in Glacier, a trip to Boston for Christmas, and Julianne returning to work.

We're looking forward to lots more learning and adventures in 2011. We hope that some of our adventures include you!

Jon, Julianne, Laurel, and Baby