Merry Christmas and Happy New Years

Christmas Letter 2007 - An incredible year of Firsts!!
• Our First year living in the same city!
• Our First year living in the same house!
• Our First year as a married couple!
• Our First duathalon together and Laura’s first Triathalon
• Laura’s First year working as a marketing manager.
• Nate’s First (and probably last) book
• Our First Blog (thepricelessblog.blogspot.com) – at the insistence of Janet!
Starting with the winter blizzards and Laura’s new job in January, the year was full of new adventures for us. Laura had just moved to Colorado, leaving her friends and family behind to live happily ever after in moderate-climate Colorado. However, just like the gold rush posters from the 1800’s that overpromised, weekly blizzards (for seven weeks in row! ) made Laura’s commute a nightmare and led to lots of comparisons of weather with Minnesota (which was actually nicer!). Luckily, as we moved towards spring, Laura learned to ski on beginning ski runs and then intermediate runs and had a more positive experience with the snow. Nate was happy to ski with such a cute ski bunny.
The spring was filled with wonderful celebrations. Laura had a great wedding shower in March in Minnesota! She then had a great wedding shower in Denver thrown by her boss. Nate had a bunch of guys play paintball for his bachelor party. Also, in the spring, Nate finally decided he was done with the novel he’s been working on forever and put it online so it could be printed out by friends and family. So far, 20 copies have been ordered (mostly by Laura and Nate’s Mom Karyl). Nate will probably not be able to retire on its success…this year.
The big day happened on May 27th in Rochester when we were hitched! Thanks to all of you that were able to make it and everyone who participated. It was a really fabulous and fun party. In July, we flew to Hawaii for our honeymoon – specifically, the island of Kauai. Nine days of island fun – swimming, touring, snorkeling, sleeping, relaxing and enjoying the green vistas and humidity. One of the real highlights was our surfing lesson which Laura did very well – except for the black eye!
The next big excitement was Laura’s sister Janet’s wedding to Brandon Verdoorn in Rochester in October. It was also a great fun party and another good opportunity to see everyone. Laura was the matron of honor while Nate was the honorary goofy dancing guy.
And so we end the year better than we started (married and no big blizzards so far). We enjoyed Thanksgiving with Nate’s parents and sister and are headed to MN and WI for Christmas. Laura is doing great at her new job with Cochlear and has almost reached her one year anniversary. Nate loves his job at the National Renewable Lab so much that he turned down another job offer (and a raise) in Denver last week.
So, to add to the firsts, this is our first family Christmas letter. We hope that it’s been good for you and we promise to get even wittier and funnier in the years ahead! We hope this letter finds you all to be happy and enjoying the holidays. Along with Sundance, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s!