The Original
 
Anika & Mara
 
Happy Couple
 
2011 Holiday Card
Holy cannolli! It's hard to believe that another year has passed, and we'll be getting this update posted just in the nick of time to be able to call it a 2011 update. :)
It has been quite a busy year in our household... It feels there wasn't a dull moment and we hardly had any time to just slow down a relax. This year consisted of:
1) A major house renovation. We added on to the back of our house. After spending a large chunk of 2010 working with our architect to design the remodel, the implementation started in late 2010 (just a little before Christmas) and continued through much of 2011. Luckily it was basically complete just in time for us to get married and host a brunch for family and out of town guests the day after.
2) Did I mention we got married? :) Well, we did! Oh, and first we got engaged. That should count as a major life event as well, so let's start with that. We got engaged!
3) We got married! (Is this starting to feel like Groundhog day yet?). We were fortunate to have booked Denver City Park's Pavilion and the adjoining garden and amazingly, after being ridiculously hot ALL of August, the weather turned cool about an hour and 15 minutes before our ceremony. We're not kidding! The clouds rolled in, there was a tiny sprinkle of rain, and the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees. The clouds made for GREAT photos as well! We were also fortunate to have lots of our friends and family surrounding us for such an important day in our lives. We had an awesome time, the whole thing felt like a blur, but we felt very very lucky.
4) Mara got promoted to COO in her company in March. Yay!
5) Mara lost said COO job in September (and found out about it roughly 2 weeks before we got married). Boo!
6) Mara found a new job and started in November. Yay!
7) Sadly, we had to put both of our kitties to sleep this year. Priscilla and Penfield both fought their kidney disease hard, but they eventually succombed to it. They were incredibly important members of our family, and are missed tremendously. Our family just isn't the same without them and it's incredibly weird to be a single-dog family. But, we know they are sitting in a sunbeam up in kitty heaven curled up together, and that makes us smile.
8) Will learned to make cheese this year and made his own cheese press and converted a dorm fridge to a cheese "cave" where he currently has a number of wheels of cheddar aging. :)

9) Both Mara and Will took on officer positions for the non-profit where they had previously joined as board members. Will is serving as treasurer and Mara as chairperson. The board had to change the rules about who could write checks so we aren't allowed to write checks to each other! :)

I am sure there are other major life events that I'm forgetting, but, for now, that should suffice. :)
So, needless to say, we're a little behind on the holiday wishes! We hope everyone had a happy and healthy Channukah, Christmas, Festivus, Solstice, New Year, or whatever else you celebrated! Please know that our house is always open to visitors and we now have even more space than before, so we would love to see you. And local folks, you're welcome as well (though it's up to you if you want to stay or not). :)

All our love and we hope to post some more recent photos of the house soon for those who haven't seen it,
Mara, Will and Anika

 
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