Merry Christmas 2010 and Happy New Year Card

The 2010 Sikorski Seasonal Saga 14887 Buttonwood Court, Woodbridge, VA 22193 * 703-763-3059 * 520-247-1276(Tim)/5355(Kyla) * katsikorsk@hotmail.com Weekly (sometimes Daily) Updates with pictures and videos at http://sikorskisaga.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 2010 started with a lot of changes in our family. Tim deployed to Ramadi, Iraq (where Kyla was stationed September 2003 – September 2004) for 8.5 months as an Information Operations Officer. Ramadi changed a lot since Kyla left. They now have a Subway and a coffee shop! Tim couldn’t say a lot about his days, just that he went to meetings, exercised, and ate. He did make the most of his deployment by making a lot of new friends and learning his new trade, and he really appreciated all of the support from everyone at home.

Back home, Luella started 3-year-old preschool in the Red Birds class with Mrs. Couture. There she met her best friend Paige Roden! We’ve really enjoyed getting to know Paige and her family throughout the year. At the end of January, we went up to Bel Air, MD for our Godson’s baptism, Soren Wayne Evers! Soren’s baptism was the first of the really snowy days we experienced on the East Coast in 2010.

February was the month of SNOW! We got more snow in DC than Minnesota did this winter! We tried to enjoy the snow by making snow forts, snow angels, snow ice cream and snow ball fights. Thankfully we had capitalistic minded high school boys to shovel us out so Kyla and the girls could enjoy the snow, as opposed to cursing the dig out. We made our annual trip to Bel Air over Valentine’s Day to enjoy hibachi with Jeff, Diana, Sarah and Liam Jurist. Fellow Army wife, Jenny Rebolledo, her son, James and her siblings Daniel and Jessica Knight joined us as her husband Juan was deployed too. By the end of the month our basement was back to normal. Six months earlier, we discovered water standing in the basement. That started a process of replacing a water heater, discovering mold, having our landlord’s insurance company come out to inspect, mold remediation coming with blowers that ran constantly during the holiday season, and after New Year’s they came to take back their equipment, install drywall and a cabinet, painting, and finally re-carpeting. We had a party to show off the now usable basement!

March 2nd the girls and Kyla took Uncle Phil out to dinner at Macaroni Grill for the world’s best chocolate cake for his (and his twin/Kyla’s Dad) 60th birthday. We attended Tim’s college friend, Mark Yeary’s, Change of Command ceremony at Ft. Bragg, NC over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. We hosted a playdate with the Evers during the Spring Equinox and celebrated by dyeing Easter Eggs and standing eggs on end. The weather warmed up enough to play outside and watch the flowers bloom, even play at a local beach. We received the news Tim made the Major’s list and would be promoted later in the year! Tim and his coworkers claimed March as “Moustache Madness Month” and they all grew moustaches. While talking with Tim on Skype the girls became fascinated with Tim’s moustache and every spaghetti dinner afterwards the girls came away with their own pasta moustaches. Kyla convinced Uncle Phil to run the Marine Corps Race to Register 10K (6.2 miles) in March. “Auntie” Ginger Hammerquist came to watch the girls while we ran. Over Spring Break we attended a Fancy Nancy inspired tea party hosted by the Craig Family. We ended March with a playdate to the National Zoo with Denise, Aleksa, Caitlyn and Lucas Shoemaker and the Rebolledos came down to visit that day too!

In April we went with Katharyn, Madelyn and Rysa Wheeler to tour Georgetown University for Madelyn’s school project, which turned into a lovely day picnicking among the cherry blossoms at the tidal basin. Ginger came for Easter weekend. We went to Bel Air again for Ginger’s Change of Command ceremony. We took that opportunity to have a playdate with our friends the Evers and Jacksons at our favorite ice cream farm! We walked for the March of Dimes with our Young Families Group at church.

May started with the Evers coming down for a playdate and a live USO Sesame Street show. Mother’s Day the Rebolloedos visited and we made wonderful memories despite deployed husbands! Luella’s preschool had a Mother’s Day date with the kids performing songs and sharing snacks. The circus came to town and we went with Pastor Kim Conway. Kyla ran her first half marathon (13.1 miles) in Fredericksburg, VA as part of the Marine Corps Marathon series. Luella’s preschool ended with a picnic in the park. Memorial Day weekend we went to Hershey Park with Ginger, Kyla’s college friend Anna Bullwinkle, her boyfriend Brian and friend Robyn. Katja didn’t really enjoy the rides; however, Luella attacked the kiddie rides going strong all day despite developing a case of pink eye that day. Later that weekend we celebrated Sarah Jurist’s 3rd birthday.

In June we met with Kit and Annika Kensrud for a fun day in DC. We had an overnight trip to Sesame Place and Strasburg, PA for a Day out with Thomas the Tank Engine with the Jacksons. Luella’s dance classes culminated in a recital where she danced a tap routine to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and ballet routine to “Golden Lion”. She was incredible and got flowers from both Mommy and Daddy. Karen (Kyla’s Mom) flew out to help us drive to Minnesota for the next two months. She unfortunately missed the recital due to tornados around the MSP airport. On our drive to MN, we met up with Kyla’s cousin Dr. Chad Pedersen in LaCrosse, WI. After a quick 30 hours in MN, we drove to Montana. Along the way we met up with another of Kyla’s cousins, soon-to-be-Dr. Naomi Light, and one of Kyla’s bosses from Concordia College while Kyla took the girls on a tour of her campus. We stopped at New Salem, ND to visit the world’s largest Holstein cow, Sue. Katja’s fascination with cows hit an all-time high.

July started in Montana for us. This was Katja’s first trip to Montana. The two Luella’s enjoyed getting reacquainted, as did the rest of us! We got caught up with Aunt Vickie, Aunt Teresa, Uncle Larry, Aunt Lori, Aunt Sylvia and Uncle UB and friends from Culbertson during a 3rd of July picnic. We attended church in Makoshika State Park outside Glendive, MT and Karen’s favorite brunch at the Jordan Inn, then drove back to Minnesota, stopping in Jamestown, ND to see the world’s largest buffalo. We celebrated Maren’s 11th birthday a little early with fireworks and a BBQ. We kept July busy with both girls in swimming lessons, the library’s summer reading program and Luella in a preschool type class. The girls took a weekend trip to Walnut Grove, MN to see where Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up on the Banks of Plum Creek, the museums, and pageant. We stopped in Mankato to see a beautiful 5 acre nursery that begged to be explored. We took in the Rice County Fair and saw cousins Erich and Colleen Schlieper. We ended July by going to Crosslake to visit Kyla’s college roommate Jeni Mullenix, Samuel, Nico and Oliver from Madrid while they were visiting their family. It was fun to see Jeni’s parents Debbie and Rod and many of Jeni’s nieces and nephews while swimming and boating on the lake.

August meant gymnastics lessons for both girls. We attended the Twin Cities Cobber Corn Feed and saw Pres. Dovre. Kyla taught arts and crafts for Vacation Bible School that Luella attended while Katja stayed in the nursery. Katja turned 2 years old! We celebrated with her cousins at the Faribault Water Park. We had a joint cousin birthday party with cake for Anna and Luella too. Kyla hosted a garage sale with Karen and Dan, Kirsten and Peter’s things to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Marathon for the Cure, raising $234! Best customer award went to the Kensrunds who flew down from Blaine, MN! We enjoyed family time at River Bend Park and mini-golfing with Kirsten and kids. We drove up to Elbow Lake to visit with Lisa, Randy, Emma, Timothy and Abby Haberer. We went to the Steele County Fair and panned for gold. We helped Maren and Isaac settle into middle school and spent the afternoon at Nickelodeon Universe. We met with Kirsten, kids, Georgette and Dan Danczyk for the MN State Fair. We packed up everything including Dan and Karen and drove home to Virginia.

September 2nd, Tim came home! It was the best 5th wedding anniversary present – first full day of having Tim home! We had a well-attended welcome home party for Tim. Luella and Katja both started dance class on Luella’s 4th birthday. We hosted a birthday party for Luella inviting her preschool class, church friends and MD friends, which made for a very full house! Luella started preschool on the 13th and Katja was ready to join her in class, but will have to wait until next year. We went camping at Westmoreland State Park for Kyla’s birthday weekend. Tim and Luella caught many fish and Katja remembered she still doesn’t like sand between her toes. We met up with Kyla’s cousin Kris Schlieper as he was in DC for his PhD program.

Tim took up hunting so he spent most of his free days in October either at a range or in the field trying for turkey and deer. Tim left us again to go to Oberammergau, Germany to be a mentor at the NATO school for two weeks. Sadly he arrived days after their once a decade performance of the Passion Play. He did sightsee as much as he could to Neuschwanstein Castle, Garmisch and Munich, Germany and Salzburg, Austria. Kyla ran the Warrior Dash for Tim and it was her most fun 5K ever! While Tim was gone, we had playdates with the Evers here celebrating their kids’ birthdays. We went to a pumpkin patch with the preschool. Tim came home in time to run the Army Ten Miler. This was his 5th, Kyla’s 2nd and Uncle Phil’s 1st! We prepped for Halloween by Kyla making Katja’s Cinderella costume, accessorizing Luella’s Belle costume, and carving pumpkins. On Halloween Tim ran his 2nd and Kyla ran her 1st Marine Corps Marathon (26.2 miles)! Kyla raised $1,000 for Susan G. Komen Marathon for the Cure. Tim raised $430 for the Pat Tillman Foundation. Luckily the girls are still young enough that trick-or-treating to the 12 houses around our court was enough excitement.

November was a lot of Atlantic Ocean time! We went to Milford, DE to visit the Evers in their new home and Tim got to visit his Godson for the first time since becoming his Godfather. Veteran’s Day weekend, we went to Virginia Beach with Uncle Phil, Aunt Becky, Mark Yeary and his girlfriend Joanna Taber. We had fun finding seashells on the beach, playing in the sand and charter fishing with C’ptn Bill catching their limit of striped bass. They got 17 pounds of filets! We hosted Thanksgiving Dinner with Uncle Phil, Aunt Becky and Ginger. That weekend we drove down to Disney World in Orlando, FL! We stopped in Fayetteville, NC along the way to visit with Mark and Joanna again, and Vanessa and Brandon Bowman. We spent four days at Disney World seeing it through the eyes of a 4 and 2 year old! We saw every princess and fairy, even Peter Pan! Our favorite park was Epcot since we saw all the princesses there along the streets and the food was fantastic! Kyla’s only complaint was that most princesses were in Germany and France which in real life share a border, but in Epcot we have to walk through Italy, America, Japan, and Morocco. We met up with Kyla’s Army friend Scott Saling. On our last day in Orlando, we went to Sea World. Luella decided she wants to be a dolphin trainer after seeing the baby and mommy killer whale swimming together. We stayed at the Ryan’s (Army friends) time share and we really appreciated all the military discounts because otherwise, we have no idea how we’d afford a vacation like the one we took.

December 1st, Tim was promoted to Major! We celebrated at Disney Hollywood Studios. After our Orlando vacation, we dropped Tim off in Melbourne, FL for a combat driver’s training course. We came home and decorated for Christmas. We got our first snow the day before Luella’s preschool Christmas party, which Kyla helped plan. True to Virginia policy, they cancelled school, so her party will be in January. Tim came home from his school and Kyla and Uncle Phil pinned Tim’s Major’s rank at his office. Katja and Luella both had their dance recitals and performed beautifully! Kyla fulfilled her lifelong dream of seeing the White House decorated for Christmas. Kyla gave Tim his lifelong dream of flying a plane for his Christmas present. With only 4 seats in the airplane, Kyla let Tim take the girls up as passengers while the instructor let Tim take off, fly around and only assisted him with the landing. Tim had a fantastic time and figured out when we have a spare $7,800, he’s getting his private pilot’s license! We hosted Christmas at our house for the Jurists, Uncle Phil and Aunt Becky.

Our plans for next year include Tim deploying again for 4 months from January to May 2011. Luckily it is during the school year so we will have our regular routine to keep normalcy. We already know that he will have another deployment October 2011 to February 2012. After that he should be home for 8 months. Katja will start preschool in the fall, joining Luella. Kyla will continue to keep the Sikorski Family running smoothly!

We hope you had a blessed Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year in 2011! Love, Kyla, Tim, Luella and Katja