Christmas Edition, 2018

Holiday Greetings Friends and Family!

Welcome to our third state of the Horak family Holiday Address.  We are so pleased to have the opportunity to share with you some of the events of our year.

Emily at Encampment

Our year started off with a President's Day Weekend trip to Albany, New York. This, in turn, led us to buy a 2018 Subaru Outback that we named Blue Pearla. In part, the name was derived from the exterior paint color (Blue Pearl) and in part, from a restaurant named La Pearla at the La Concha resort in Puerto Rico, where we stayed last year.  With this purchase, we were thrust firmly into a new season in our life, which you can read about in the full blog post here. 

Our year continued with Emily joining Girl Scouts and Anne becoming the certified Camp Volunteer for the troop.  This required an overnight training at Camp Winona, a Girl Scout camp property in Maryland.  After which, Emily's troop was able to attend the service unit Encampment in May.

Matthew on flight

One highlight of Matthew's year was going on a trip with Anne and taking his first flight.  As Anne and Matthew made their way to the gate, Matthew, clutching his backpack, would tell anyone who would listen, "I'm a first time flier."  Emily, having flown before, warned him that his "ears would pop".  Matthew took it quite literally.  Fortunately, Emily had also shared that he could prevent his ears popping by eating lollipops.  We went through lollipops continuously from boarding until takeoff until he realized his ears were not literally going to pop off. 

Matthew, Anne and Emily, Hilton Head Island

In June, we had the pleasure of joining David's Dad, Bernie, at the Grande Ocean Marriott Resort on Hilton Head Island for a week.  While we were there, we entered a family sandcastle contest.  We built and exact replica of Neuschwanstein. Neuschwanstein is a 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace in Germany that served as the inspiration for the Disney Cinderella Castle. We didn't win. Which we thought was a huge miscalculation on the judge's part. You can judge for yourself.  

In July, Emily attended Camp Potomac Woods, an overnight Girl Scout camp, for a week long, and very rainy, session called Fairies in the Woods. Some of you may remember being recruited to send her mail at camp. While leading up to her departure, David was anxious and Anne was excited for her, after she actually left, David was excited for her and Anne was anxious. Anne's week was filled with increasingly irrational fears. The first night, it rained all night.  Anne woke up believing Emily was cold because of the rain.  Mid-morning, she called David at work.  "I am afraid she's cold." To which David responded, "Anne, it's 80° out there, she's fine." Not satisfied by reason, Anne insisted, "My baby is cold! She needs a blanket!" To which David responded, "Fine, if you want to drive an hour and a half in 80° weather to bring our daughter a blanket, go ahead."  The next night, it rained again. Anne's fears escalated."David, the ground is soggy. What if a tree falls on her?" And again, it rained. And again, Anne's fears escalated."David, what if she wakes up in the middle of the night and has to go to the bathroom.  And she gets lost.  And then her flashlight goes out.  And she gets scared and starts running. But it's muddy (because of the rain) so she trips! And falls! Into the river!"  It seemed, there was no end to the ways Anne's imagination could antagonize her.  Fortunately, Emily was unaffected.  She came home ready to go back again.

David leading the mapping activity

Inspired by our camping experiences, Emily and Matthew had a camping themed birthday party.  We reserved a campsite at Pohick Bay campground and invited their friends to join us for the afternoon. David did a mapping activity and then led the kids on a hike where they used their 5-function safety whistles to navigate back to the campsite and let the entire campground know their location every step of the way as they made progress on the trail.  Anne led an activity to show the kids how to make firestarters and then did a campfire demonstration where she modeled her favorite campfire base, the A-frame.  After which, everyone made hot dogs and s'mores.

In October, David traveled to Blacksburg, Virginia to see Notre Dame win against Virginia Tech.  Throughout the fall, our family activities revolved more and more around what was happening on football Saturdays; Anne even downloaded an app to keep track of the Syracuse game while she was at a conference.  As of this posting, it was not a "no" to going to the championship game in San Francisco (if ND beats Clemson in the Cotton Bowl), which David considers a monumental act of love on Anne's part. 

Matthew, Veteran's Day 2018

Finally, we finished the renovation of our basement at the beginning of November.  Since then, we have very much been enjoying the space and in particular our wood burning fireplace which seems to be the difference to making the house feel like a home.

As always, we hope joy has been your constant companion, peace has warmed your heart and you have felt comfort in the arms of your loved ones this year.  Wishing you health, wealth, and happiness in the new year, with love from our family to yours.