Christmas Letter 2008

 December 2008

To our dear Family and Friends,

We hope that this note finds you all doing wonderfully and enjoying this very special time of year! Because we have not yet succumb to the family blogging trend, we rely on updating our loved ones, you, through the annual Christmas letter! So here goes…

During the beginning of this year, Nick logged many flight hours and even more time studying and preparing for those flights as he finished up his Green Platoon course. Come April, after several months of intense training, he had earned his place as a Night Stalker! He quickly jumped into his position as Platoon Leader, learning the ropes before departing for his first six week deployment a couple of days after the 4th of July. I would, of course, indulge you in all of the excitement of these said deployments, but I am very much unaware of the specifics of Nick’s whereabouts and goings on while he is away.  For a self-proclaimed “curious person”, this is a challenge, but in an effort to keep him safe and sound, I can swallow my nosy tendencies. All I can say is that Nick is very fulfilled and excited about his new responsibilities “doing our nation’s business”.  He’s finishing up his second deployment and will be home for the holidays!

I started off the year traveling back to my beloved John Muir Medical Center in the bay area to work there in the Intensive Care Nursery, but soon realized that it was time to stay closer to home. After a few interviews and shaking hands with the hospital’s CEO at church, I had myself a job in the Well Baby Nursery and Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at Gateway Medical Center, a mere 10 minutes from home. Since April, I have been working a couple of 12 hour night shifts a week.  During which I’ve spent some good quality time hanging out with the locals.  Please kick me if I ever whip out “I reckon,” “ain’t no” or “might could” in conversation. Seriously, y’all. :-P

Aside from our jobs, we have been working hard sprucing up our home. We’ve torn up our yard, reseeded our lawn (4 times—and still I mow weeds), landscaped, and built the most awesome fence ever (thank you honey!) Nothin’ like a few splinters and a little dirt under the naills!  When it comes to fun, we traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida in March for The Chwala’s gorgeous beachfront wedding,  then down to Enterprise, Alabama in April for The Tullos’ huge wedding extravaganza and then over to The Poconos in June for Lizzie & Matt Laird’s beautiful lakeside family wedding.  We’ve also made frequent road trips to Indiana to visit with Kris, JP and our balloon-loving nephew, Andy.  In September, we pitched in to help out with Operation Serve (an enormous community service project through our church) by coordinating a BBQ for several hundred members to kick-off the mission. What an honor it was to participate is such a fantastic cause. We’ve also just loved staying close to home, hanging out with our wonderful friends (our West Point alumni group keeps growing--who would have thought that we’d all reconnect in Clarksville, Tennessee?!)

Molly and Darla have been taking full advantage of the new yard to stretch their little legs—no girly dogs here! ;-)  We have attached a jingle bell to the door knob to the back yard, and Molly will ring it whenever she feels like playing outside (our blondie, Darla, hasn’t yet figured out the concept).  It rings constantly.  The fence has also given us added peace of mind.  No longer do we worry about Darla’s unaccompanied neighborhood expeditions or Molly sneaking off to find her main squeeze, Norman, down the street (his 130 lbs is a bit much for her petite frame).  They have been the best company since Nick began his deployment rotation, always offering up good laughs and great cuddles.

To those of you who are faithful bloggers, keep up the good work—your captivating thoughts, artistic pictures and entertaining witticisms keep me awake and happy between midnight meds, feedings and diaper changes! And to everyone, thank you for your unfailing love and support. We feel so blessed to know you all. Have a very Merry Christmas! Here’s to a happy, healthy and safe 2009!  Cheers!

With Love,

Nick, Ali, Molly & Darla Horn 

Christmas Letter 2007

                                                                                                                                           December, 2007

To our dearest Family and Friends, 

I hope that this note finds you all doing exceptionally well and enjoying this very special time of year. I was trying to think of a word to best describe what 2007 has been for our family, and, well, I couldn’t think of just one. Some of the contenders were: chaotic, exciting, roller coaster-like, happy, frustrating, joyous, expensive, new… Here’s why:

Nick and I kicked off this year with the greatest party of our lives (not to mention officially making each other partners for life!) It was something amazing to have our favorite people under one roof.  We feel so honored that everyone came from near and far to help us celebrate! Just two days afterwards, we taped up my last moving box and boarded a plane for our new home in Enterprise, Alabama, where Nick was completing his Captain’s Career Course. We arrived at our townhouse that was furnished with not much more than a bed and a television (I mean that, we didn’t even have toilet paper—fortunately I borrowed some from the airport!) So, we jumped into married life head-on: Nick came down with the flu, a horrific tornado touched down a mere two miles from our residence, and we got word that my recently paid-off car was totaled when the shipping truck had a blow out and caught fire.  It was tough, but we pulled through that week still feeling positive about our life together haha!

So, fast forward a month…our moving van arrived with (most) of our stuff…turns out no one was heading out our way (why would they?) so our wedding gifts and all of my worldly belongings made a little detour to an LA warehouse for a few weeks.  We chalked that one up to experience: you get what you pay for!  In that time, we hung out with our wonderful friends, enjoyed weekend trips to Destin, Florida, visited Nashville for our friends, Cole and Nicole Spitzack’s  beautiful wedding, bought my “new” car, I visited Kris in Colorado and Nick flew to NYC for Jay Landgraf’s bachelor party.  I snuck in a couple of work trips back to California, and, oh yeah, we worked on learning how to live together as a married couple haha :-P. After a few long months in Alabama (Target was 45 minutes away. ‘nuff said), we moved ourselves up to Clarksville, Tennessee. Only to turn around and fly back to San Fran for Jay and Jen Landgraf’s exquisite Memorial Day wedding weekend. 

In June, we took full advantage of Nick’s leave time and drove down to Destin, FL for Matt and Marin Humphrey’s lovely seaside nuptials and then up to Chicago to surprise Kris (JP knew) at their new home (It was unbelievable—she had NO IDEA! That never happens!!)  Then, we dove, head first, into house renovations…We deep-cleaned, painted, floored, organized, landscaped, furnished and decorated our home (it’s still a work in progress, but we’re getting there!) 

In the beginning of July we left for our amazing honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas. We were so lucky to be gifted a 10 day stay at “Villa Miguel,” a stunning vacation home over looking a lush golf course and the Pacific ocean.  Pretty much, we experienced a taste of Heaven. We spent our time just lying by the pool at our villa, consuming an absurd amount of first-rate International cuisine, touring the area on ATVs, boating, snorkeling and swimming with the dolphins. More than anything, it couldn’t have been more relaxing…Well, it was pretty romantic too :-P.

So a couple of days after returning home from the honeymoon, I was back to California for work (my superiors in the Neonatal ICU at  John Muir have been so good to allow me to work for two weeks every six weeks), and Kris’ BABY SHOWER! Hooray! From there, Nick and I went to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania to re-unite with our fellow Horns and enjoy some good, old-fashioned Horn fun at Woodloch Pines…We laughed A LOT ☺.  Then, I was back to Chicago to go hang out with my two favorite girls: Mom and Kris. When the three of us get together, crazy things sometime happen…and, well, this trip was no exception. I drove back to Tennessee with Mom and two four-legged babies, Molly and Darla, in tow… (I didn’t intend on rescuing two dogs, but, with Nick’s blessing, Mom and Kris talked me into it :-P). Nick left me to fend for myself with our toy poodles for a long weekend to houseboat down Lake Powell in celebration of Carl Gustafson’s bachelorhood (and snuck in a 22 hour layover in Vegas, just for fun) :-P.

After another work trip, Molly, Darla and I were off to Chicago for little Andy Sacksteder’s big debut (Nick joined us on the weekend)! On September 29th, Nick and I became the proudest Auntie and Uncle that ever there was ☺. Then we were back to California for Carl & Ashley Gustafson’s much-anticipated wedding celebration!  Upon returning home, Nick finished up his casual duty job and began training to become a Night Stalker with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Training, so far, has been intense, with long hours and lots of studying. But, in the end, it will all be worth it, as Nick will fly a highly modified Blackhawk helicopter that specializes in assault missions (inserting* the good guys to fight the bad guys). He will be deployable around April, and will leave for about 45 days at a time and then be home for 90 days…a much more appealing arrangement for us than the standard 15 month deployment schedule.

Thanksgiving brought autumn colors…and Kris, JP, PJ and ANDY!! It was wonderful, Kris and I made dinner, Nick and JP watched football, Molly, Darla and PJ chased each other, Andy swung in the Bosler’s way-cool loaner swing…Fun was had by all! Thank you, Johnson & Johnson Biosurgicals for allowing us to live so close!

After reviewing this incredibly long Christmas letter, I have decided that the word that best describes our year is “blessed”. We are so very blessed. We pray that you and your families enjoy a happy, healthy and blessed holiday season as well!

With love,

Nick, Ali, Molly & Darla Horn

*= Nick’s word :-P