Sorry Friends No Christmas Cards This Year. It’s true, I decided that this year we will be skipping the tradition of holiday cards. Although I truly love December mail – especially when I open the mail to find only catalogs and holiday cards! I really do love getting cards from friends and seeing photos of their family and their craftiness, but this year I decided to skip it. My new year’s resolution for 2011 was to consume less. True story. I wrote it down. It seems reasonable that with that as a resolution even if I didn’t hold true to it all year-long, I should try to finish strong at the end of the year. I decided that an electronic message would help in my efforts to consume less and could be a bit more personal this year. So, instead of a card I am posting my first public blog to my friends and family.

Here is a recap of our 2011 – overall it was a great year. I started a new job at Phillips Real Estate Services, after working in property management for almost 5 years, I took on a new role and I am now in charge of all the marketing for the company, while still keeping my sales license, so I can help any friends in need of buying or selling their homes. Andrew has been plugging along at UW and is enjoying all the perks of a government employee. Siena is in 2nd grade, loves her teacher and her friends and is always looking to learn new things. This year in her class she dissected owl pellets and she reconstructed the bones of a mouse … so cool. Nadia is just about to turn 5 and can not wait for her birthday. She goes to all day preschool and also enjoys her friends. She is looking forward to kindergarten next year. She loves music and most days you can find her turning up the CD player and dancing in the mirror!

The early winter months you will generally find this Gorohoff crew shredding the slopes at Alpental. 2011 was the first year that Nadia was able to take lessons and she loved it. Siena also turned the corner for skiing and is now going down double black diamonds, I am certain by the end of this season she will be better than me – but that really won’t take much, she already is more adventurous than me!

In March of 2011, Andrew and I ran the National Marathon in Washington DC. We had a great race, we ran the whole time together. We were thankful that my sister, Debbie, and her family (with our kids too) were able meet us on the race course to cheer us on. I was literally texting her while running so we knew where they would be and I still beat my Portland Marathon time (from 10.10.10) by 30 minutes! After the marathon, both our families spent the rest of the week in Shenandoah National Park and exploring Virginia and DC, we visited both Thomas Jefferson’s and George Washington’s estates – pretty amazing places. Here are some photos from that trip. Please excuse the crazy cavemen photos, Andrew downloaded a random app from the Museum of Natural History, which turned all our faces into cavemen, its kind of creepy!

The spring and summer months we did a lot of running (Seattle Rock & Roll 1/2 marathon and my annual Ragnar Relay with my sister Chrissy and great friends). Andrew spent 3 long days running/hiking around Mt. Rainier’s Wonderland Trail. Although you couldn’t tell by his feet, he did say he had a good time and surprisingly, he said would do it again – not sure his teammates would agree. Since Andrew and I are always about fairness, since he did his man-cation (hiking Rainier), I decided I needed my own little get away, so I got to go on the Yoga Momma Retreat at Sleeping Lady retreat in Leavenworth, WA. An amazing weekend with friends, yoga and relaxation. So wonderful, I can’t wait for next year!

The highlight of the summer and possibly the year was our road trip to the Southwest, we took almost 2 weeks of vacation, packed the car up and headed East, then South.

Our first stop was to visit my little brother, Danny, in Bozeman, MT. We left Seattle at 3am and headed East, when we arrived we were greeted with a party in the streets. After Bozeman we headed to Yellowstone where we camped and visited Old Faithful. We stopped at cool camping spots along the way in Colorado near Steamboat Springs and stumbled upon another cool resort, Three Forks Ranch – I am still trying to figure how and when I can go back there! Our final destination for the trip was the Gorohoff Family Cabin in Eagle Nest, New Mexico. We made it there for Fourth of July. We loved seeing our cousins and having some quality Cabin time. Then we headed back north and got to visit friends from Seattle that recently moved to Boise, which was wonderful – Thanks again to the Glancey’s for letting us camp in your back yard!

In addition to our big vacations, we did sneak in a few day trips and weekend trips throughout the year. On Presidents Day, we took a day trip to Whidbey Island to visit Ft. Casey. Fun times on the bunker and the beach. We were also lucky enough to spend a sunny weekend in Seaside, Oregon with Andrew’s brother Alex, his wife Anna and our friends Ella & Grady and their kids, the highlight of that trip was playing on the beach and riding on the 9 person bike through town.

Another highlight of the summer was the Rosellini Family Reunion, tons of cousins, games, food and photos with our extended family. It was a great time to get together with the family, this was especially great because our great Uncle Al Rosellini was able to make it. We were very sad when Uncle Al passed away in October, but very fortunate to have that great summer celebration with him.

In June, Andrew and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary. What better way to celebrate 12 years of marriage other than running in a crazy Mud Run with 12 of our good friends. Thanks Team 12!

At the end of the summer, Andrew decided he needed to get another marathon in, since we had so much fun running the Portland marathon in 2010, he talked our friends Sabrina & Tom into running it with him, for their first marathons. The whole crew Sabrina and Brandon (our adopted older children), Siena, Nadia, Andrew, Tom and I hopped on the train and headed down to Portland for the race. While Tom, Sabrina and Andrew ran the marathon, Brandon and the girls and I ran around the city trying to find the racers. We all had fun and then headed home on the train.

(Tom is missing from this photo cause he was in a different hotel at the time).

The months between November – January are always crazy, as we have tons of birthdays in our family including myself, all my nieces and Andrew. Not to mention the usual Thanksgiving and Christmas, so needless to say we have been busy. And this Christmas we are excited that we are taking another road trip, this time to California. We get to spend Christmas Eve with the extended Lo Presti Family (my mom’s family), then the whole Micheli crew (all 17 of us) will spend some quality beach time in Huntington Beach with a stop in Disneyland to celebrate Nadia & Micheli turning 5.

That’s our year in a nut shell (or a single blog post!). Overall, we have had a pretty awesome year, everyone is healthy & happy! We have packed it full of fun and adventures. We have been trying our best to just enjoy our time together with wonderful friends and our amazing family that we are so truly blessed to have. I hope that this holiday season you are able to spend some quality time with your family and friends. Sorry that you didn’t get a card from us this year to post on the wall or put in your basket, but now you know what we have been up to and if you want to continue to hear about our adventures, check in again, I hope to keep this blog going.

Happy Holidays to All and to All a Good Time! With much love from the Gorohoff Family – Kathy, Andrew, Siena & Nadia

Until Next Time,

-kg