It has been another eventful and blessed year for the Bissonnette family. Typically I enjoy writing a creative Christmas letter update, but this year there was so much going on and I had to say yes to "simpler" which is just fine. Fortunately my college roomate and her family visited in August and offered to take pictures of our family (they are professional photographers), so we were able to at least send out a lovely family picture to relatives and have MANY lovely shots to share here on the blog with everyone.
During the summer we tried out some rescue dogs, but none were the perfect fit for our family. We put the dog idea on hold for now as we learned that Kolbe (though he ADORES dogs) is rather rough with them at this age/stage. The following month we hosted a foreign exchange student from Spain through our parish. It was an interesting and busy month, but we were able to get up to Rocky Mountain National Park with our exchange student which was lovely as always.
Throughout the year we were able to host friends and family and do a good bit of hiking. In September Chris' brother, Nicholas moved in with us for a few months and we are so glad to have another Bissonnette in the great state of Colorado. Later that month, Chris planned a little family getaway to New Mexico for a quick weekend. We explored there a bit and went to Great Sand Dunes National Park on the way home.
Kayla is 9 this year and in 4th grade. This year we started the kids at a homeschool charter school where they attend (like a normal charter school) once a week and we homeschool them here the rest of the week. Kayla has been devouring books from the library about space, astronauts, planets, stars, and rockets.
Her charter school course include CO history, P.E., Music, Sewing (which she has been begging to learn for about 2 years now), Creative Writing, and Crafts. Kayla is a super helper, likes to bake, play games, climb trees, and read constantly. Keep smiling and reach for the stars, sweetie!
Elise is 7 and in 2nd grade this year. We also attend a Homeschool Co-op on Tuesday mornings through our parish. The three oldest girls rotate through Science, Drama, and Art there. Elise is enjoying courses like P.E., Music, Drama, Science, Lego Robotics, and Social Studies on charter school day.
Elise is full of life and giggles. She is a total romantic and it's the sweetest thing when she refers to people's husbands as their Chris', especially when she talks about her own future husband. "My Chris is going to do this and drive a green car. He's going to hug me a lot."
Ava turned 6 in October and is in 1st grade. She was too shy to begin the school year with Kayla and Elise at the charter school on Fridays, but after a few weeks she conquered her fear and asked to go as well. In first grade, they stay in one classroom with the same teacher all day. She is loving practicing her reading, writing, and math skills with friends and singing tons of songs to boot.
Ava is a warm-hearted sweetie who generally loves to help and always loves to play games and draw. She and Elise can often be found playing or drawing together and they are often taken for twins.
Sophie turned 4 a couple weeks ago and is following an extremely loose "pre-K" program which mostly consists of practicing her writing in dry-erase books, completing some ABC crafts when Mom finds the time, poring over books, listening to Mommy read the books, and practicing counting and numbers with her sisters and Kolbe.
Sophie joined Mommy in the 4-5 year old group at Co-op this year where they do gross and fine motor skills activities and laugh a lot. This little girl is a total firecracker and is nearly always up to mischief. Unless she is engaged in a Seek-and-find book of some kind or building with Magna-tiles that is.
Kolbe is 2 and is such a chatty little guy with a fantastic (and very large) vocabulary that most people don't believe his age and guess 3. He picked up the music gene from both his parents and breaks into spontaneous Christmas carols at all times of day and night. The other night he wasn't feeling well so he joined Mom and Dad for a spell to snuggle until he felt better. Just as he was finally drifting back off to sleep he sang, "Frosty the No-man...."
His jubilant smile and belly laughs bring joy for days. Kolbe is obsessed with all things that move and make noise (cars, planes, big rigs, trains....) and loves to run his little matchbox cars over every surface of the house. In addition he likes to make his sisters laugh/cry (depending on when he catches them) by tackling them to the ground.
Chris and Laura celebrated 10 years of marriage in September and were able to escape for nearly a week (thank you, Mom and Dad Cruess!) to Cancun, Mexico. All-inclusive, drinks on the beach, sunshine galore, incredible food, and the Caribbean Sea made for a wonderful week of relaxation together. Can't wait to go back.
Chris is still plugging away as a consultant for Oracle. He also began fishing this year and hopes to get into hunting before too long. He's still brewing delicious beer regularly and he's had fun in the kitchen trying out new inspirations. His most recent is a smoked jalepeno and pineapple hot sauce.
Laura homeschools the kiddos, tries to keep the house semi-clean/organized, works part time scoring tests, and she and Chris are part of a couples group. Both Chris and Laura spent a lot of time reading this year and logged a LOT of pages between the two of them in 2018.
Kayla, Elise, and Ava learned a poem called
A Christmas Carol
And I know you all needed some Sophie and Kolbe Christmas caroling
Caroling from the older kiddos
May the love of our Savior, born as a helpless child give you the strength and hope you need to put your trust in Him this Christmas season. If the God of the Universe chose to humble himself and trust his life as an infant to Mary and Joseph, may we too be able to follow his example and throw ourselves into the arms of Christ, surrendering our wills, our lives, and our care to Him.
And now for a few more sweet pictures. I know I will treasure all these forever.
From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!
Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace
in 2019.
