Merry Christmas to You!!

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas! I obviously didn't go with POTUS to Hawaii and was fortunate enough to spend two days with my family for Christmas! (Thanks to being blessed with Christmas on a Saturday this year!) It was nearly perfect (Brian spent the weekend with his family since neither of us had enough time to get to both families!) and I just had a great time with my parents, sister and BIL and my two nieces. (Katherine, we completely missed you and I'm already looking forward to next year when the level of craziness increases with two 2 year olds!) Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my annual Christmas letter. I thought I had done this in previous years but apparently not. If you've been a loyal reader, then none of this is new but I think it's always a good thing to reflect in one place all the great things that happened in 2010!!

December 12, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Or at least feel like it with these blustery temperatures! It’s made it much easier for me to get into the Christmas spirit and anticipate celebrating Christ’s birth! But it’s time to reflect on the wonderful events of 2010!

I’m really looking forward to a quick trip home for Christmas this year and hope it’s a little less eventful than last year. That’s when I found myself stranded in two feet of snow for two days at a HoJo’s in Lexington, VA while driving to Roanoke. My unexpected stay included hanging out with a convict’s girlfriend all day and running into a half-naked, hand-cuffed Santa at Wal-mart. I’m pretty sure I can’t top that this year!

In some ways, this year hasn’t been as eventful as years past. No new nieces or nephews. No new house. No trips to random countries that I can’t spell. But in many other significant ways, it’s been one of the best!

Work-wise, I finished my fifth year covering the White House for CNN. I didn’t travel as much but still went to exciting places like Kalamazoo, MI; Edison, NJ; and Columbus, OH. I did make my first trip to Las Vegas and also spent 12 days in Martha’s Vineyard during Obama’s vacation. My international trip was a recent few days in Portugal covering the NATO Summit. I didn’t get to see much of Lisbon but I did hang out in the presidential palace for a bit and had to ask Hillary Clinton to get out my way! The TV networks opted to not charter planes as often this year which meant that most of my travel was done commercially! Ugh!! At least I survived!!

But the real highlights of the year came in other parts of life! I’m still very active at my wonderful church, FBC Alexandria where I serve as a deacon, “teacher” of 3 year-olds, and oboist for the annual Living Christmas Tree. I also started out 2010 with some New Year’s resolutions which I’m usually not that great at keeping. I had simple goals of being a better blogger, turning off the TV more (being more active), and praying more/worrying less. The jury is still out for the overall success in these goals but I can see how things have changed since January.

First of all, I have learned to cook!! This is significant because I now go to the grocery store on a somewhat regular basis and never buy anything in the frozen dinner section!! I also joined the gym for the first time in my life! I found a fun Zumba class and started working out. Ironically, I also developed my first sports injury and can’t really go to the gym right now but I did achieve my goal of being more active.

I still haven’t perfected the praying more/worrying less but I have seen God answer prayers right and left. And I’ve received many blessings in the process. Most significantly, is that God brought a truly wonderful guy, Brian into my life in June (how’s that for burying the lead?) and we’ve had a great time spending time together ever since. He’s originally from Richmond and works as a research analyst for a defense contractor. He lives less than a mile from me and works even closer. He survived spending Thanksgiving week with my entire family which was no small feat! His family is wonderful too and I look forward to getting to know them even more in the future. That is, only if making the Christmas letter doesn’t scare him off!

Speaking of my family, everyone is great and I’ve thoroughly been blessed this year with every moment I’ve spent with them. My nieces and nephews are incredibly cute and I love being their Aunt Beck Beck. I think everyone, including my sister’s neighbors, made it up to DC to visit this summer. And that reminds me, my guest room is always open for you too! Your friendships are incredibly special to me and I thank God for each of you! I pray that this Christmas season, you’ll be surrounded by family and friends celebrating our Savior’s birth! And I pray 2011 will be filled with countless blessings from God!!

Love,

Becky