La Familia Lopez Smith’s 2019 Reflections for our Holiday Card

La Familia Lopez Smith’s 2019 Reflections for our Holiday Card

This year has been full of amazing accomplishments and difficult hardships.

For the second year in a row, Jimmy’s eldest brother, Wilmer, visited us in February.  This time, he came for a full week with his wife, Yesenia, and we spent three nights at Granby Ranch Resort in the Colorado mountains.  The boys skied every day and one night while the ladies went snowshoeing on top of a mountain along the Alpine Ridge Trail. Wilmer learned about the art of CO breweries.  We all visited the Air Force Academy and Garden of the Gods too.

We had to give our cat, Princeton, away to a friendly neighbor in February because of Susan’s allergies. 
We miss him so much.

Over Spring Break, Susan and the boys flew to Chattanooga to visit “big” Philip and his beautiful wife, Lindsay.   We went to the historic Raccoon Mountain and famous Rock City.  We ate fried chicken and walked across the famous Walnut Street Bridge over the Tennessee River.  We went to Chickamauga National Military Park on top of Lookout Mountain and learned about Civil War history.  We had a “wild” time too staying at their off-the-grid cabin in the hills of Appalachia.  The Smokey Mtns are so pretty.  “Little” Philip enjoyed being with the person for whom he’s named.

Our home had four water leaks in the spring that resulted in us having to redo much of our basement including the guest bedroom as well as the upstairs bathroom. 

Jimmy applied for and earned a promotion to be a Geospatial Data Tech II for Xcel Energy for the electric team.  He is currently on a special project supporting the gas team because he’s an expert is “gas.”  He continues to run along the South Platte River when he can and he’s been reading some leadership books.  Jimmy is the cook of the family and provides delicious dinners during the week and breakfasts too on the weekends. 

Jimmy’s mother, Abuelita, visited for five weeks during the summer.  She and Jimmy went to the top of Pikes Peak.  Abuelita took good care of our home, our yard, the plants, the boys and Susan.  Her career was in nursing.

Gabriel is 11 years old, in 6^th grade and enjoys middle school so far.  He walks to and from school with some boys from our neighborhood and enjoys that freedom and independence.  He’s in honors Language Arts and Math and his electives so far have been PE, computers and Spanish.  Gabriel got a mountain bike for his birthday in May and loves riding it around the neighborhood with friends.  He’s in his 6^th year of piano and likes playing rag songs by Scott Joplin.  He wrote a composition in the spring that won a state contest.  Gabriel continues to be an avid reader and loves books by Rick Riordan (who wrote Percy Jackson).  He also loves fishing now too.

Philip is 8 years old, in 3^rd grade and still plays for the Penguins soccer team.  He continues to be a smart math student and has gotten into going to the skate park with his best friend to ride their scooters.  Philip is in his 3^rd year of piano and is also in his 3^rd hymn book.  We recently finished the Fablehaven series that took us almost two years to make it through the five big books.  We are now on to the next Fablehaven series called Dragonwatch.  Philip also loves reading Big Nate and The Hardy Boys.  He likes Scooby Doo too and watching movies.  We went camping for his birthday at the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area State Park with four families.  

Susan’s had a hard year.  She was falsely diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy at an ER at a hospital in the mountains when the family was camping at Eleven Mile State Park over Father’s Day weekend because her left face suddenly became paralyzed.  She was then re-diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (Shingles in her nervous system that caused extensive nerve damage) by an ENT and Neurologist in August because of the severe pain.  Susan has not worked since mid-June and is hoping the pain will subside so she can stop taking all the pain medicine and return to work after the New Year.  She’s grateful for her yoga practice that sustains her as well as having read Crucial Conversations and Dare to Lead (by Brene Brown) for her work’s bookclub and The Art of Hearing Heartbeats for fun.  She’s also very, very thankful for the love and support from her parents and brothers as well as her loyal friends.

We wish you a safe and healthy holidays.  We are hopeful for a good 2020 for us, you and our world. 
We also hope you write back sometime in 2020 so we can connect about life. 
May we all love one another.