Our Christmas Letter

Happy Holidays 2009!

It seems like only yesterday we were sending out our holiday letters telling everyone about our wedding. I can’t believe another year has flown by so quickly. We were able to successfully hit our one-year mark of our marriage without too many bumps and bruises along the way. I’m just grateful Dallas loves me so much even though my cooking skills are lacking!

January started my first experience as an accountant’s wife during the infamous busy season. It was hard to watch Dallas work such long hours and never get enough sleep. I don’t know how he does it every year! I’m continually grateful to be married to such a hard worker. We made it a priority to enjoy our weekends, though, to make up for the intense weekly schedule. Some of these activities included seeing Wicked in San Francisco with my older brother and his wife, traveling to Monterey, taking our nephews and niece to Muir Beach, eating out at nice restaurants in the city, watching movies, and being tour guides when our friends came into town.

Unfortunately, April brought some unexpected news of state budget cuts in public education. The district decided that at the end of the school year they would lay off every teacher that had not been in the district for more than four years. Sadly, I was one of over 13,000 teachers in California that were laid off at the beginning of June. It was hard to pack up my classroom and say goodbye to a profession that I love so dearly, but I know “when one door closes; another opens.” I’ve started private tutoring the past few months and have enjoyed the opportunity to focus on individual needs of my students. I have also loved the extra time I get to spend with my nephews and niece in the area!

Our big adventure this year was traveling to Thailand for three weeks in the summer. Dallas loved being able to speak Thai again and show me different spots from his mission. We traveled to Chaing Mai, Phuket, Kho Phi Phi, and Bangkok and were blessed with several thrills along the way. We rode on elephants through the rainforest, floated down a river on bamboo rafts, visited several Buddhist temples, posed with tigers (we even got to rub their bellies!), watched a crazy cobra show, hiked through the village and rice patties of the local tribes, stayed at beautiful resorts, snorkeled with tropical fish, got totally burnt from too much sun, went shopping in street markets, and celebrated my 29^th birthday! Needless to say, we had an AMAZING vacation.

We’ve had our fair share of adventures and trials this year, but continue to feel extremely blessed. We love this time of year and the opportunity it brings to reflect on these blessings given to us by our Savior. We hope this letter finds each of you well and enjoying this holiday season.

Love, Dallas and Kirsten Perkins dallasandkirsten.blogspot.com