Merry Christmas family!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope you guys are all having fun wherever you are. We are looking forward to seeing everyone over the next couple of weeks!

Love,
Alex and Brynna

ps. for Christmas I made Brynna a blog, check it out: alexandbrynna.tumblr.com

How's the Christmas Prep Going?

Hello Family,

Alex and Brynna are leaving for Colorado today. Rilee and Alex have about a hundred pages to write by tomorrow. They haven't slept in days. Rilee is leaving for San Diego Friday. She is a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding. She will be back Sunday, I think. Travis will be here on the 26th! We are all looking forward to seeing him.

We have had one snowstorm and fog last night. We all want more snow as soon as possible.

How are Danny and Jenni and boys doing? Danny said it is cold and rainy there. And beautiful, I think. They have a Christmas tree and all of their gifts done. We wish them a very happy Christmas and miss them a lot.

Tyler and Dawn are taking good care of their little girls. They have a big tree in their living room. Laurel is looking forward to Christmas. We tended Saturday night while Ty and Dawn went shopping and out to dinner. Laurel said that her mommy and daddy went to buy presents for Santa Claus.

Dennis is losing weight and making dovetails in the garage. He seems very happy. He is also collecting antique planers. Not planners. Planers.

I'm trying to walk again and planning a trip to Europe. I have successfully planned some unusual U.S. trips. I hope to find us some interesting places to visit. I need help and look forward to talking to Travis.

I'm reading some good, award-winning childrens literature and young adult literature. I'm enjoying it.

Got to go.

January Travel

If Travis leaves on January 9th, could it be true that Jenni and boys arrive on January 9th? Really? Ouch.

Christmas Gift Exchange

Tonight we drew names for our Christmas gift exchange. Here's what happened:

Tyler has Travis
Dawn has Jenni
Alex has Danny
Brynna has Agata
Tommy has Alex
Rilee has Brynna
Danny has Dawn
Jenni has Tommy
Travis has Rilee
Agata has Tyler

Use your imaginations. Don't spend hardly any money and be creative. Jenni and Danny are coming on the 9th of January for A.J.'s wedding. (I think that is the date.) If you mail, probably you want to do that before the 10th.

Jenni suggested that Dad and I aren't on the exchange list. It would be appalling to get big deal gifts from kids this year. Consider letters, photos, and such for folks. Planning a family activity or meal would be a wonderful gift.

We had a great time in Washington on Thanksgiving. We missed everyone who wasn't there, and thoroughly enjoyed those who were. My cast is off and my ankles are doing pretty good. I'm glad that is over.

Keep in touch and take care. You are all so exciting and special to us.

Love, Mom

Here's Some Pictures

Rilee's BYU graduation Aug. 2011

October Sunday dinner with family

Ice cream cones for dessert.

Laurel thinks Jak is very funny

The pink building is our Inn at Cocoa Beach

beaches and oceans forever

We had a beautiful autumn

Lilah's birthday dinner

opening presents

Brynna, Alex and Rilee

Laurel and Lilah. Lilah said "cheese" everytime a camera was pointed at her

Tommy and Rilee off to a Halloween party (Mary Poppins and a chimney sweep)

Laurel trying to smile for camera. She had more important things to do

Lilah was busy, too.

Tyler carved a pumpkin that said "Currits".

The Once and Future Way to Run - NYTimes.com

Here is a great running form article from the born to run guy.

Happy Birthday to Lilah!

Monday was Lilah's birthday. Dawn and Tyler had a bbq at their house. The weather was great! I think it was the end of summer bbqs. Lilah was so fun. She babbles on about how cute everything is and just sparkles. She speaks in whole sentences, but only about three words are discernable. I pointed the camera at her and she turned her head and grinned and said "cheese". Dawn has a video on her cell phone of Lilah following big kids up a big slippery slide at the park, then going down it by herself. Dawn said she went down that slide about 36 times in a row.

Laurel had a little friend there named Edward. He is a magical little guy just like Laurel. They invented a game where they ran up to the lighted Jack-O-Lanterns that were on the porch at night, then ran down the street screaming. They did it over and over. Frankly, I wanted to play. Somehow I think Halloween is going to be fun this year.

Alex and Brynna and Tommy and Rilee came to the bbq. I'll try to post a picture of Tommy and Rilee dressed like Mary Poppins and a chimney sweep. They put their costumes together with the help of Saver's. They looked so good. I appreciate everyones' support of little Lilah's party. It was good to be having a backyard party one more time.

Today is cold and tomorrow will be colder. I loved our trip to Florida. I loved the place, the climate and especially the ocean and beach. The Atlantic is warm! I loved swimming in it. I have a sprained ankle from getting knocked down by the surf one too many times. I'll skip that next time. Hopping over it and swimming in the rolling water behind the surf was the most fun.

It's three and a half weeks until Thanksgiving and two months until Christmas. And I have two big bags of spring bulbs to plant in the garage.

I've been thinking about all the support you gave us with the trauma and work of remodeling our kitchen last winter. You guys were great. And we're loving the space.

I'm very excited about Travis and Agata's wedding. What an adventure this is going to be! Kayak emailed me and said January 10-12 will be a good time to buy tickets.

Kaslikowski's have moved. A single man with a limp and a big yellow dog moved in. Apparently is elderly father will live there, too. The guy drives a convertible sports car. I am missing Chet and Susie a lot. Chet left Dennis (at the last minute) a load of lumber and junk to put out on the curb. Our basketball court is a mess. You probably have all heard about the pagoda tree and the interesting wood it has produced. Dad is having fun with that. (Travis and Agata probably don't know what I'm talking about.) I chickened out at the last minute and had him leave the trunk of the tree and a few branches. I think it's still alive and will grow. Yup, I have a hard time with change.

Love you all!

Introducing Agata, Publishing Executive!

I am very proud to announce that Agata's stint of unemployment has come to an end, as today she signed a contract and had her first day of work as a Publishing Executive for an academic publishing company based in Warsaw. She will be in charge of their innovative program of publishing academic monographs on an 'open access' model. What exactly this means she will be doing day to day is not clear, but it looks like it will make good use of her language, writing, and research skills while working with interesting folks from around the world. Plus she can telecommute, so we can now both work from home at our parallel desks in the back office.

Congratulations Agata!

Christmas

Howdy all!

I've got my tickets back home! I decided to come on December 26th, so I can spend Christmas Eve/Day with Agata's family. I'll stay until January 9th. I thought that'd give me one more weekend with the fam. The tickets are great, straight shots through Paris for 850, probably best and cheapest I've ever got between Poland and SLC. Tickets right now for August 2012 are ludicrously expensive, but I think it is just too early -- airlines either haven't published their prices, or are hedging their bets against uncertainty vis a vis currency, fuel prices etc.

If you feel like getting really into scheming for FF miles, check out the site flyertalk.com, they hash over every program and every deal. I rarely see anything worthwhile that doesn't involve signing up for a credit card, and then the maximum payout is usually the equivalent of 400-500 dollars towards a ticket, considering fees and whatnot.

Other tricks for dedicated ticket savers:

Set up a price-alert at Kayak.com to mail you weekly/daily about the cost of a ticket for a set of dates, so you can easily track when its rising and falling.

Consider studentuniverse.com if you still have student status of some kind.

If you want to be hard-core, keep your eyes open (at sites like travelzoo, slickdeals, etc) for super cheap tickets to London/Paris/Dublin/Rejkavik/anywhere in W Europe. You can then try to find a discount Euro airline (RyanAir, WizzAir) ticket to Warsaw -- or be real extreme and take the bus.

It is possible often to book a multi-city trip, that for example arrives in Warsaw but departs from Paris, if you want to plan for travel across Europe like that.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

This might be our last beautiful summer/fall day and it's also Tyler's birthday. We are going to pick up hamburgers and milkshakes and have lunch at Sugarhouse Park to celebrate. After a hard winter delayed summer, we have enjoyed the last two months so much. Alex and Brynna were here to watch conference with us. Rilee and Tommy and Dawn and Tyler and family came for dinner after. The girls loved eating ice cream cones outside. Near the end, they traded cones and enjoyed each others ice cream. Tyler said he has made peace with the long cold winter and might be ready to face another one. I'm not sure I'm ready. We all want fresh garden tomatoes all year long.

Dad and I are going to Florida on the 16th of October. We will be back on Friday. Danny and Jenni and boys will be here for a couple of days starting this Sunday. We look forward to seeing them. We are all looking forward to Travis and Agata's wedding and wedding plans. I am offering a party here when they both can come for those who can't travel to Poland.

Have a great day and Happy Birthday to Tyler!

Love, Mom

Happy Birthday Mom!

All the best wishes and hope for many happy returns!


Here in Warsaw we are trucking along, I'm settling into a nice research routine and Agata's almost got a job, more on that once it is secure. Our most exciting news is our wedding planning, we are narrowing in on an exact date and will send out Savehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the Date invites soon.

I'll try to troll the interwebs for cheap flying shenanigans over the next few months. For now here is one option: http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/58794/chase-250-cashback-with-new-chase-freedom-credit-card-approval-after-spending-500-in-3-months.

I did this card last year and got the money; the good part is that this one has no annual fee, unlike many of these one-time-big-reward-cards, so you don't have to worry about remembering to cancel it.

Happy Birthday to Dawn!

Saturday the 24th is Dawn's birthday. It's a beautiful day today and hopefully tomorrow will be lovely. Dawn and Tyler have the day off today and tomorrow. They have babysitters for tomorrow night and are hoping to go to dinner and a movie. Sadly Tyler has a bad cold. I told them to watch a funny movie if they stay home. We love Dawn and wish her long life and joy and all the happiness in the world.

This was on the news this morning: if you see school-bus size debris falling from the sky, DUCK! Good advice, eh?

My aunt Von is here visiting. She looks great! She has a new attitude. She decided Uncle Alma wouldn't want her to be sad and waste away. He would want her to be happy. She doesn't even use a cane. She is full of jokes and sunshine and is very spry. She nearly died this winter (her heart stopped in surgery in Hawaii.) She couldn't do her rehab because of her arthritis. She ended up doing water aerobics all summer and looks great and moves great. She's decided to live and move forward. I didn't think she would ever recover from all she went through. Now she says that she feels robbed of her visit to Hawaii and plans on going back. Life is worth living, and I'm glad to have her back and happy.

Danny and Jenni and boys are going to Bear Lake to have a Christensen reunion with Michael who is returning from a mission to Georgia. What a great time of year for a road trip! They will be there around Oct. 5.

Grandma and Papa Herb are supposed to visit tomorrow afternoon. I hope they survive the drive. We look forward to seeing them. There was talk of doing Thanksgiving at Grandma's on November 11. She thought it would be easier for everyone. We pointed out the lack of vacation days surrounding that date. I don't know what will happen. Alex and Rilee can't come. They will be in Ithaca, New York, presenting papers at Cornell. If Dennis and I go, we would like to stay longer than two days. Okay, that's all I know about that. Dawn's folks, George and Sheri, are coming to Utah for official Thanksgiving.

I haven't talked to Travis and Agata recently. I miss them. Hopefully they are well and happy.

Dennis is running 5 miles now. He loves it. I'm feeling a lot better. I'm lucky to have found a doctor who knew what I needed to do. It made for a slightly unproductive summer, but I did manage to have a lot of fun. I have such good memories of this summer. I'm glad Alex and Brynna have beautiful wedding photos. Everything happened so fast.

We love you all.

Love, Mom

Happy birthday to Jenni

September 15 is Jenni's Birthday. How much fun can you have on a Thursday? Hopefully a lot. We love you and miss you and wish you a happy wonderful day.

Back to School

First day of school in Seattle!

Happy Birthday, Rilee!

Aug. 31, 2011

Happy Birthday to Rilee....who spent the day trying to sort out classes at BYU. She is now at a party for her at April's house. Hopefully it will be fun and relaxing. We went out to lunch today at a little Chilean restaurant in Provo. They make the best fresh fruit smoothies. Delicious. Many of you will remember how hectic the start of fall semester is at BYU. Just to add to that, the center of campus is torn up and roads are blocked. It appears they are constructing new dorms. It's a big mess. It's hard work to get an education. Best wishes to all who are still in the struggle.

Happy Birthday Rilee!

Happy Birthday Milo!

Happy Birthday to MilO! We hope you have an amazing day. We love you and love spending time with you. And we miss you and your brothers (and your parents.)

Love, Gpa and Gma

Summer 2011

Family in pool in Fort Collins

Grandkids swimming

Jak and Ollie with water cannons in Langely

drumming class in Langely

Leaving Suzuki School

The pie you have all heard about...

Summer 2011

Playing with Jak, Ollie and Milo at the water park in Langely, B.C.

Jak and Milo asleep for the night

Jenni and Milo in the hot tub at the reunion

Danny and Meg planned "Minute to Win It" games

Megan Harville shaking golf balls out of kleenex box

Group picture

gathering the kids for a picture

The Munson clan

Steve Currit family and Swiss Currits

Danny and Jak set up pool toy

The kids had a lot of fun

Jared and Danny took water balloons through the hoop and sustained chest wounds

Cute boys swimming in Fort Collins

Wedding and Summer 2011

At the pool in Fort Collins

Rilee and Dawn at Brynna's Birthday Party

Laurel doing Tinkerbell

Laurel

My favorite Laurel picture

Getting ready for the party

Brynna, her mom and sister put these flowers together

The food was like a farmer's market

Cousin Ramona and Carl