Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The short version: We hope this letter finds you doing well. We are doing well. 2010 was a great year for the Richters. As far as you know, we never had any bedbugs or lice, or influenza, or colonoscopies, or rashes or any other embarrassing infestations or procedures. Everything is totally normal. Normal!! NORMAL!!!

The longer version:

January:Returning from Minnesota, Chris and Chuck signed up for swing dance lessons to prepare for Julie and Derek's wedding. No babysitter required, because the kids can play at the YMCA kids' corner. Chuck's dancing may not have improved, but at least the lessons were fun. Chris continues to 'practice' optometry, which meant another trip to Hawaii. Her conference was in Maui. Kath came along to help the kids attend to Chuck's every whim--provided Chuck's every whim was fulfilling Chris' wishes. We hiked and scrambled over boulders. We swam in a waterfall. We swam in the pool. We swam in the ocean. We saw whales. We boogie boarded. We snorkeled. We watched the sunrise above the clouds from the 10,000 feet elevation on Mt. Haleakala. We ate roasted pork at a Luau. We vacuumed sand out of our rental car.
February:Charlie's cubscout pack held their annual Pinewood Derby Races. The small race cars start as a block of pine. Some cutting and assembly required. Chuck operated the bandsaw. Thankfully, no fingers or limbs were lost (we found them all). Charlie, Caitlyn and Cooper each got their own car to race at the banquet. Also in February, Chris decided that we lived way too close to Vancouver, Canada not to head north for the Winter Olympics. We visited some of the Olympic Pavilions, saw the Olympic flame, and explored the blocked-off downtown Vancouver streets with a million maple-leaf-wearing-hockey-fans shouting and drinking. It was a sea of red. Next time we may plan our trip the day before we go and get tickets to an event or two.
March: The Missoula Children’s theater rolled into town and Charlie figured that 8 years was long enough to have waited for his big acting break. So he signed up and 5 days later we were watching him on the stage. He was the best turtle in the whole Robinson Crusoe performance. Bwong... The day of the wedding arrived. Julie and Derek held a fabulous wedding party in Minneapolis. Their party bus took 35 lucky people on a ride around the city. It might not have been OSHA approved, but it had a dance pole. Many a Richter tried the pole. After Chuck's turn, Sara MacDonald said, "I just threw up a little in my mouth right then." Two weeks after we were back in Seattle, flower girl Caitlyn asked if we could go back to the hotel and dance some more with Julie. ("Caitlyn: I think the party is probably over by now.") Also in March, Charlie started another season of little league baseball.
April:We think there was an April this year. We can't remember it. Possible alien abduction? Maybe we spent it playing Mario Kart over the internet with the cousins or something. This picture at the right shows us that we tip-toed through Tulips in the Tulip Festival in La Conner, WA. We're pretty sure that Charlie continued with baseball and cubscouts. Chuck did look for work in April; and with great trepidation, he turned down distant work opportunities because of excessive time away from home. In spite of the economic crickets chirping away, Chuck happily enjoyed time with the family.
May: Cooper turned from terrible two to three this year. We ate some yummy cake. A few days later, the family got to walk on Safeco Field during the Seattle Mariners Little League night. So, remember when Julie and Derek got married? Chris brought along squares of fabric and some paint. Many wedding guests decorated a square or two of what would become a quilt. The squares came home with us to Seattle. One day when Chris was at work, Chuck looked at the squares on the dining room table. They'd been there for a couple of months now, and Chuck figured he could help Chris get'er done. He watched a youtube video (on sewing) and started sewing. Kate (our nanny) told Caitlyn, "You're dad is going to make someone a good wife someday." Laugh, if you want, but the result was a completed quilt.
June:Bwong... The day of the second wedding arrived...and with just a short 18-hour drive, we were in Rapid City, watching cousin Jarrod and his blushing bride, Beth be betrothed. At the same time we delivered the quilt (see right) to Julie. We visited Mount Rushmore where we saw some famous faces: George, Thomas, Teddy, Abe, and Chuck Luze. We picnic'd and fed the bees. Later, we ate BBQ, made some peace with a colt 45 (aka the peacemaker), and listened to cowboys sing at the Circle B Ranch. On the way back home, Charlie and Chris bailed out in Billings, flying back for work and school. Chuck got to drive home with the rest of the precious cargo. Back home, during the last week of school, the cubscouts had a season ending picnic where the scouts got to launch water bottle rockets. Chuck rigged up a practice launch pad at home. The rockets rose high in air, but no vehicles, neighbors, nor their insurance agents were harmed. During the last week of June, Chris offered assistance with the kids' church camp. Chuck snickered. Of course she then got sick and sent Chuck in her stead. Guess who got the last laugh?
July:Cubscout Charlie marched in the parade for the 4th. Later we took a trip to the Midwest to visit family. After June's quick trip, Chris figured we should relax this time and break up the long drive by stopping at water parks. Or hotels. Or hotels with water parks. With waterslides that work fine for everyone except Chuck; who gets stuck halfway down holding Cooper on his lap. So they send down a few more people who slam into Chuck's back; At which point he figures he better skooch down the slide (like a dog skooching across the living room carpet) with people sliding into his back the whole way down; the same people whose feet pull his shorts down when he is finally dumped into the pool of water at the bottom of the slide. Fun for the whole family. The clunking noise we heard from the jeep: bad transfer case. (That also explains the grease stain on the garage floor!) We spent a week in Rock Rapids with the Rasmussens, while Mike and the Mechanics fixed the jeep. We stayed with Julie and Derek in Minneapolis where Caitlyn turned 5 with cousins and Costco cake. The whole crew along with Kathy and Roman spent a day at Valley Fair. We visited Mike and Nancy in Iowa, who shared their homemade beer and air-conditioned travel trailer with us. Drove straight through to Seattle from Minneapolis in a mere 26 hours.
August:The day we arrived from Minneapolis, we launched the boat and watched the Blue Angels perform during Seafair and went tubing on Lake Washington. Later in the month, the Richter Family thought it might be fun to camp at Ocean Shores during the hottest weekend of the year. It was fun. We brought the beach shovels. Kites. Bikes. Marshmallows and chocolate. Firewood. A camping stove... and bacon. We made use of it all. Soon after, the doctor told Chuck that his cholesterol was, how to say... not low. Enter the beans, brown rice, broccolli and for variety, oatmeal.
September:School started up again. Chris volunteered to help the kids' teachers. Bwong... The day of the third wedding arrived. Nancy and Jake were getting married in South Dakota. They needed cute kids to help. We loaded up the plane and headed east for the sixth time in a year. Cooper and Caitlyn reprised their roles as ring bearer and flower girl. Charlie joined Luke to receive gifts. Brother Alex and Jake really cut up that rug. No,.. not literally, it means they danced well. Back home, it seemed like Charlie and Caitlyn were playing soccer 5 days a week, but in reality, it was only 4. Additionally, Caitlyn decided to resume her ballet activities. Caitlyn also joined the girl scouts. Or possibly the daisies. Cooper started at a Montessori preschool. We think it's a good school. One day Cooper walked into the kitchen and he was counting to 10 in French. He would also assume a particular pose, and said he was doing the yoga pose "cow".
October:Grandpa Norm and Grandma Mary came for a visit. We were very glad to have them. They enjoyed spending time with the kids. At the YMCA's open house, Mary shot an arrow into the bulls-eye with a bow. The kids were on best behavior for the rest of their visit. Also that month, cubscout fundraising meant selling outrageously tasty and expensive popcorn. Charlie met his quota by selling caramel, chocolate, and cheese popcorn to his parents. Anyone hungry? By the end of the month, thankfully, the soccer season was over. The kids enjoyed dressing up for Halloween parties and for trick-or-treating. We're still eating candy one piece at a time.
November:Yippee. Another cubscout fundraiser. Thanks to everyone who bought a Christmas Wreath from Charlie! You know who you are. During Thanksgiving week Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Jackie visited. You might say that the two Chucks bonded big time. His dad told Chuck, Jr. that he was a perfect, ...er, good driver on the snowy and slippery forest service roads. While we had purchased our wreath from the cubscouts, we were getting a wild Christmas Tree from the forest, as has become our tradition. Jackie worried that we would careen over the edge of a steep cliff with the red 4x4 crew-cab chevy pickup rolling over and over and over, bouncing off rocks, possibly bursting into fire and landing in a gigantic pile of snakes, to meet our untimely demise. But we didn't. And yes the rumors about our tree are true, it re-defines the concept of Charlie Brown Christmas Trees.
December:Caitlyn lost a tooth (her first one), but gained a half-dollar from the tooth fairy. Bwong... The day of the fourth wedding arrived. Chuck's brother Zeke, and Anita, changed their facebook relationship status and were pronounced man and wife; and like the rest of us married folk, became subject to the marriage tax penalty. Congratulations! As Christmas approaches, we engage in rituals. The kids made gingerbread houses. Chuck made lefse. Chris baked Russian Tea-cookies and biscotti. The kids talked to the Big Guy in Red about gifts of which their parents have thus far deprived them. They are hoping and praying to land on the nice list.

So that's a review of our year. It was busy and fun. We hope 2011 is a good and prosperous year for all. Perhaps we'll see you in the new year? Feel free to stop by.

We wish you a happy holiday season!

Chris, Chuck, Charlie, Caitlyn, and Cooper

Post Christmas Addendums:

• Santa found the kids in the Midwest. The kids must have made the nice list, because they got what they wanted. It was great to see many relatives. Thanks for your hospitality everyone, it was a special time.
• Sadly, during the last week of the year, our family had bad news. Chris' father, Norman, was hospitalized with pneumonia that came on suddenly. He passed away on December 30th; he was 78 years old.