Dear
family and friends,
It's
2020! We're looking forward to many things in 2020, but let's take a look back
at 2019.
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Kayleigh
moved from eighth grade to her freshman year in (home school) high school. She
danced with Ballet Excelsior Trainees in the spring, going to both Project
Dance Houston and Project Dance New York. Naomi went with her on the New York
trip and though the girls got caught in pouring rain on the first night, it
otherwise went really well. Over the summer Kayleigh made a change and is now
dancing with Magnify Dance's junior company and teaching a tap class, too. She
continues to work on tap skills and keeps a connection with Excelsior by taking
a tap class there. In December, both she and Abigail danced in the Christmas
Spectacular at Champion Forest Baptist church, one of the main campuses for
Magnify. They were very busy with rehearsals in November and into December. They
performed in seven shows from a Thursday to a Sunday. The transition to high
school has been challenging but she is working her way through it.
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In March, Abigail
was offered a position as a hip hop instructor at Magnify when their current
instructor unexpectedly had to leave. It was quite a challenge to step in and
almost immediately have to create choreography for their end of year show, but
she pulled it off magnificently. In the summer she went to Parkersburg, West
Virginia with Open Sky to do a week-long children's program with a church in
the middle of a very poor area where much of the adult population struggles
with substance abuse. She came back with her heart full for all the children
she worked with. This fall she began teaching ballet and tap at Magnify and
then was asked to step in for an injured dancer for the Christmas Spectacular.
She and Kayleigh really enjoyed it though it was physically and mentally
exhausting. Abigail will be graduating from high school in May.
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Aidan began taking a
couple of classes at Lone Star, managing to work around his full schedule at
the Shadowbend YMCA. He took three more courses in the fall. He keeps in
contact with his brother in Japan the most of any of us because they regularly
meet up on a gaming platform and join forces in some epic game scenario. He
also took on being a dungeon master (basically a director) for a group of
friends that he and Tartan Alex used to get together with to play D&D style
games. He loves providing unique voices for the characters that they meet in
each game. He is great at making up his own voices, but he's also a mimic. At
our new year's dinner, we were discussing the last trilogy of the Star Wars
series, and in a sudden silence as the girls were talking about Kylo Ren and
Rey, he said "Give me your hand" and we all could have sworn Kylo Ren
was at the table!
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Kyrie spent this
year taking classes, working, and being producer for UTD ATEC animation lab's
short, Stargazer. Animation lab is a two
semester course that incorporates the various specialties in ATEC (Arts,
Technology and Emerging Communication) into a production team somewhat like
what they would experience in the professional world. Tartan and I were able to
attend the premiere and it was superbly done. She graduates in the spring, but
she has a capstone project to complete, classes to finish, an admin job for the
research department and her volunteer work with fifth graders at her church.
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Tartan Alex was able
to spend a week home with us from Christmas to new year's day. We all were
happy to have him here and we spent time playing games, watching all eight
episodes of The Mandalorian, and seeing The Rise of Skywalker. He teaches English to
elementary school age children in Tomei, a rural area of Mito, Japan. He enjoys
it even though there are a few difficult children, but aren't there always?
Currently, he's planning on staying another year before coming back and doing
something new.
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Speaking of Tartan
Alex, Tartan (the elder) and Naomi went to Japan in July to visit him. It was
an amazing trip. We walked around the Akihabara district of Tokyo, had dinner
with my cousin, spent a couple of days in Kyoto and saw T. Alex's cozy apartment
in Tomei. One of the highlights of the trip was being invited to visit his main
school where we sat in on one of his classes and had lunch with another class
after having a tour of the school. We got to participate in the lesson because
the children were supposed to ask one another "what do you do on {day of
the week}?" Once they found out they could ask us- they all lined up.
Another memorable experience was attending church at Kyoto International
Church. It was truly international with members from Japan, the US, Germany,
Nigeria and China, among others. We sang in Japanese and English and the pastor
spoke in Japanese while another member translated to English. It was an
"event" Sunday in that everyone was encouraged to wear a summer
kimono and they had extras for those who didn't have one.
  Enchantment of the Seas next to Symphony of the Seas  |
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As we finish this
up, we just returned from our annual trip. We traveled aboard Enchantment of
the Seas to Cozumel, Mexico on a four night trip. The best part was probably
not having to do anything but show up for food. The worst part was motion
sickness for some of us on three of the evenings when there were heavy winds. I
found myself wishing we were on Symphony of the Seas, the largest passenger
ship in the world, which towered over us at dock in Cozumel. We enjoyed
listening to karaoke several nights, seeing the very talented performers in the
musical shows, and just sitting out on deck or in one of the covered locations,
reading, listening to music or just taking in the sunset. A few long naps were
also indulged in and the girls had fun at Dancing Under the Stars.
As we look forward
to all that God has in store for 2020, we hope and pray all the best for you
and yours!
Love, the Colliers
