2019 in Review

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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