Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Colossians 3:15

For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Blessings to all of you for the holidays and upcoming year.

Dear Loved Ones,

It’s been while since I sent out a letter — even by email. A relative put her letter on her website, https://seriouslyseekinganswers.com, and I thought that was a fabulous way to reach all our family and friends. Thanks for the idea, Cousin Debi.

So why have I been out of touch? It’s because our lives keep changing, and I can’t keep up. I actually wrote a letter last year and never sent it out. The biggest highlight of that year was that Hudi graduated from college with his culinary degree and then moved to Rochester.

As soon as I was done writing the letter, I found out about some changes taking place that made my letter completely inaccurate, and I wasn’t at liberty to share the new info at that point 🙂

Now I’m getting people asking where we are in the world so I figured it’s a good year for an update.

We are still in northern NY with Mom Pollock, who is doing great. While that’s our home base, we do tend to travel a bit between our place in the Berkshires (yay for snowboarding and hiking and museums) and on work trips. This year found us in Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls (Canada side), Atlanta, Orlando, St. Louis (where we got to see cousins Deb and Peter Ellertson), Columbus, Ohio (our niece got married–so beautiful and fun!) and Utah (a few times). We even tried skiing rather than snowboarding once. The day was great, but I think we’ll stick with the snowboarding. Haha.

It was a big year for us. In late May/early June Zeb and Bri decided to get married in July. It was a beautiful, small desert ceremony in the Needles District in Canyonlands — Moab, Utah. We camped there for four days and hiked and celebrated. So perfectly them! Their dog, Ophelia, was the ring bearer and looked adorable in her little tux 🙂

During the time camping there, Hudi and Mollie got engaged. This was fun for us, especially since Zeb and Bri got engaged at CJ and Lauren’s wedding. Hudi had forgotten about that and inadvertently followed family tradition. We all love Mollie so this was fabulous news for everyone.

The wedding was the first occasion all six kids and Chris and I have been together at once since two years prior at CJ and Lauren’s wedding. It was a real treat.

About a week after the wedding, in early August, CJ and Lauren had a baby girl — our first grandchild. We all adore Avalon and were very thankful she didn’t arrive while we were in the desert. Chris and I stayed at a rental apartment just around the block from Zeb, Bri, CJ and Lauren for several weeks after Avalon was born. Our good friends Pat and Bob came out to visit their son (who lives with Zeb and Bri) so they stayed with us a bit, too. It was a treat spending time with them. I miss walking with them as we did almost daily when we lived in Houghton.

Chris and I look forward to going to Utah in late January of 2020 to see all the kids again. If you want to see more pics than those in this letter, click on the posts on https://chrissie.blog/category/2019-utah-summer/?order=asc – That links to my blog posts on our summer travels. Click the title of each post to see the full post.

As the summer drew to a close, Chris and I headed back east because Chris had an art commission to work on. It was a big one that lasted a few months so we spent a chunk of time in the New England area while he worked on the project.

I still love working at Automattic and appreciate how the job lets me travel and take time off to be with family. This particularly came in handy this year with all the family events!

Here is the update from our boys:

CJ (26) – What a phenomenal year we’ve had! Some of the highlights are Lauren’s promotion to Administrative Coordinator for the Skier Services division at Deer Valley, CJ’s new position as an IT Technician at Deer Valley, and the birth of our daughter Avalon Kristine. We’ve enjoyed seeing all the friends and family that came out to visit this summer, and we look forward to what 2020 has in store for us. Merry Christmas from Utah!

Zeb (23) – This year has been a wild year. I’ve been exploring what I might want to do and expanding my skill base. I’ve gained supervisor experience from working at DV, Merchandising operations and dog training experience through Petco, and even learned the basics of dental assisting at Timber Ridge Dental. On top of that I was married in Moab, UT to my beautiful wife Bri. And adopted a dog Ophelia! While I was at Petco I managed to get way too interested in pets and ended up with 4 day geckos, 2 crested geckos, a bearded dragon, a poison arrow frog, 3 tree frogs, 3 rabbits, 3 guinea pigs, a hamster and we already had our hedgehog. Needless to say, my house went from empty to very busy. Now I’m spending my days at DV with the rest of my family in UT, chilling with my animals and enjoying the mountains. Maybe next year I’ll be living at the beach . Merry Christmas!!

** Note from Chrissie – DV == Deer Valley

Hudi (20) – Hello everyone! 2019 has been a busy year for me. I spent the year working full time at Deerfield Country Club as a banquet chef. That took most of my time, but I still took time to have fun. Mollie and I were able to go visit Utah (our favorite place) for Zeb and Bri’s wedding! We decided that we are moving there on January 15th. That meant that the rest of the year is for packing. I’m thankful for all my friends and family from NY and everyone I met while living here. My life has been affected most by those around me. I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas with loved ones!

Star (10) – My family is always moving so I guess I’m a bit of a nomad, too. About a year ago I moved to Rochester, NY, with Hudi and Mollie. I live in a house with two other dogs and a cat. It’s really kind of fun. Now I hear I’m moving to Utah. I’ve heard whispers of something named Ophelia I am going to meet. And a bunch of reptiles. But I don’t know what those are so I guess I’ll have to wait and see. My favorite parts of this year were visiting Grandma a few times and meeting Mollie’s awesome mom’s awesome dog, Enzo.

So that’s us. Another year flying by. Things are always changing, but there’s a common thread in our existence. An abundance of faith and love. We are so thankful and so blessed.

We hope your upcoming year is filled with enchantment. Love to you all.

~ Chris and Chrissie Pollock; Zeb and Bri Pollock; CJ and Lauren and Avalon Pollock; and Hudi and Star Pollock and Mollie