Christmas Letter 2024

 2024 Christmas letter 

Welcome back to the Downing annual Christmas letter! Stretching back to 2004, this tradition narrates some highlights in our lives for your reading pleasure. Our Christmas letter is a balance between humor, successes and real-life troubles. Reading back in time, you’ll find yourself on a rollercoaster ride of laughter and loss, joy and pain, gasping in shock and celebrating miraculous healings. Not much fluffy stuff here! We hope you enjoy looking back with us! 

Merry Christmas!

“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.” 

~ King Whitney Jr.

Wobble in the school yard

This August, Sophia stepped back into a physical, brick & mortar, real life school, filled with students and teachers and hustle & bustle of 6th grade. She successfully emerged from home schooling after completing 4th and 5th grades in less than 18 months. It’s a bit of a commute each morning and afternoon, but we use the time to help her prepare and decompress. She attended her first middle school ball where she danced beneath the full moon in the courtyard to songs like the Wobble, the Cha Cha Slide, and the Macarena. Yes, she knows all the moves to the Wobble, thanks to her joining our dance classes earlier this year. 

Coach Cheryl

Cheryl expanded her business endeavor this year after diving into seven months of classes, four days-per-week, which gained her multiple, international certifications as an accomplished Life Coach, Leadership Coach, and Executive Coach. She now coaches individuals and married couples in her quickly growing business! Her talents and abilities are on display, not only as clients find success and amazing transformation, but also proven through the word-of-mouth referrals that seem to be expanding exponentially. Her passion for people is undoubtedly going to take her further than she could ever imagine! https://www.originalintent.net/

Give me more!

The Thanksgiving holiday brought me to my one-year anniversary at my new job, for which I am seriously thankful for. I've been able to travel, make new colleagues, reconnect with past colleagues stretching back almost 20 years, and even expanded my role significantly. While I was hired to perform the duties in a specific area of compliance on heavy highway construction across the US, I took on another title that places me in the heart of federal department of defense contracts and Army Corps of Engineers contracts, which is simply candy to my brain! 

Near miss!

Tampa hasn't been hit directly by a hurricane since 1921, and this year, Tampa nearly lost that record with a close-call by hurricane Milton, just after hurricane Helene brushed by on its way up the gulf targeting the Carolinas with horrifying intensity. Milton is noted as the 2nd most intense Atlantic hurricane ever measured in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently there was a great atmospheric battle while Milton charged towards the west shores of Florida. Early on its path, Milton exploded to a category 5, then dropped to category 4, then fought back to a category 5, only to get reduced to a category 3 as it made landfall just south of Tampa. We had winds clocked over 100 mph in our neighborhood, along with signs of small tornados that left trees twisted and broken. 

We had settled into our third year in Tampa before Milton came barging into our happy lives. Fortunately, we were not in an evacuation zone, and when the floods came we were untouched. While we were fully prepared to go without power, water, groceries, and transportation for an extended period of time, we were left fully intact throughout the storm and beyond. Milton left us with some minor tree debris to clean up, and a few screen panels pulled from our lanai, but otherwise unscathed. Many of our friends and folks around the area suffered through all the things we prepared for, so we stepped out to help others where we could. We have an appreciation of what comes with life in Florida, whether it comes to alligators, insects, humidity or hurricanes, we wouldn't change anything about living here.

Back in the Valley Again

Way out west, beyond the great Rocky Mountains, in the Willamette Valley nestled near the Pacific Ocean, is where most of our tribe resides. In August 2021, when we drove away in our yet-unknown decrepit Budget Rental truck, we sincerely thought we would have returned much sooner than three years, but alas, life had other plans, filled with twists and turns that delayed our return. Our vacation was filled with family and friends, laughter and love, and of course wine. It felt like we were only gone for a day, rather than three years. 

Cheryl had a silent retreat at the quaint town of Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast, where she and her friends witnessed a beautiful herd of 30 elk running and playing along the coastline. While she was away for a few days, Sophia and I experienced the pure joy of a flame thrower!!! Courtesy of our good friend, we sent streams of flames out into the street, lighting up the cool night like beacons of freedom and hope wrapped snuggly around the 2nd Amendment. 

Puking Plumes

My 2014 Harley Davidson has been with me through Oregon’s freezing temps, Florida's scorching heat waves, and blinding rain storms, through peaceful times and some pretty difficult times. In six years, I added nearly 47,000 miles without any issues aside from basic maintenance, brakes, and tires…. Until one day in October, while on my way to the airport to catch a flight, the engine decided to vomit oil from the air intake and erupt plumes of smoke from the pipes, to the great surprise of the vehicles trailing me. I made it to a stoplight close to my parking garage when it finally gave up. I made my flight and had it towed to a friend's house. 

I faced a significant challenge upon my return, and though I rode it home from my friend's house, the engine resumed its disastrous discharge of oil and smoke with great vigor. I stood at a three-pronged fork in my road: send it to a shop, sell it as-is, or fix it myself. A repair shop would cost over $4,000 at a minimum, and selling it wouldn't get me much in its current condition, so the only reasonable path would be to dive headfirst into a DIY repair. So I jumped in, supported by a repair manual, YouTube University, and a few knowledgeable friends only a phone call away. After 8 days of working nights and weekends, I emerged victorious with a full rebuild of the entire top-end of the engine as my reward and badge of glory! I am blessed to have the knowledge, information, skills and supplies to take on the repairs myself, not only saving thousands of dollars, but enjoying the experience and rewards of something so challenging. The motorcycle sounds and runs great! I have plans to sell the motorcycle because I've wanted a truck for quite while now, so if you know anyone looking for a fantastic motorcycle, send them my way! For now, it'll be my primary vehicle while Cheryl continues to enjoy her tiny, super sporty Mini Cooper. 

Setting our eyes on 2025

While we are busy planning for some exciting changes in 2025, there is always an understanding that, in the words of boxing legend Mike Tyson, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Also, a classic from Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said “Plans are useless, but planning is essential.” So, we set our minds on the coming year, knowing full well that we must be ready to pivot along the way to remain steadfast to achieve our goals to the best of our ability. On the positive note, here's a quote by Oprah Winfrey, as request by my wife: "The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude."

Are you ready!? Let’s make 2025 one for the history books!

“It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.”

~ James Gordon, M.D.

Have a Merry Christmas!

~ The Downing's