Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Christmas is our favorite time of year, hands down! The holiday season brings with it sweater-weather, memories from childhood and celebration with family and friends. It truly is “the most wonderful time of the year” – at least in our family!! As always, we are sending you this short Christmas letter to share our story from 2010, and remind you of our appreciation for your friendship.

Most of you know that throughout our first three years of marriage at least one of us has been in school. Studying has consumed our time, and challenged our relationships – both with each other and with our friends and family. This year, however, we are very proud to announce that Kevin has graduated from USF with his bachelor’s in MIS – closing this chapter of our lives (at least for now).

As a result we have had abundantly more time to focus on living a great story. We’ve done more of the things we love, like visiting with family and friends, exploring the great outdoors, and reading, writing and studying at our leisure. We’ve enjoyed spear fishing, camping, kayaking, surfing, biking and hiking – to name a few.

In fact, during the first week of October we flew to Arizona to hike the Grand Canyon. We camped primitively at the bottom for two nights, and over the course of three days we hiked a total of 30 miles with packs on our backs. It was an AWESOME experience!

During the 9-day trip we also visited family near Sedona and wandered through the quaint town of Flagstaff.

To stay in shape for all of these adventures we both continue to attend bootcamp. Shanna also runs regularly. In February she completed the Gasparilla Half Marathon just under 2 hours – a 14 minute improvement from 2009 and her personal best! In April, she competed in a 5K and placed 9th in her division of over 300 women.

On the professional landscape Kevin has launched a technology consultancy for small and mid-size companies. He is steadily working on developing his brand and clientele. Shanna continues to work as the Director of Marketing for an agency in Tampa, and has rejoined the academic community as an adjunct instructor for a national college. In the evenings she teaches students across the world with a laptop and a microphone.

These are just a few of this year’s highlights. We have many more great stories to share with you. That’s why we’ve launched our blog, www.KurpeDiem.com. We hope you will check it out and send us a story of your own!

We wish you all a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!