Here is my digital Christmas Card for this year!
Christmas 2010
Hi Everyone!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you. I am trying something
different this year. I am going to email my Christmas Cards instead of
mail them (trying to cut costs!). I will send this Christmas letter as an
attachment, so hopefully you can read it and see all the pictures I’ve
included!
As most of you know, Robert and I have had quite the surgery year. This was especially so for
Robert. In mid June we came to Seattle (a little earlier than we normally do) for our summer
vacation because he had his left hip replaced on June 22nd. Robert did a lot of research and
found a doctor in Seattle who uses a newer surgery technique where he makes the incision in
the front (instead of the side or back) of the hip and moves the muscles, nerves, etc aside
instead of cutting through them. The recovery for this is much faster, which is something
Robert needed since he had one more hip to go.
He had his 2nd surgery (right hip replaced) done on Aug 24th. Robert spent the entire summer
recovering from surgeries. He got a bit antsy and bored while recuperating. Luckily we rented a
really cool place (nannies quarters of a house) that was right on Lake Washington. We had a
wonderful view out our front door of the lake which helped a lot with his recovery. Here is the
view we had from our place this summer. The sunsets were spectacular! We rented the nannies
quarters of a house on Lake Washington.
July 13 2010 Three weeks after Robert’s first hip surgery, the Pickleball club back in Arizona signed and sent a Get Well Soon card! Robert was excited to be just using a cane at this point.
I had arthroscopic knee surgery on my left knee on Nov 10th. I’d been having knee issues for
over a year and had been doing a lot of physical therapy with no improvements. Over the
summer I got injections in both knees which didn’t help. My doctor did surgery to repair the
meniscus, clean out the roughness under the knee cap (which was where most of my pain was from), and he ended up needing to cut a tendon. Recovery is usually a couple weeks. But since the doc cut the tendon, my recovery and rehab is for to 2 months. I just found out that I will need a similar surgery for my other knee, most likely in Feb, 2011. The Pickleball club sent me a Get Well Card too!
Needless to say, I haven’t played much racquetball this year. I did play National Doubles again
in February with my doubles partner Amy Eyton. Once again we missed taking home the Gold by one point. One of these times we will be victorious! She and her boyfriend Myron came and
enjoyed several days of good weather and playing golf.
Before my knees got to the point where I couldn’t play at all, Robert and I were playing quite a
bit of pickleball with our Pickleball club that we formed. We started the club in January along
with another couple. We converted a tennis court to hold 3 temporary courts. The club grew so
fast that they had to build us our own courts! On Oct 22 2010, we held our Official Ribbon
Cutting Ceremony to celebrate our 4 new Pickleball courts at the Vistas. After the cutting of
the ribbon, we held a tournament & then had a great luncheon. Of course, I didn’t get to play : (
To make this year even more difficult, Robert had 2 brothers pass away just a few months
apart. There had been 9 siblings for 53 years until now. Memorial Services for both Gary and
David were held at Shirley and Tom’s house (Shirley is Robert’s sister who lives in Renton, just
2 doors down from my old house!). Family and friends attended both services and shared their
memories of each of the brothers.
First, on May 29 2010, Gary Doerschel’s Celebration of Life service was held. Shirley & Tom’s
house was packed to the hilt with overnight guests (us and others!) beforehand, and a lot of family and friends attended the service. Pictures were taken of Doershel’s, and families, and cousins, and more.
Pictured here are Alan Doerschel (the eldest Doerschel sibling), Pam Doerschel (Gary’s wife), and Janet (Pam’s sister).
Then on Aug 14 2010, another Celebration of Life service was held – this time for David. Once
again Shirley & Tom’s house was packed with guests spending the night (us again and others!)
and attending the service. The weather was really nice and time was spent outside reminiscing
about the Doerschel kids’ life growing up. We took pictures of all the different families there.
Here are the remaining 7 Doerschel kids:
Front row: Shirley Holdaas and Linda Jeschke
Middle row: Christy Morrow and Robert Doerschel
Back row: Roger and Alan and Tom Doerschel
Not only did Robert lose 2 brothers, but we lost several friends and neighbors. I lost 3
racquetball friends who passed away suddenly. Whether it was a motorcycle accident, car
accident, cancer, some other illness, or even old age, it is always hard to lose loved ones. I pray
that God gives us all peace from our grief, and understanding that HE has a purpose and plan
for our lives.
On a VERY HAPPY NOTE: Robert’s daughter, Lindsay, and her husband, Reid, are expecting their first child mid January!!! I made a special trip back to Renton for her baby shower! We had so much fun! It rained every day except the day of the shower! The sun came out and it turned out to be a beautiful Washington Winter day!
Then a couple weeks later I went back to Renton for Thanksgiving. Robert didn’t come with me. He decided to stay home and go to his brother’s house for Tday dinner. Alan and Sylvia took great care of him, and even sent him home with left overs!
I got to spend time with my kids, and Lindsay, and Shirley and her family, and Christy and her
family! Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Robert’s son, Aaron, and his wife, Courtney, and their
daughter, Kayia. They were all really sick, and I was concerned about getting sick while healing
from my knee surgery. (I was about 2 weeks post op and still hobbling with crutches. BTW
That was interesting to use a wheelchair at both airports going and coming since I couldn’t walk
the length of the concourse.)
Nov 25 2010 Thanksgiving Erik and Nicole came over after having dinner at their dad’s house.
Lindsay came by during the Thanksgiving weekend to visit. She is 33 weeks and she GLOWS!
My reason for going home to Renton for Thanksgiving (even though I had just been back for
Lindsay’s shower) was due to my daughter, Nicole. This was the last chance for me to see Nicole before she left on Dec 7 for the Dominican Republic (Perdanales, DR) for 6 months. YES – I said the DR! Nicole is going to help teach English to preschool children in a Christian Church, and also teach adults English on the weekends in Haiti. She will be joining her friend and former roommate, Emily, who is already there teaching. WOW! She has no fear! Nicole has a lot of enthusiasm for trying all kinds of different jobs! She just finished a 3 month job with International Student Volunteers on the East coast. She visited a different university each week recruiting students to go overseas next summer to do volunteer work for one month (actually 2 weeks volunteer work and 2 weeks vacation time). What an experience this job was for Nicole! She saw what it was like to live out of her suitcase and have to manage on the allotted budget for everything from car rental to hotel rooms to meals. And she still kept her positive and enthusiastic attitude when she returned home to Renton.
Here is Nicole and friends from Renton Christian Center who surprised her by showing up at the airport to say Farewell and Good Luck (at a very early morning hour!). In late August, Nicole went to LA for a 2-week training session before beginning her 3 month job with International Student Volunteers.
We had several people come for visits to our warm climate this past spring. In early March 2010, Nicole came to visit. Erik wasn’t able to come this year due to work commitments. Mom and daughter did a lot of fun activities including go to Casino Arizona; getting our nails done; going to a Mariners game; we even taught Nicole to play pickleball!. And she took me to a Sushi
bar! The highlight was going to see CATS at the Arizona Broadway Theater (Picture below).
Towards the end of March 2010, we hosted 2 Holdaas familes here in AZ! Shirley, Tom, and
Austin came down and were shortly joined by Shawn, Erinn and Brystin for a long weekend. We
had a terrific time showing some of our AZ sites, and Brystin kept us laughing and having a great time playing! Alan, Sylvia, and Denise joined us a lot of the time to complete our family affair.
Front row: Austin Holdaas, Shawn Holdaas holding Brystin (14 mo)
Middle row: Shirley Holdaas, Erinn Holdaas (blue
outfit), Dianne Doerschel, Denise Doerschel
Back row: Tom Holdaas, Sylvia Doerschel, Alan
Doerschel, and Robert Doerschel
As usual, in mid April, 2010, I went to Portland. Normally I play Regionals in Gresham, but this time I didn’t. After briefly visiting with my twin sister, Joanne, in Tigard, I made my annual trek to Corvallis to spend the week with my older sister, Mary. Joanne came down to Corvallis a couple times so we got some great sister time in!
This is Mary, Joanne and me (Dianne).While there I played in the Corvallis Open Racquetball Tournament as I always do. My knees were starting to really act up, but I played anyway. This was the last time I played racquetball. Man do I miss it.
After going back home to Peoria, in late April, 2010, Nicole celebrated her 22nd birthday with her bro and her dad plus friends.
I love this picture of both of them. They are adorable! Of course I have the right to say that since I am biased! Wish I could have been there!
May 28 2010 Lindsay and dad always enjoy spending time together. Below they went to dinner together and chatted away with each other the whole evening!!
On June 19 2010, Father’s Day, Robert and I went to Courtney's folks (Bill & Debbie Potter's) house for dinner. Courtney & Aaron & Kayia came for the festivities. Here is Aaron and Courtney along with Robert and Dianne.
Robert and I are so fortunate! We have such cute kids! : )
On July 10th, we celebrated Kayia’s 2nd birthday! It was held at Lake Wilderness Park in Maple Valley. Robert was on crutches, but did very well at the park. There were a lot of family and friends at the party! And the day was beautiful. We all had a fantastic time, including Kayia! Look at the infectious smile of hers!
Above is Kayia at her 2 year old birthday party at Lake Wilderness Park.
Here are Kayia and Brystin enjoying the sand and water and toys! What cuties! (Brystin is the son of Shawn and Erinn Holdaas; Shawn is Shirley's son; and Shirley is one of Robert's siblings.)
Aug 19 2010 Nicole organized a party so everyone could say Goodbye to her. She soon would be leaving for LA and the east coast for her 3 month job with International Student Volunteers. The place was packed with Nicole’s friends! And family too! We all wished her much success and luck, and she promised to keep in touch via Facebook. She made a new Facebook page named COCO’s CORNER, and sort of kept it up. Erik and Nicole posed with me in the picture below:
Aug 22 2010 Annabelle’s 1st birthday party! Annabelle is my niece’s daughter. They live in Oregon City. At first, Annabelle wouldn’t cooperate with eating her birthday cake. She didn’t like it. But her mom, Kendra, had made a couple different cakes. And she much preferred the chocolate cake to the first cake.
And Annabelle especially liked this plate the cake was on! What an absolute doll!
I got to spend some time with my sisters again while at Annabelle’s party!
The above picture is us twins! Me and Joanne!And the picture below Mary with her new puppy, Puna. Mary is in heaven learning how to be a puppy owner! And Puna thinks Mary walks on water!!
In September, 2010 Erik started a new job AND Pharmacy Techschool! WOW! That is a lot to handle all at the same time. He got a job as a satellite dish installer and shortly after that, he started his Pharmacy Tech program. It is a 10 month program, going to school at night.
Since Erik needed a rig to use for his new job, I went with him to help find a van.Erik turned 24 on September 4th. WOW I can’t believe my kids are so grown up! Robert and I took Erik out to dinner to celebrate his birthday.
We had a yummy dinner!Sept 23 2010 And below, is my birthday dinner celebration! (Notice I didn’t say my age, like I did for my kids!) We ate dinner at Bucca de Beppo’s. The food was awesome! But way too much food. Apparently this restaurant is more geared for families where you all share dishes. So we
shared our dishes with each other, and took home left overs!
Sept 27 2010 Gary and Shirley Lindblom came to visit us! Finally!! Robert and Gary have known each other since 2nd grade! We showed them some of the sites and spent one day in Old Scottsdale enjoying some shopping and a nice luncheon.
Robert’s birthday is coming up, so I won’t have a picture of it for this Christmas Letter.
Well this is way to long, so I will finish by saying Merry Christmas and God Bless you!
Love, Dianne and Robert Doerschel
