2010: In a glance

	To Wonderful Family and Friends: We hope all is well with you and your families. As 2010 comes to a close we have enjoyed looking back on the year's events and are reminded of God's many blessings. Highlights for us this year were watching our amazing little girls continue to blossom into young women. Both girls were very productive in school and very active outside school, pursuing their various passions. We were very blessed to make a number of trips this year, mostly to Minnesota, where we got the chance to stay with Greg, Nikki & Luke, many times and visit wonderful friends and places. We were also able to see a number of plays and musicals all around the Denver area. It was truly a great year! Click on any of the photos to see them zoomed, if you'd like.
	Kelly -- As 2010 began, Kelly was a "happy" student at Arapahoe Community College yet living at home, starting her 2nd semester there studying General Ed/pre-requisite type stuff, gainfully employed at a local indoor party/play place called the Hop and generally hanging out with friends and family, loving life. By the end of the semester, she had decided to transfer to Metro State College in Denver where she planned to pursue a degree in Graphic Arts. She found a new job working at Macy's in the Southwest Plaza Mall (which was fortunate since the Hop went out of business shortly after her departure!). Fortunately, she continues the hanging out and loving life. She also officially said goodbye to her teenage years on her 20th birthday. Kelly's first semester at Metro went very well. It is located in the heart of downtown Denver, so she had to change her commute from a 15 minute drive to a 45 minute bus & train trip. She stopped working at Macy's after the summer was over, so she could focus on her studies. Other highlights include her being part of the crew of their fall musical "Anything Goes" where she did a bang up job as usher/front of the house. She also headed up to Grand Lake for a long weekend with a bunch of fellow students in the campus youth group. Late in the semester she decided to change her major up a little and she's now planning to pursue a degree in Theater Design & Technology, which includes all the goings on in the theater except acting. So sets, props, costumes, makeup, directing, lights & sound; she's going to learn it all. She's also thinking about adding a minor in Telecommunications...she's going to be a very busy young lady! The tech theater program is a very rigorous and fairly prestigious program and she had to interview/audition to be accepted. We were all very proud of her when she announced that she had been accepted! The same day she also interviewed for a job at the campus bookstore, which she was hired for. The good news is that she'll get to work on campus...and the bad news is that she'll get to work on campus! She did both of these interviews, took a final, while having gone to bed at 3:00AM that morning...working on a 20 page research paper. Needless to say, she's thrilled to be on Christmas break!
	Allison... Allison wrapped up her final year of high school with a bang. Her biggest priority was to find a college. So February and March were consumed with college visitation trips. We visited fabulous destinations like Casper Wyoming, Greeley Colorado, Crete Nebraska and Winona Minnesota...and some other less exotic locals. All of the schools she was interested in had expressed interest in her during a senior theater audition that she participated in back before Christmas. Most school visits were also additional auditions, usually for both the music and theater departments for scholarships. In the end, she decided to attend St. Mary's University in Winona Minnesota. She's currently pursuing a double major in Theater & Literature, with a minor in Music. She is already planning to continure at St. Mary's to get her Masters in Education as she plans to go into teaching, rather than be a professional performer. While wrapping up high school, Allison was blessed with the opportunity to be cast as Maria in Front Range Christian School's spring musical of "The Sound of Music". She has been performing this role since she was 3, and it was a thrill to see her perform with all of her friends on stage one last time. We even got used to seeing her get married on stage, night after night! And then she finished it up by graduating in May and officially marking the end of our high school years. Summer involved her working at a number of volunteer positions and concluding her voice training. We even squeezed in a trip up to Winona for college orientation. And much sooner than any of us could believe, we moved her into the dorm after a 16 hour drive. Kristie held up pretty good saying good bye to her "baby". We were fortunate to be able to visit during parent's weekend after a very long 5 or 6 weeks of school. At that point she was a fully integrated college freshman, with new friends and stories to share. She worked very hard as a crew member of one play early in the semester, doing hair & makeup. Later in the semester she was cast as the lead in another play, "Eurydice"...a modern retelling of the Greek mythological story of Orpheus and his wife, Eurydice. We all (including Kelly) got to go out there and see her perform. She did an amazing job. She wrapped up the semester by getting caught up in her school work as rehearsals were many hours per day, 7 days a week! She managed to call her mom & dad occasionally, squeezing calling in between having fun with friends and working on several multi-page papers, including a 36 page whopper for a script analysis class. As if she weren't busy enough, she also worked weekends in the school cafeteria joyfully serving delicious chow to unsuspecting victims...er, fellow students! She is hitching a ride with her wonderful aunt & uncle to spend Christmas at home and to rest and recooperate before the 2nd semester frenzy starts.
	Kristie... Kristie continues to run a crazy household with skill and precision, while working full time at Triad Service Solutions, a commercial cleaning & maintenance company in their accounting department. She's been there for about 3 years and it continues to satisfy it's primary duty: bringing home a paycheck! Last spring, she was heavily involved the Sound of Music production, running all the ticketing and supporting a lot of things behind the scenes. Also last spring, Kristie & her sister Kathie had the pleasure of traveling up to northern Idaho to visit their parents who moved up there in 2009. It was a treat to spend time with them, along with her other sister Barbara and nieces & nephews. She, along with Mike can't believe that her little girls are both college students and doing a lot of their lives on their own. Right now she's joyfully slaving away in the kitchen preparing some of the most delicious Christmas cookies and candies. She continues to wake her lazy husband up before 4AM most mornings where we head out and walk the dog before the sun is up.
	Mike... Mike is still gainfully employed for Elavon Inc., a division of US Bank, as a software architect. He's been there for almost 10 years, and it continues to be a very steady, stable employer, with a lot of flexibility and opportunities. In 2010 he concluded his extra-credit role working heavily with the theater department at the girls' high school, with the Sound of Music being the finale of this "career" that has spanned 5+ years and a dozen productions. He joyfully spent many hours designing & building sets, props, fixing microphones, helping with stage crew hijinx, reliving some of his lost high school years! The teachers and students honored him with a mock graduation ceremony, complete with a robe and cap (which was actually a jester's hat). This group managed to coax him out of retirement this fall where he lent a hand on the school's fall play, without an "official" Shaffer child participating. He was only able to lend a single hand, since in July while working on the deck, he managed to fully rupture his right biceps tendon. Put another way, his biceps was ripped from its connection on his right arm; very painful! After quick trip to the operating room and 7 weeks in a cast & brace, and 6 months of limited use, he can almost carry 3 or 4 grocery bags in one hand...still short of his pre-injury record.