Christmas Letter 2013

Happy Holidays!

After giving myself a break from writing the Christmas letter, I am back with a vengeance. This is partially to redeem myself, but mainly because Tazia’s draft wasn’t very funny.

Speaking of Tazia, she has had a very busy year at University of Nevada-Reno or UNR – as us southerners call it. Tazia completed her first year at UNR and promptly moved into an apartment. This involved us packing up all of her stuff, renting a U-Haul, and moving on a cool, 110 degree, July day. To thank us for sweltering in the heat in Vegas and Reno, Tazia paid us back by taking her cat with her. We returned from Reno and quickly changed Tazia’s old room into an entertainment room that houses Tina’s craft area and my Playstation and TV. We eventually felt guilty about not having a place for Tazia to sleep and converted a separate room into a guest room for her to stay in. Tazia has managed to go the entire semester without changing her major, which is quite a feat since she changed it weekly during her freshman year. She is double-majoring in International Affairs and Communication Studies with a minor Chinese Studies. I have no idea what she will do with this other than be a special reporter for CNN in China. Tazia is using this combination to plan on going to law school. When she isn’t taking 16 credits while working two jobs, she is planning her summer trip to Chengdu, China to study for 11 weeks. It is an exciting opportunity for her and it will be different not having her around next summer. It will be difficult to give her a hard time about the UNLV-UNR rivalry when she is so far away. Tazia’s new favorite question to be asked is “What color is the cannon?” It is red by the way.

Quinton has also been very busy. He turned 16 in June and got a tattoo for his birthday. Tina only agreed to this because the tattoo had to say “mom” in it – I have yet to agree to the tattoo. Can you guess who won that argument? He received his driving license in August. At first, Quinton was not too eager to learn how to drive, but eventually, I think he enjoyed giving Tina and I gray hairs (I have more than Tina). Quinton is a junior at Southwest Career and Technical Academy and is in the interior design program. While his motive for switching from entertainment engineering to interior design is not clear, I think it has to do more with the number of girls in his program classes. He has a great instructor who he frequently calls his “second mom” and often stays after school to help her. Despite being at the same school, he doesn’t stay late to help me. Quinton is still playing lacrosse. Last spring, he played attackman for Grizzly Lacrosse. I can’t remember how many goals he scored because his total changes every time you ask him. The total is somewhere between 10 and 1,000,000 and probably around the 20 goal range. This year he will be playing for Liberty Lacrosse due to some zone changes. He likes his new team and is back playing with many of his friends from middle school. Hopefully, they will be better at keeping statistics than Quinton is. Quinton has also found a new talent – singing country music. He recently sang a Blake Shelton song at the school talent show. In true Quinton fashion, he changed his song at the last minute and sang a song about sex, alcohol, and smoking. Tina and I are hoping the next time that he will sing something a little more school appropriate.

Tina was recently promoted to the Assistant Principal position at East Career and Technical Academy where she had previously been the dean for the last few years. As excited as we were about the promotion, her students were probably more excited since Tina is no longer in charge of discipline. She also worked in the Superintendent’s office this summer which I am sure helped her chances at being promoted. Shortly before her promotion, Tina was nominated and selected to be one of thirty educators in the Executive Leadership Academy for the state of Nevada. The Academy meets monthly for three days and provides guest speakers on educational leadership from around the country. What this means for Quinton and I is that once a month we get to eat out for dinner three days in a row. Tina spends her spare time crafting, painting, and finding projects on Pinterest. She recently modge podged a 100-year old cooking textbook to our kitchen table based on something she saw on Pinterest. After every project, Tina asks me if I think she is crazy. I always reply “no” and sometimes I mean it.

Last, but definitely not least, here is my story. After teaching for 13 years, I have left the classroom to work full-time as Southwest CTA’s community partnership coordinator. I have worked in that capacity part-time for the last two years, but took advantage of an opportunity to do it full-time this year. I miss the students in the classroom, but I definitely do not miss grading, writing lesson plans, or parent-teacher conferences. Tina swears my hobby, geocaching, has transformed from a hobby to an addiction. I think she is exaggerating. I only found over 1000 caches this year, had a streak of finding a cache on 32 consecutive days to make sure I received a souvenir every day in August, attended a geocaching Coinfest in Las Vegas, and drove an hour in each direction to cache a power trail of 500+ caches (it took me five trips to get them all). I hardly think these are signs of an addictive behavior. If she thinks it is so addictive, why did she agree to drive me there and had Quinton drive with me twice?

Despite our hectic schedules, especially Tina’s, we were able to do a bit of traveling and see both sides of the family. We went to Colorado in early June for Quinton’s birthday to visit the Statucki side of the family and get our annual dose of Chick-fil-A. My niece, Mattie, joined us in Las Vegas for two weeks of parent-free entertainment and 100+ degree weather. After Tazia was settled in, she drove to Vegas with Tasha and Briana to meet up with us and fly to the Virkus Family Reunion in Minnesota to join the rest of the clan. Tazia also used the trip to Minnesota to fundraise for textbooks by selling digital copies of the family cookbook. The day after we returned from Minnesota we headed to Lake Tahoe for a conference. At the summer conference, I was selected as the president-elect for the Nevada Association of Career and Technical Education. That means next year Tina will be sleeping with the president. We made two additional trips to Reno in the fall, one for Tazia’s birthday and once for Thanksgiving.

I am sure that you enjoyed this letter far more than anything Tazia could have written. In the spirit of The Voice, you may vote for next year’s author by voting at http://bit.ly/StatuckiXmas. We hope that everyone has a happy holiday season and a great 2014.

Happy Holidays!

Craig, Tina, Tazia, and Quinton

Christmas Letter 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This year, I thought I’d change things up. By “I,” I mean me, Tazia. My dad’s humorous capabilities are slowly dwindling away with his old age, while mine are finally starting to blossom, so I talked my mom into letting me write our holiday letter – to my father’s chagrin. Our year was definitely busy, but then again, when aren’t we busy?

Since I am the most important, I’ll go first. In June, I graduated from high school and left a lasting mark with my “Hakuna Matata” speech. After what seemed like a five-minute long summer, I left my beloved cat Taz and migrated north to attend the University of Nevada located in Reno just a short drive away from Aunt Tasha and my cousins. Nevada, or UNR as my dad prefers to call it, has provided me with tons of new opportunities. Living in a suite with five other girls poses a daily challenge as we deal with the drama, endless amount of hair everywhere, and the constant sound of blow dryers. I’ve kept busy with my job as an event planner for the student government and with my lego-building and playground-patrolling volunteer duties at the Boys and Girls Club. I’m quite amazed as to how I managed to take 19 credits, pursue a double-major in International Affairs/Political Science, a double minor in Asian Studies and Communications, and my all of my extra-curricular activities, but hey, I was raised by my parents.

Speaking of parents, my mom and dad have successfully been able to keep up with society. My dad continues to walk around like he’s lost in the middle of the desert as he digs through rubble and plants for Geocaches. His obsession with Geocaching, combined with his dedication to cycling, has left little time for him to spoil me; however, I am very glad to say that he loves his job as the Community Partnership Coordinator and Video Game Design Program leader at Southwest CTA, and he is now a Google Certified Teacher… NERD.

My mom, on the other hand, has had trouble adapting to the recent changes. Because her beautiful, loving, and intelligent daughter is no longer in the house, she has filled the empty void by expressing her creative side. With the aid of Pinterest, she has begun crocheting scarves, constructing table centerpieces, and reorganizing/decorating things around the house. When she isn’t perusing craft ideas, she is working hard to maintain order as a dean at East CTA. Though the long drive to and from work can be draining, she utilizes that time to call and leave messages to me simply saying “I miss you.” I can understand why… I mean who wants to be stuck with a dog, a cat, a snake, a technology-absorbed husband, and a survivalist son – all of which are of the male gender, making them terrible listeners.

Quinton is… well Quinton. He may not be good at expressing his feelings, but I know he misses me and my well-meaning attempts at guiding him in the right direction. Quinton is in 10th grade at Southwest CTA in the Entertainment Engineering program and I am still anxiously waiting for the moment when he “accidentally” removes a finger with a power tool. He seems to enjoy school now that I’ve been locked out of monitoring his grades. Quinton’s love for hitting people with sticks has led him to playing another year of lacrosse. Sometimes I regret leaving Quinton in Vegas, but only because he is completely and totally prepared for any type of disaster; because of his survivalist mentality and his excess of army surplus gear, Quinton is currently considering joining the military. His mind changes almost daily (Wow, doesn’t that sound like me?!), but his love for his dog is never-ending. Silver is another year older, another size bigger, and still won’t leave Quinton’s side. Silver has found a friend in Taz – most of the time anyhow – now that he has finally realized that my cat is willing to play tag around the house.

Somehow, in the midst of all of this craziness, we did manage to squeeze in a few family vacations. This year we were lucky because we were able to spend time with Grandpa Blake’s family. Over spring break, we ventured to Washington to visit Great Grandma Karlie’s side of the family and to give Quinton time to play in his natural habitat – the forest. In the summer, Grandpa Blake and Grandma Lavonne took the family, including the Fusons, to Hawaii for a family reunion to meet many of our Suzuki relatives. We were joined by Grandpa’s sister Marie, her husband John, and cousins Kayla and Rhonda, as we explored the beautiful island of Oahu. We visited dozens of tourist sites, swam with sea turtles, parasailed in the middle of the ocean, and spent countless hours shopping for souvenirs. After we returned to the mainland, we made a trip to Lake Tahoe for my parents’ annual summer conference and my new student orientation. In August, my parents took a surprise road trip to Reno for my 18th birthday and helped me in celebrating my newfound adulthood. I returned the favor by visiting Las Vegas in October to watch the Nevada Wolfpack beat UNLV in football for the eighth year in a row; my dad’s trash talk backfired, but I am expecting he and UNLV will eventually get their five minutes of fame in January after the basketball game.

I’m home for the holidays and after begging for years to write the family Christmas letter, I finally got my chance. I hope you enjoyed hearing my side of the story for a change, and from everyone in the family, have a great holiday season and a happy new year!

Tazia, Tina, Craig, Quinton, and the pets

Christmas Letter 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tina had complained that my first draft of the holiday letter was not funny so hopefully I can redeem myself or all of you will have to read a letter written by Tazia – and she is rarely funny.

Since Tazia will be leaving us for college next year, we are torn between celebrating her departure as she goes off to conquer her next challenge and being depressed about the fact that we will be spending a lot of money on her education. Tazia is a busy bee considering that she is now the HOSA state president, an award-winning editor of the school’s newspaper, a member of the school board student advisory committee, works with Paula at an internship for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and is in National Honor Society. She has spent more time travelling than the rest of the family including trips to Reno, Anaheim, and Washington, D.C. Tazia is in the midst of her college application process. What a difference a year makes – I was looking at last year’s letter and none of the colleges she was looking at then are on the current list. The most recent list includes Georgetown, George Washington, University of Washington, Washington State, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Nevada-Reno. Once she gets accepted to one of these expensive schools, we will put her up for adoption. Any takers can email or call us directly.

Quinton is now in the ninth grade and has started to demonstrate his athletic prowess (and his lack of it). Quinton spent the spring playing lacrosse at Del Webb middle school and improved dramatically throughout the year. He played indoor lacrosse in the summer against players four years older than he is. He was all set to play fall lacrosse when he had an unfortunate event. He was running backwards in PE class, tripped on his own untied shoelaces, and broke his wrist. How does someone get knocked on his butt by a senior fifty pounds heavier than he is in lacrosse and not get hurt, but trips over his own shoes and breaks his wrist? Quinton is also responsible for a new addition to the family. In January, we lost Batman to old age and Quinton got a boxer-lab mix puppy named Silver for his birthday in June. Silver is definitely Quinton’s dog because he follows Quinton wherever he goes and starts to whine when he is stuck with the rest of us. Wait, Quinton follows us wherever we go and starts to whine when he is stuck with us. Quinton and Silver share the same personality and they can both clear out a room when they pass gas.

Tina is still the dean at East Career and Technical Academy. Based on her stories this year, she is spending more time dealing with discipline issues at work. I am not sure if this is because Tina is getting meaner or the students are misbehaving more. I’ll make sure that Fox News does a “fair and balanced” investigative report on this and report the findings in next year’s letter. Tina’s new catch phrase at home is “that dumb dog” because she utters it every time the cat teases the dog and the dog starts chasing the cat around the house and gets himself into trouble.

I am still the program leader for the digital game development program at Southwest Career and Technical Academy. Due to Quinton’s daily lacrosse schedule, I have started a new hobby – geocaching. Geocaching is like treasure hunting, but for small, worthless items. I typically don’t trade items, but just enjoy trying to find the caches. I am still cycling, but have been spending more time geocaching lately.

We didn’t take any long Griswold vacations this year due to everyone’s busy schedule, but we did take a few smaller trips. We took the trailer out to Laughlin for Spring Break with Shawn, Jenna, and Levi. During the summer, we visited my parents in Colorado and Tasha’s family in Washoe, attended a conference in Lake Tahoe, and took the trailer to Cathedral Gorge State Park and Duck Creek, Utah. Silver is a fixture on the majority of our trips because he likes to be outdoors and will swim in any lake to try and catch fish like Quinton (although Silver is still afraid of our swimming pool).

We wish everyone the best for the upcoming year and a happy holiday season.

Craig, Tina, Tazia, Quinton, and the pets

Christmas Letter 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

It has been a hectic year at the Statucki household. I’m guessing sooner or later it will start to slow down.

Tazia started her junior year at Southwest Career and Technical Academy (SWCTA) this year. Tazia is in the dental assisting program and after a semester of three dental classes, Tazia has determined that she doesn’t want to be a dentist and is leaning towards being a veterinarian (the cheers in the background are my mom’s). Tazia is editor of the school’s newspaper, state secretary for HOSA, a member of the school board student advisory committee, and is in National Honor Society. With all of these activities, it is a good thing that she passed her driver’s test in September so that Tina or I aren’t driving all over Vegas. In her spare time, Tazia is searching for her future colleges. The list currently consists of Colorado State, Cornell, Oregon State, and Hawaii. We should gamble more so we can win Megabucks to pay for her college.

Quinton is in the 8th grade. He enjoys fishing and loves going with Grandpa Blake. Blake even took Quinton to Minnesota for 10 days to go fishing. Quinton also got to go fishing when he helped Blake move Grandma Karlie’s stuff to Washington. Quinton is becoming quite the collector of survival gear. Gone are the days where we can threaten him with dropping him off in the middle of the desert. Odds are he could survive there longer than the rest of us. Quinton is also playing his first team sport since our failed attempt to get him to play t-ball when he was five. He is playing lacrosse for a local middle school and even practices with a high school team on his off-days. For someone who has long hair, it seems strange that his goal is to play lacrosse for the Air Force Academy or to go to the Coast Guard Academy.

Tina may have had the most hectic year among us. She was enjoying her new promotion as a dean when she found out that she was going to be RIF in March. The good news was that she got back her teaching position at SWCTA, but she was going to have to go without a paycheck in August. The better news came the last week in July when, due to retirements and administrators leaving the district, she got her dean’s job back at East Career and Technical Academy. Tina is actually enjoying her job as a dean, as she doesn’t spend every weekend grading essays.

My life is boring compared to everyone else’s. I am still the program leader for the video game technology program at SWCTA. I did go to Stanford for a week for some software training and Los Angeles for a week to attend a conference last summer. Between work and taking Quinton to practices, I keep pretty busy.

We made a major change to our Griswold family vacations this year. In March, we purchased a 33-foot travel trailer. This was my compromise to Tina for purchasing my truck last year. I have sold my stock in Holiday Inn because now we vacation at KOAs. We have taken the trailer to Colorado for my brother’s wedding, twice to Reno to visit Tasha and her family, and California twice. Quinton isn’t too happy about the camper as he doesn’t get to use his survival gear as much as he’d like.

We wish everyone the best for the upcoming year and a happy holiday season.

Craig, Tina, Tazia, and Quinton Statucki

Annual Christmas Letter

Happy Holidays to Everyone,

We hope that everyone has had a safe and enjoyable year. This has been a very busy year for all of us at the Statucki household.

Tazia started her sophomore year this fall by attending the brand new Southwest Career and Technical Academy (SWCTA). She is enrolled in the dental assisting program and Tina and I are hoping that she will utilize these skills to help pay for whatever expensive college she is planning on attending in a couple of years. It was a tough decision for Tazia to leave her friends at Palo Verde, but she is attending a school closer to home. She is actively involved in several clubs and is now president of the forensics club. Tazia also has an additional responsibility because she is now the proud owner of a kitten. The cat is a terror and is aptly named Taz, as in Tasmanian Devil.

Quinton, like Tazia, switched schools this year. He is now a 7th grader at Tarkanian Middle School. Q likes his new school because he now gets to ride his bike to school and gets to sleep an extra hour each day. He has been quickly reuniting with his friends from elementary school. Quinton is active in his school’s broadcast program and frequently asks to use my computer and video camera to create videos. Tazia isn’t the only new pet owner. Quinton saved his money and purchased a milk snake named Bob. Bob came with a friend, a mouse named Lily, but I’ll let you guess what happened there.

Tina has probably had the busiest year of everyone. Tina left Palo Verde at the end of the last school year to become the English department chair at SWCTA. The summer saw her trying to get a new English department and her classroom up and running. At the end of September, Tina was promoted to a dean’s position at East Career and Technical Academy. For the first time in a very long time, Tina now has to drive to work by herself. She likes her new job, responsibilities, and challenges. I think the thing she likes the most, besides yelling at kids in the halls, is her weekends, as she no longer has to spend her weekends grading essays or projects.

Like Tina and Tazia, I also left Palo Verde after the last school year to go to SWCTA. I am the program leader for the video game technology and web design programs. It has been a busy year for me as I try to learn new pieces of software, attend conferences, and attend classes for my program areas. I like my new school and even shaved my head and grew a goatee to win a bet from my principal. The goatee is gone and so is my hair. I kept my ties to Palo Verde in the fall however, by assisting with the junior varsity men’s soccer team.

Batman is still Batman. He has his moments with the cat, with the cat usually winning. Batman usually ends up with the last laugh though because he is allowed outside and Taz isn’t.

Last, but not least, the family vacations. While we didn’t go on an extended trip this year, we did go on several smaller trips. We were in the Lake Tahoe/Carson City area three or four times, Colorado a couple of times, and we took a trip to Mammoth Lakes with Tina’s family to celebrate Blake and Lavonne’s 40th Anniversary. We continued our hobby of camping and went on a few camping trips with Paula and Shawn and their family, including a trip to hike the Narrows in Zion. The trip to the Narrows almost resulted in Quinton’s first arrest as a nearby camper took offense to Quinton peeing in a bush and threatened to call the police. As our hobby has expanded, so has our need for a “proper” vehicle to lug all of our camping stuff. Tina has allowed me to purchase a new “monster” truck to carry our stuff on the condition that she can purchase a camper this spring.

We wish you the best for the holiday season and the upcoming year.

Craig, Tina, Tazia, Quinton, Batman, Taz, and Bob

Welcome to the Statucki Family Website

We, as in Craig and Tina, have decided that a family website would be a great way for family and friends to keep track of what is happening with us throughout the year. We will eventually expand on this website so that each family member will add relevant information about what they are doing and add pictures from our various escapades.