Happy Holidays!

Welcome to the last Statucki family holiday letter. Since Tina and I are empty nesters, we no longer feel obligated to explain to everyone what is going on in Tazia’s and Quinton’s life. They are grown adults who are getting a college education. Starting next year, they can write their own damn letters.

I am writing this from our new office, which we moved from our bedroom to Quinton’s old room. Since he has left for college, we are utilizing the space more wisely. It isn’t like we turned it into the naked room or anything.

Speaking of offices, Tina got a huge, new office this year that came with her promotion to principal at Northwest Career and Technical Academy. The new job has kept her pretty busy which is good news for me. She doesn’t have as much time to recruit me to help with her Pinterest crafting projects. Shortly after her promotion, we (really it was me) decided that she needed to drive a car worthy of her office, so she gave her hybrid to Quinton and bought herself a Lexus.

I am sure that some of you are still in shock over the news that Quinton is no longer living with us or that he is willingly driving a hybrid, so I will provide his update next. Quinton graduated high school last June and is attending the University of Nevada, or as we in the south call it, UNR. I would love to tell you what he is majoring in, but he seems to change his mind frequently. The one thing that he does not change his mind about is cheerleading. Quinton is on the UNR stunt team and is very busy cheering and stunting at football, volleyball, and basketball games. He enjoys cheering because he is always picking up chicks, literally and figuratively. Quinton also spent the summer working at a cheer gym as a coach, and he was recently hired in Reno to do the same. Now he can start footing some of his own bills!

I know what you are thinking, “I thought Tazia lived in Reno?” She does, and Tazia and Quinton are actually next door neighbors. I think they are starting to grow out of the tattling on each other stage, but it has taken almost the whole semester. Tazia is one semester away from graduating from UNR. She will finish with a double major in international affairs and communications while having a minor in Chinese studies. While many of you may be thinking that is great, I am wondering where she is going to work next year. If you can answer that, please let me know. She can’t be the ASUN director of programming at UNR forever. Tazia is currently applying to law schools around the country and we will learn in the early spring where Tazia is going to further her education. Tina has her fingers crossed that it is somewhere in the United States and not in China.

I have done absolutely nothing since becoming an empty-nester. I am still the community partnership coordinator at Southwest CTA and just finished my coursework for my endorsement in educational administration. After serving a year as the Nevada ACTE president, I am now the association’s executive director. In my spare time, I am still hiking around the desert with the dog looking for pieces of tupperware, otherwise known as geocaches.

In addition to our normal trips to Reno and Lake Tahoe, Tina and I made a couple of work related trips to Austin, TX and New Orleans, LA. We also managed to get away on our own to a Gone With the Wind themed bed and breakfast outside of Sequoia National Park. Tina really enjoyed driving on the windy roads to and from the national park.

We hoped that you have enjoyed the final installment of the Statucki family letter. Wait, who am I kidding? We all know that if Tazia and Quinton have to mail their own holiday letters next year, they’ll need to ask us for money to buy stamps. For this reason and many others, I am sure the Statucki family letter will be back in fine form….or will it. Stay tuned to find out.

We would all like to wish you a happy holiday and a wonderful new year.

Craig, Tina, Tazia, and Quinton