Christmas Letter 2011

Friends and Family,

The holiday season is upon us, and we thought we would take the time to say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year 2012 to you all. We hope this letter finds you well, in good health, and in good company.

The past year has been one for the books. Between our travels, jobs changes, and a variety of "life" in general, we've been staying quite busy. Gina started this year working for a day care, and in June, left that job to pursue her dream of becoming an author. For the past 6 months, she has been working on several projects, including short stories and books in multiple genres, and is looking to pursue publishing in the next year. Paul continues to work for HP as a solution sales specialist on the Microsoft team, and is having a great time doing so as each day is never the same as the last. He is on the road around the US during any given day of the week, racking up over 60,000 domestic airline miles in the last 12 months.

Our travels this year have taken us all over the US and to the UK. In July, we spent several weeks in Los Angeles, as Paul had business there on back-to-back weeks. LA is certainly an interesting city, and we were able to take in quite a bit, including seeing a movie at Mann's Chinese Theater and going to Disneyland. We followed that up with a drive through the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas from LA, visiting family in both cities, and having a great time. In August, we started with a weekend in Chicago at the Lollapalooza Music Festival, then we took a true vacation, and went to Scotland for 2 weeks, seeing some incredible, life changing sights. In Edinburgh, we stayed on the Royal Mile, saw the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is a military bagpipe and marching band outdoor show, and climbed King Arthur's Seat. We then took a 3-day guided trip to the Isle of Skye, seeing some absolutely incredible scenery, and needless to say, taking hundreds of photos. Upon ending our tour back in Edinburgh, we had the adventurous idea of renting a car for a week, and driving on the wrong side of the road. Paul caught the hang of this surprisingly well, and we had the opportunity to venture to Borders, Stirling, Glencoe, Ayr, Glasgow, and back to Edinburgh during our last week there. Upon our arrival back in the US, we were promptly greeted by Hurricane Irene as we landed in Washington, DC. Thankfully, we got in on the outskirts of the storm, and had an on-time arrival. One last trip we took together this year was to visit some friends in Portland, Oregon in November. Portland is an interesting town - we'll leave it at that. During our trip, we spent some quality time with two great friends, and got to experience the "weirdness" of Portland.

Last, but certainly not the least, Paul has started a new business venture, diving into the world of semi-professional photography. HornPhotography.net opened for business in October, featuring just a few of the many photos we have taken over the past 2 years. Feel free to visit the site, and let us know what you think. We hope you enjoy it!

That's it for now. We're excited to see what 2012 brings! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

Paul & Gina Horn