Kotas Christmas Letter 2024

 The Kotas 2024 Annual Christmas Letter

Looking back at the memories from this year, once again we realize we are thankful for everything. The good, the bad and everything in between! We are thankful for the gift of the present and for each other. For our family and friends, our home, our parish! 

We are busy, busy!

Dan and I are doing well and juggling everything the best we can. We are fortunate to say we learned how to complement and help each other right how we need it, thanks to the daily grace of God! I wouldn’t think it was possible, but his love for offshore/jetty fishing continued to grow! I think it’s cute that many times he wants to take us with him, even though it’s his special “me time”. About me, I think this year I enjoyed many more coffee/restaurant dates with my many friends and that was nice. I definitely feel grateful for it.

I’ve also realized it might have been a year of firsts! Starting with the first time we were in the direct path of a hurricane (Hurricane Beryl in July), it was scary, but we can’t complain. We fared well compared and it was uplifting to see how the community quickly rebuilt and cleaned everything. In less dramatic matters, we had Nico’s first overnight camp, and it was such a great experience! A first-time family trip to California’s Disneyland and Universal Studios and our first time visiting Six Flags in San Antonio. First time hosting my mom all by herself (and hosting her twice in a year!). First time Dan and I went on a mini trip just the two of us in the US (one night stay in Galveston, it was glorious!) and Gio going to school for the first time! First time baseball little league for Nicholas, first time Rebecca babysits for other people!

It was also, naturally, a year of somewhat repeated experiences, a year of mini trips: we visited our beloved Austin again (thanks to Beryl), Dallas (thanks to picking up my mom at DFW airport) and Yogi Bear Hill Country (thanks to a mini break at school due to parent-teacher conferences). And we are going be visiting San Antonio a few more times in the next twelve months, since we caved in and upgraded our late November single visit tickets to annual passes to Six Flags and its water park.

Baseball (little league, Astros, Dodger’s Shohei Ohtani and the Space Cowboys) dominated our worlds because of our little fanatic, Nico. Gio copies everything big brother does! Little guy likes to laugh and be loud and super active and spend his time outside, loves all sports and developed an intense like for Spider-man. He is talking and it’s the best. Rebecca and Vicky shared even more hobbies and interests than before, and quite a few shopping visits to buy trinkets at the mall. Vicky started piano and went back to ballet lessons and she enjoys and is progressing beautifully in both! She’s preparing for her First Communion, sometime in May of next year! Rebecca started to work with resin (solo sponsoring herself) and makes some beautiful accessories with it! She’ll be going to High School next year and mom is not ready! Prayers, please!!! Overall, the kids are doing really well, we are very thankful, indeed!

It was just another year without any great, big news, but filled with the daily grind of each day and its many humble joys and some trials too, of course! We trust in God’s prefect wisdom and goodness as we place our trust and not full knowledge in Him. And we wish all of you only the best: the grace of God and His many blessings, not just this Christmas Season, but for the whole new year ahead! You are in our daily prayers! 

Love, The Kotas.

Kotas Christmas Letter 2023

 Merry Christmas, family and friends! We pray this letter finds you well!

I enjoy crafting our annual Christmas letter recounting the main happenings of the year and I hope you enjoy receiving it, as well! By now you should probably be expecting a book-style letter. Every time, though, somehow I think: “but there is nothing to write about”. But then with a little bit of effort and a retrospective look, I’ve realized that even with the most uneventful years, there are still many blessings to behold and news to share! I’ve used many methods to refresh my memory, like by looking back into my phone pictures or my Instagram’s archive and by checking back paper-calendars searching for main events. Then I need to pick up a theme or/and a timeline, either Jan-Dec or like this time, by order of birthdays when we give a run through of how everyone is doing! So here it goes!

The first blessing, for sure is that Gio has survived his most adventurous year so far as he’ll turn two at the end of January! The boy is fast, agile, intense, curious and super cute, and definitely kept us on our toes. In fact we’ve had to rearrange our furniture so many times just to make sure he was safe (and our things too). The biggest change was probably moving him to a different bedroom and into a big boy’s bed (bottom bunk bed, ladder removed and with zero other furniture in his bedroom). That was about the same time he really started sleeping the whole night and having regular nap schedules! Maybe it’s a reminder that sometimes change is needed and it will come for the better! Gio is starting to say many words and phrases and it’s the best! I love this phase! He loves sports, snacks, family, friends and Jesus and staying outside. I love some good ol’ winter, but God bless Texas.

Dan is over 40 so we stopped counting, but his birthday is on early February, just a week after Gio’s. He’s doing great at his work, has been promoted in April and he’ll be promoted again in January! As I am super proud of his work ethics and tireless efforts, I am just as proud of how he carries it out! You’d never know of any of it and he still comes home with the biggest smile expecting to see the kids all so happy to have him back at the end of the day! His love for fishing has only grown stronger and his first love – soccer – has made a small but very much enjoyed, comeback (even with a torn ACL)! Pickleball has not conquered a space on his heart, though! Not for lack of friends’ or his wife’s efforts.

My birthday comes only 8 days after Dan’s, and we still haven’t thrown a joint epic birthday party. Maybe when I turn 40, and you are all invited! Ironically, my biggest announcement is a newfound love for racquet/paddle sports. Yes, I love pickleball! Thankful for this community of friends where I can have regular weekly meetings for playing it but also for some many other things I continued to be a part of: book club, recollections and circles, boys and girls club, and just so many social events for the whole family or couples only! Y’all should move closer, if you still don’t! I’m also homeschooling Vicky, I’m vice president/treasurer of our school parents association and I’m teaching catechesis once a week for the parish. I know, I have my plate full.

Nicholas’s birthday is an exact month after mine, and he turned 10, on 03/10! The boy has a mind and a heart of gold! We gave him a great brunch and videogame party for his golden birthday and he loved it! His gentle disposition and easygoing style makes him a friend of all! He’s in fourth grade and having a great year so far, participating in every sport with his many friends and still loving to altar serve at our parish! He has moved to his own bedroom this year and hobbies include reading “Calvin and Hobbes”. He proudly bought the whole collection with his saved allowance money plus a little advance, thus he has been broke for a while! Happy, but broke!

There’s a big gap until Rebecca’s birthday so let me fill it up with our whole June trip to Brazil! Naturally, it was lovely to see and spend time with both our families and so many friends, meet all the new babies, visit new homes, eat everything we miss leaving abroad and just have a time to call it proper “vacation”! We booked a mini beach trip within this time and it was truly great, too! Until next time!

Summer continued for July and half of August. Our group of friends got together to organize and lead “camps” to our own kids and it included dance, science, pickleball (led by me) and wood carpentry (plus a few others we had to miss because we were in Brazil) and many pool play dates! July is also the month when Becca leaves for her annual girls leadership week long camp in the Hill Country! Next year I’m hopeful Nicholas can go to the boys’ camp too.

August is bitter sweet with the end of summer break and the start of the new school year and Rebecca turned 13 (we have a teenager) by the end of it! But what a lovely teenager, nonetheless! She’s into so many hobbies! Participated in her first children’s business fair in May, with her bracelet making and creative skills, got first prize at LifeFirst Pro-Life essay competition (and a $200 check - sweet!), devoured more books than I am able to count (including one from my own book club!!!), continued to pursue her music education with piano lessons and competitions, and continued to be a top student in school!

An equal gap until Vicky’s birthday in December and this time it’s filled with many extracurricular activities, events & birthday parties and homeschooling! And a fun-filled, blessed trip on Thanksgiving week: Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine TX, Airbnb in gorgeous Carlton Landing, OK and a quick visit to the Pioneer Woman’s town and lodge tour, in Pawhuska, OK with lots of Christmas flare.

These months flew by and Vicky will turn 7 in exact 10 days from this day I’m typing this letter. She can’t wait! She’s been counting the days since November!!! She’s the prefect child to homeschool and to have around the house and as a playmate for Gio! A sweet and intense little big girl! She obviously misses her friends at school although she has seen and played with them many times since then. She’ll likely be back at school for second grade but I’ll certainly miss her home with me and being this busy! Hobbies and likes include bracelet making with Becca, reading by herself or with mom, her family and friends and her many stuffed animals!

And that’s it! I made it into two pages - one sheet back and front - I call this a win!

Would love to hear from you specially if it’s been a while since we last said hello! Enjoy the season and the holidays with your loved ones, guided and comforted by God’s many graces!

Love,

The Kotas

Kotas Christmas Letter 2022

Hello friends, once again, one more Christmas Season!                                                                  

For a good while I kept postponing writing our usual Christmas letter thinking our year wasn’t so full with events worth mentioning but then as I kept rolling in back on my head, I realized there is still beauty in our simple daily family life and even when you don’t have an extravagant year, there is still a lot to share! So here we go, and I hope you enjoy it!

We started the New Year moving into our new home! I was 8 months pregnant with Gio and we took the risk of moving earlier rather than later although our rental contract was still good until the end of March. We decided we wanted to move as soon as possible, before the baby was born, knowing that the long commute to school, the extracurricular activities plus a newborn baby were definitely going to be a challenge to handle.

The perfect house for us came out on the market and by God’s grace we were able to buy it! We love our house, we love we don’t have to worry about stairs and babies, we love our city of Sugar Land, Texas, our neighborhood, we love the mature trees in our street, the quietness of our cul-de-sac and the before mentioned proximity to school and friends!  Baby Gio in my tummy was wonderful and waited through it all. My mom and two sisters came to help and visit and Giovanni Antonio, or simply, Gio was born on January 26^th. He is a wonderful baby, such a gift! We all love him so much and he captivates nearly everyone around him! He is now 10.5 months old and has one tooth and a half, still very little hair, and he continues to be a chubby adorable baby. He is also saying some words and it’s adorable. He is very curious too!

While we adjusted to a new baby, life went on full speed as our kids are older now and more responsibilities and commitments are naturally expected. Rebecca continued having piano lessons and she started golf lessons too! Rebecca learned how to knit and loved spending almost every afternoon with friends and the lovely Dr Bilow lady, a sub teacher from the school who volunteered to instruct the girls of the parish during almost all summer. Rebecca also went to her first away camp, a whole week at Camp Bluebonnet where girls learn virtuous leadership skills, grow in their spiritual life and build wonderful friendships. I can attest it was the best thing we could have done for her, and after recovering from the very tiring and busy week of camp, she was back home so mature and wonderful,  when just before that I was panicking about adolescence and I was trying to learn everything I could on the matter. God is faithful!

Rebecca started the year in 5^th grade (with braces, Nicholas too) and finished it with good grades and stronger friendships! Then 6^th grade came, braces eventually came off. Sixth grade surely meant an adjustment with much more work load and stronger expectations academically. Fortunately we have been able to navigate it together, with lots of talks and the occasional late night help with her math. Rebecca’s hobbies and interests are many and they continue to include astronomy and now bracelet making. She is set to participate on a kids’ fair next year where she will have them for sale! I have to say she is really creative and her bracelets look all different, beautiful and well made. She is a good friend to everyone and she is also a natural diplomat! She’s a big helper with Gio and all her siblings adore her!

Nicholas continued piano lessons only until May after deciding he didn’t want to continue formal instruction for the time being. He still enjoys playing the piano and has a natural talent for it, but it was the right decision for now and we hope he will eventually pick it up again. He was way more interested in playing sports with his classmates! He joined the school baseball team for the first time and the whole family enjoyed cheering on him! I need to say he looked adorable in that the uniform and he would hate to hear me saying that to other people! Oh well.

Just before finishing second grade Nicholas received his First Holy Communion! He was well prepared and looking forward to it very much. Nico enjoys altar serving every Sunday Mass and he loves the monthly altar serving boys training. We definitely treasure our parish of St Theresa! After summer Nicholas started 3^rd grade and it’s been a wonderful new school year so far! He also started attending Chess Club at school and he enjoys it very much! His other hobbies and interests include videogames (which we managed to go without for the whole summer!!), biking, having play dates with his friends, boys’ club, reading Calvin and Hobbes and Harry Potter, swimming, the beach and fishing with dad. He loves having a little brother and keeps saying/singing to Gio: “we love you”.

Victoria finished prek in May and entered summer knowing how to read! We were so proud of her because she really showed effort and persistence in learning ahead. It paid off and she has read many books herself as well as movies subtitles and instructions everywhere. Victoria has many friends, she is very joyful and a big helper at home! She is doing ballet and giving herself 100% like it’s on her nature! She wants to do everything that big sister and big brother are doing and she is a true companion to Gio! She enjoys singing and wandering in our backyard, playing with dirt and she finally learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, which was a big personal achievement as she had gotten pretty scared of it due to a minor fall earlier this year. One fear she hasn’t overcome still is her acute fear of needles and throat or nose exams. I guess she won’t be a doctor after all. She also enjoys fishing with daddy and she loves the beach and her family! And stuffed animals!

Dan took up two new hobbies this year besides being our “everything-fixer” around the house! Dan was happily seen playing the electric guitar almost every day even if for just 5 minutes and he went out fishing many, many times this year! His favorite is seashore fishing and he’s gotten the more successes in Surfside Beach, TX. Work is going well and he also got involved in the boys’ club! And about me, I finally went on a retreat (with Gio) after 5 years of my last one, attended book club meetings, socialized with fellow school moms, helped with our little children’s adoration group, helped with the girls’ club and got busier than ever around the house and the kids!

In November we were fortunate enough to visit with my sister for a few days in the beautiful city of Miramar Beach, Florida and that’s a wrap!

We hope this letter finds you well and please know you are dear to us you are in our prayers! We wish you the true joy and peace that only the union with Christ can bring! And every Christmas he brings his gifts, as a baby! Let’s welcome Him and let’s adore Him! Amem!

Kotas Christmas Letter 2021

MERRY CHRISTMAS, FROM THE KOTA FAMILY!

We hope this season of joy brings Christ’s warmth to your hearts and we wish you and your loved ones a very happy, holy Christmas and a great new year ahead!

This year of 2021 brought us many things but our most joyful news is that we are expecting child number 4, baby boy Giovanni Antonio, due 02/02/2022 (Dan’s birthday, by the way). As you can imagine, Nicholas is happy to be a big brother to a little brother and finally tie the boys vs girls count in this house. Rebecca and Vicky are as happy as they can be too, talking to Gio, praying for Gio, waiting and waiting and waiting for Gio. Dan and I are also very excited with the news. I think you can tell, but we all love Giovanni very much!

In other news, we continued to live in our beautiful rental home – albeit a bit too far from everything – but we are now happy to share we have found a house to buy, and counting on all your prayers, we’ll be closing by the end of December. The new house is under a 5-min drive to school and that will be a true God-sent blessing! When we will be moving is something we haven’t quite figured it out yet since so many things are happening at the same time, but we are glad to have the flexibility to move in a calm pace. We should expect my mom’s and two sisters’ visit in mid January so we’ll be having family support during the move and while we wait for baby Gio to arrive – hopefully and prayfully, he’ll stay put until then.

After a low key 2020 and very few family encounters (all before Feb. of 2020), we were finally able to visit my dear sister and brother-in-law in California in early June and they just came to visit us for Thanksgiving! We were so happy for these times together! The Kotas also took a dreamy beach trip in end of May, a very fun cabin trip with good friends and all of our kiddos in early November and just before that we were very blessed to be able to visit Brazil in October for my brother’s wedding! We got see and love on all of our families, their new babies’ additions, and we baptized our sweet niece, Maria Sofia. A little before baptizing Maria Sofia, we first became the godparents of sweet Genevieve Rose, daughter of some dear long friends from Texas. We love and pray every day for our goddaughters!

We continued to love and cherish our great school, St Theresa Catholic School in Sugar Land, TX, and this was Vicky’s first year ever in a school setting, starting on preK-4! Boy, was she ready for it! She is pure joy, full of emotions and another little smarty pants who will turn five in just a few days. Vicky loves freely and is loved back. She loves God, her family and friends, dirt in the yard, soap bubbles, learning, books and the arts and crafts packages we get at the library monthly.

Nicholas is 8yo and in second grade. He continues to amaze us at school and in sports! He is a natural boy who is showing lots of sense of humor and creativity!  He started formal piano lessons at school and enjoys playing it very much. He showed a lot of composure and confidence at his first piano recital as the first to play and he did great! Nicholas also played in a soccer league for the first time and Dan was the coach! They won the title undefeated and it was such a memorable experience for the whole family. Nicholas is preparing beautifully for first communion. He loves God, family, friends, video games, piano, writing stories, accompanying daddy in everything, and playing every sport!

Our dear first born Rebecca is in fifth grade and turned 11 in late August. She has continued to mature beautifully both in body and soul. She does well in school and quite impressive in piano for someone who has been playing for only 1.5y . She is the best of friends and a good daughter. She helps at home and with her siblings. She plays with children of all ages and is loved by all. She is joyful, intelligent, always insightful and continues to devour books. She has gained a true passion for all things space and dreams of working for NASA one day. She continued to learn and love her faith and she just.can’t.wait for Giovanni to arrive. She is caring of everyone and mostly sweet (she is a pre-teen after all), intense too but able to hold everything in a good balance! I want to be like Rebecca when I grow up.

Dan continues to work at the Houston Methodist. It was been a great place to work for and he enjoys it. Dan is basically not remote anymore since early this year and he is working very hard indeed, like it is in his nature. I admire his work ethics and efforts and the fact that no matter how busy his day was, he is always back home silly, happy and ready to help with anything that is needed! We love our Dan!

Finally about me, even though the kids are all at school since August, I’ve never been busier! But I am happy to be useful and I love caring for my family’s physical and spiritual needs. I enjoy my good friends’ company very much and we are blessed to have found so many of them here where we are! We have a very good support system in our school/parish community between all the fun and the encouragement. Thank you, sincerely!

I hope you enjoyed receiving this letter and catching up with us! I know I always say this, but it so happens to continue to be true: I love catching up with all of you, friends and family, near or far, and I always look forward to your pics and news!

And one more time,

Merry Christmas to you!

December, 9^th, 2021