Happy Holidays!
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Happy Holidays! *
Welcome to the inaugural Joggson Christmas Letter!
Since we left social media this year, we realized we don’t know a lot about what’s been happening with you, and you’re in the same boat with us. So this letter is coming in hot!
Derek remained camera shy in 2025, but we did our best to share some of the high points of the past year.
Happy reading!
The Girls
Adventures!
In the warmer months we explored nature through so many hikes— not just locally and when traveling but also in Rocky Mountain National Park. Andrea completed her favorite hike in the park for the first time since 2008, marveling at how much easier it was this time with her newish heart, and she even picked up a spare heart made of snow!
Derek continued hiking The Girls twice daily & clocked over 1000 miles this year!
In the second part of the year, we focused on gaining lots of elevation to strengthen Andrea’s glutes & core, which got us out on some beautiful hikes, especially in the Fall, when the aspens were changing. The brilliantly yellow aspens we’re walking through below are found in the Lost Creek Wilderness— we could see the riot of color from our deck, at least 17 miles away.
Take a walk with us through the aspens at nearly 10,000 feet & ignore the panting— this was 9.5 miles & over 2000 feet of elevation gain.
Travel
2025 was the year of short but incredible trips!
In May, Andrea went to visit her Mom in San Antonio. They enjoyed a Mother/Daughter weekend on the Riverwalk, spending all day every day just soaking each other up & with Andrea capturing an oral history of her Mom’s entire life, learning new things about both her Mom & herself over 5 hours of recordings.
Andrea was on the move again in July, meeting her bestie in Santa Barbara, CA. If shopping & eating were a sport, they’d win the gold!
Vicki & Andrea have been besties for almost 30 years & although they’ve lived in different states for 23 of those years, they always visit each other at least once per. year.
Polly Jean (PJ, on the left) & Tori (on the right) kept us very busy & very happy this year with their boundless energy & joy. Tori is still terribly jealous of all of Andrea’s wild critters and PJ’s mischief knows no bounds— you can almost always catch her with a hiking boot in her mouth, signaling that we’re burning daylight!
This year we were able to take them on multiple adventures across several states & they were total troopers— Joggsons to the core.
Tori turns 6 on Jan 18 and PJ turns 4 on Dec 13. Both are in excellent health.
We learned long ago that the secret to our happiness is spending as much time outdoors as possible— whether that’s hiking, skiing, biking, whitewater rafting, running or just sitting outside and watching what Andrea calls “TreeVee™.”
Stephanie came all the way from Northern California for a marathon IRL lunch!
7th Heartaverary, Volunteering & The Heart Posse
We celebrated Andrea’s 7th Heartaversary & clean bill of health by taking the Cog Railway, one of only 2 in the country, up 14,115 feet to Pike’s Peak.
The trip up provided an excellent Old West history lesson of how white men have been trying to conquer this mountain since they first laid eyes on it, including building a 22-room hotel halfway up built in the 1880s (Palgrove’s Halfway House) to host & provide refreshments to hikers & those on horseback!
Andrea also met her bestie Vicki in Santa Barbara for their annual celebration. Vicki, why is it always cold wherever we go? ;)
The New England Journal of Medicine published a Patient Perspective piece this year utilizing Andrea’s story (told anonymously as “The Secret Life of Jacqui B) of being a severely immunosuppressed person living at a time of unforeseen public health stupidity.
It was written by the Chief of Internal Medicine & her Transplant Cardiologist at the University of Colorado.
It was another fun year of volunteering, public speaking & media appearances for Donate Life/Donor Alliance. Andrea gave a speech to her biggest audience yet (1100+) at the Donor Family Tribute in early 2025, appeared on CBS News for the annual “Shine A Light” city lighting ceremony, and on NBC news while she & Derek were walking in the 2025 Denver Parade of Lights— with Derek stepping up as a balloon handler.
We are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends far & wide!
This year we had fantastic visitors: Jennifer, Joy, Becky, Stephanie and Pete & Laura.
We forgot to take a photo with P&L but they’re moving back to the Denver area this month so we will have plenty to choose from next year!
Derek continued his bi-weekly D&D games & Andrea continued her Denver adventures with Kristy. Impromptu wedding dress try-ons, museums, immersive theatre, 2-cocktail shopping for things we don’t need, the ever-popular Champagne Monday— you never know what these two may get up to.
We laughed, we roller derbied, we volunteered, we saw shows, we did Halloween, and of course we karaoked!
Andrea will begin rehearsing in January with her friend-since-kindergarten The Julze to compete in the singing portion of the 2026 Transplant Games held in Denver.
And yes of course she will compete in the 5k as well!
Fun Pursuits/Projects
What’s a year without projects & personal growth? 2025 saw plenty of both!
Derek has been heads-down on a music project called A Lifetime of Music, determining how many songs he has learned in his life, which likely comes as no surprise to all who know him as a life long learner & music lover. He also created a karaoke app for us.
After visiting the dark skies of the Great Sand Dunes, Derek purchased a new telescope & launched a new website to share his love of astrophotography. Over time he plans to catalog what we can see with a telescope from our home here on Nighthawk Hill.
He has created a website called Nighthawk Astrophotography to share his favorite images.
We are 3 years into our remodel!
This year we added an enclosed dog run to keep The Girls safe, finished the deck and refurnished it— we even built a new outdoor dining table together (as you might imagine, it was mostly Derek)! The addition of the 12-foot umbrella & new seating area meant we spent a majority of the year on the deck almost every day.
We began adding stone columns to the front of the house (still in progress) and purchased some beautiful new furniture.
We look forward to continuing with multiple projects in 2026!
We even had the good fortune to see our first Aurora Borealis from our deck in 2025!
The Remodel That Ate Sedalia
The Adventure Continues
2025 was no different— except it was the year that Andrea finally became a real skier under Derek’s remarkably patient tutelage. We skied together 13 times at Winter Park this year!
In preparation for the new season & with the help of her favorite pro in November, she finally conquered the Hockey Stop. This is HUGE NEWS in the Joggson household & means we will be able to level up our runs soon!
We even went whitewater rafting the Royal Gulch for Andrea’s birthday. Learning some of the Old West history of the calmer sections of the river was really cool— and clearly the rapids were exciting!
August saw the Joggsons head south to the tallest dunes in North America at Great Sand Dunes National Park, formed after ancient Lake Alamosa dried up 500,000+ years ago. Hey, let’s hike uphill in deep sand, you guys! It’ll be fun!
Of course Derek & The Girls hiked all the way to the top (750 ft) while Andrea stayed back & reconsidered her lack of recent cardio activity.
These sand dunes cover 30 square miles
Upper Falls, Yellowstone
2025 saw Andrea deepening her friendship with local heart transplant recipients, eventually the group was dubbed “The Denver Heart Posse” by Donor Alliance! The support, encouragement & information we share is such a huge part of a successful post-heart-transplant life. No one truly “gets it” like they do! Tony, Mike, Heather & Karyn were such an important part of our 2025, celebrating milestones, hiking, volunteering, & meeting up for lunches!
The Horsehead & Flame Nebulae, 1500 light years from Earth
She’s an excitable little elf!
The Whirpool Galaxy, 23M light years from Earth
The Moon, 384,400km from Earth
In 2025, Andrea leaned into being an amateur naturalist, aided wonderfully by the corvid feeding platform Derek built for her. The multiple levels allow birds of various sizes to use the platform, the cover keeps the food mostly dry, and the mounted cameras make it very easy to observe behavior very close up!
And she observed lots of critters this year! Adding a gorgeous female turkey named Helen who roosted with us for a bit, spending time with Andrea’s sweet red fox Thurston, and allowing our resident mated pair of crows, DJ & Katie, to teach her as much as possible about their social behavior, vocalizations & preferences.
It took several years, but we now have 6-8 crows who visit daily, 2 ravens, and 3 magpies (all of them likely related to our beloved Pork Chop from several years ago). If you’ve Andrea for long, you know how incredibly happy this makes her— they finally trust her!
Derek & Andrea even went birding 3 times this year, cementing their status as retirees.
2025 was a perfect year for The Joggsons to lean into each other & work together to create joy & personal growth within our lives. We are very aware that this has been an exceptionally difficult year for many.
We are so grateful that we learned through our heart transplant journey together how troublesome, terrifying times ask even more of us— to behold more beauty, to share more love & kindness, to laugh more often. And we learned the importance of carefully choosing who we spend our time with.
We hope that this year saw you doing the same. And we hope that this letter will spur you to update us on all your happenings!
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Blessed Winter Solstice— or whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year. Love, The Joggsons (Derek, Andrea, Tori & PJ)
GO NUGGETS!
Let’s win it all this season!
In August, we packed up the girls & took a trip to Wyoming. Some of the things we saw blew our minds! As we were only an hour from Yellowstone, we took a day to spend in the park. We saw 2 bears, lots of elk, so many bison, towering waterfalls, and majestic views. Our drive home via Beartooth Pass & the views from Dead Indian Point (I know it’s terrible but we didn’t name it!) absolutely took our breath away.
Friends & Visitors
Becky’s husband Don is running for Congress in Michigan— please share with your Great Lake State friends!