Welcome! 🎄

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 🎄

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.

Adventures! 🎄

We learned long ago that the secret to our happiness is spending time outdoors. Whether that’s hiking, skiing, biking, whitewater rafting, running, or just sitting quietly outside and watching what Andrea calls “TreeVee™.” And 2025 was a big year for the outdoors!

We began the year with a very fun ski season, skiing together 13 times before the final day of the season. Under Derek’s patient tutelage, Andrea is now a real skier! Last month she went up for some private lessons with her favorite pro & finally conquered the Hockey Stop. This is HUGE NEWS in the Joggson household and we can’t wait to experience more of the mountain together (it’s been a late year for snowpack).

As things warmed up in the Spring we switched our focus back to hiking. Andrea conquered her favorite hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, her first time to do it with her new(ish) heart, and she reports it felt much better (and went much faster) this time!

In the summer we went whitewater rafting through the Royal Gulch, and while the rapids were definitely exciting, it was also interesting to learn about the area’s Old West history. We’ve been trying to tame that river & wilderness for as long as we’ve known about it!

Our area is absolutely breathtaking when the aspens begin changing in the Fall and the sky is so clear and brilliantly blue. We spent the time focusing on high elevation gain hikes to strengthen our legs & core for ski season. The video below was shot as we hiked 9.5 miles & up 2000 feet in the Lost Creek Wilderness. We were drawn to it as we could see the riot of color from our deck 17 miles away!

Through it all, Derek continued to hike The Girls twice daily, clocking over 1000 miles this year! His commitment to fitness and The Girls and his weird Nordic skillz keep him going 365 days a year.

Travel 🎄

In May, Andrea met her Mom in San Antonio and after being apart for 18 months, it was a joyful reunion! They spent their time enjoying the Riverwalk and capturing a 5-hour oral history of her Mom’s life. Andrea not only learned new things about her Mom but in doing so, about her own life and history as well.

She was on the move again in July, meeting her bestie in Santa Barbara, CA for a celebratory Girl’s Trip. These two have been besties for almost 30 years, despite living in different states for 23 of them and if shopping, marathon chats & eating were a sport, they’d be gold medal contenders for sure.

In August, the whole Joggson clan headed south to the tallest sand dunes in North America at Great Sand Dunes National Park. These dunes are so improbable, formed after ancient Lake Alamosa dried up 500,000 years ago. They cover 30 square miles and rise to a height of 750 feet, at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

“Hey, let’s hike uphill in deep sand, you guys! It’ll be fun!” Derek & The Girls hiked all the way to the top while Andrea hung back & reconsidered her lack of recent cardio activity. Some things never change. ;)

In September, the clan headed northwest to Wyoming & Montana for a mind-blowing hiking trip. We spent a day in Yellowstone (hard to do this park with dogs but we will back without them!), and in that short time we saw so many towering waterfalls, majestic views, 2 bears, and untold numbers of elk & bison.

We also drove through Bearfoot Pass on our way back to Wyoming and the entire drive, including Dead Indian Point (we didn’t name it!) absolutely took our breath away. It’s impossible to even capture in a photograph. Highly recommend!

Friends & Visitors 🎄

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 they don't need, the ever-popular Champagne Monday— you never know what these two may get up to.

So in 2025, we laughed, we roller derbied, we volunteered, we saw shows, we did Halloween, and of course we karaoked!

Fun Fact: Becky’s husband Don is running for Congress in Michigan — please share with your Great Lake State friends.

Seventh Heartaversary, Volunteering & The Heart Posse 🎄

7 years! This year we celebrated it on top of the world by taking the Pike’s Pike Cog Railway, one of only 2 in the country, up 14,115 feet to the top.

The trip included an excellent Old West history lesson of how we’ve been trying to conquer this mountain since we first laid eyes on it, including building a 22-room hotel halfway up in the 1880s (Palgrove's Halfway House) to host & provide refreshments to intrepid hikers!

Andrea deepened her friendships with Denver-area heart transplant recipients in 2025 and eventually the group was dubbed "The Denver Heart Posse" by Donor Alliance. No one truly "gets it" like Tony, Mike, Heather & Karyn do and they were such an important part of our 2025, celebrating milestones, hiking, volunteering, & meeting up for lunches.

Andrea continued her public speaking & media appearances for Donate Life/Donor Alliance in 2025. She was honored to speak at the incredibly moving Donor Family Tribute, sharing her story with her largest audience yet (1100+). She also 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 for the Donate Life balloon.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a piece utilizing Andrea's story as a severely immunosuppressed person living at a time of unequaled public health stupidity (told anonymously as "The Secret Life of Jacqui B"). We truly hope that by going public, she helped the cause of the immunosuppressed all over the country.

Next year, Andrea will compete with Team Rocky Mountain in the 2026 Transplant Games! This 6-day event is like the Olympics for transplant Recipients, Living Donors, and Donor Families and she will go for the gold in numerous events, including the 5k and Lyrics for Life singing competition.

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, capturing how many songs he has learned in his life, which likely comes as no surprise to all who know him as a lifelong learner & music lover. He’s now slicing & dicing the data and creating easy playlists for us to choose from when listening at home or in the car. He also created a karaoke app for us!

After visiting the dark skies of the Great Sand Dunes, Derek also purchased a new telescope & launched a new website, Nighthawk Astrophotography ,to share his love of astrophotography. Over time he plans to catalog all that we can see in the night sky from our perch here on Nighthawk Hill.

This year we were thrilled to actually view the Aurora Borealis from our deck— for the first time since Derek purchased the place in 2003! In the video below, you can watch as the Northern night sky changes from a crimson color to green. Incidentally, our views offer spectacular views of the night sky in every direction...except north.

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 closely observe their behavior.

And she observed lots of critters this year! As always she had her morning coffee with Thurston the red fox, she allowed our resident pair of mated crows DJ & Katie to teach her as much as possible about their social & behavior and vocalizations, and this year she even added a gorgeous wild turkey named Helen to the menagerie—she roosted with us for a bit.

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 known 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.

The Remodel That Ate Sedalia 🎄

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 the majority of the year on the deck for at least a portion of the 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!

The Adventure Continues 🎄

2025 was the 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 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 for best physical health & emotional well-being.

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)