Our 2024 Holiday Letter

Wishing you a happy holidays and wonderful 2025 full of adventure, fun, and new learning!  2024 has been quite a year for the Lapena family :) 

Alexis is now in 7th grade at SSPP (Saint Peter and Paul) and turned 13 on Dec 15.  She celebrated with her good friends from school.  They played an escape game - Timeliner at Fisherman Wharf, then had dim sum at Begoni Bistro, our favorite place in Chinatown and finished the party at our place for gifts and games.   

Alexis loves her  middle school and made such good friends.  Her bestie is Joanna (the girl to her right in this picture) and they do everything together - dressing up as twins for Halloween, sing in the Xmas show, playing games at school, helping each other study.  She is also thriving in school being on the Principal's honor roll.  Besides school, Alexis plays with SF United in competitive soccer.  She plays right wing and dabbles into striker position as well and is also starting to make good friends there.

Isabel is in 11th grade at Sacred Heart Cathedral, SHCP and is 16.5 years old (Wow where did it time go???)  She is blossoming into a strong, confident young woman.  Don't get me wrong.  She has all the teenage angst and attitude as well, but in between those moments, she is simply amazing and is growing into her own.   

She selected four AP or Honor classes + 4 regular classes; a heavy load.  I actually tried to talk her out of one of the AP classes, but she refused.  I'm happy she is already such an independent thinker.  She also has a strong group of friends from school - Gabby and Matthew being her primary besties and all nerdy brainiacs.

She was looking forward to another year of competitive soccer, but life had other plans as she tore her ACL and meniscus during a scrimmage in late July.   With the new free time from soccer, she joined choir, a robotics competition, and helped her Filipino club win first place in the Parol design contest - Filipino Christmas lantern.   She just had a four hour surgery on Dec 20th and is now recovering at home.   There was a lot of pain and groaning coming home and then I was amazed when she got on her crutches, all of a sudden, to go to the bathroom the same night.  She is a tough cookie.   It will take 9-12 months to recover.  2025 will be an interesting year.   I know Isabel will rise above it and make it a great year!

Jaime and I had a very fun year traveling. We are truly blessed to be able to do this..   

- 5 days in Puerto Vallarta just the two of us

- 10 days in Oahu with the family for spring break

- 2 weeks+ just the two of us in Europe - Rome, 3 cities in Croatia, and then Lisbon. First time flying business class cross continental - we are not going back to economy :-)

- Long weekend in Las Vegas to visit Jaime's parents

- 9 nights in Miami and Montego Bay in Jamaica.  This picture is from Dunn's River, a day trip to Ocho Rio, Jamaica.  Weather in November was quite nice. We lucked out and avoided most of the ring.  81 degrees

- I went solo long weekend in Houston to visit my parents in December.

I love planning travel so cannot wait to see where we will go in 2025.  Priority will be for Isabel to visit colleges and also spend time with my parents perhaps on another cruise. 

Work wise, things are stable and the pay is supporting our lifestyle well.  I am practicing putting work as my 4th priority in life.  It's mostly working.  I work regular hours and don't really think about it on weekends and have unlimited vacation :-).  It's been good to be able to contribute but be mostly detached.  In my free time, I still dance with my bayclub group and also go salsa dancing.

Jaime work is also going fairly well in building something that can really scale long-term.  It will just take a bit of time.   He still teaches Escrima every weekend and now is going back to Capoeira and boxing.  

We are both broadening our views of life beyond work - what really makes us happy in the second half of of our lives and also how to focus on the most precious aspect - family, freedom, and health.  

In 2025, we will look for more ways to enjoy life, slack off productively, and have purpose all at the same time.  We know it's possible!