Hello dear family and friends! This is our 35th Messina family Christmas letter! So, let’s get to it!
We LOVE living in NW Montana! We are about 25 minutes from Glacier National Park, Whitefish Ski Resort, Flathead Lake, and the nearest hockey rink. What more could you ask for? We love to travel but love coming home to this special place. We were able to share our beautiful home with several visitors this summer: Rich’s sister, Tammie; my brother, Craig and his family; the Methe family from Nebraska; some of our Joe’s former coworkers from the Olathe Fire Dept and their wives; and some dear friends from our Air Force days, the Masins and the Bakers. We had such a great time sharing our home with these folks. If you want to come visit, we’d love to have you! Give us a call and we’ll put you on our calendar.
Rich has had another stellar year. He continues to play hockey a couple of times a week and even joined the Colorado Warriors hockey team to play in a Disabled Veterans Hockey Tournament in Tampa last month. Rich plays poker a couple of nights a week and has participated in a few poker tournaments here and there as well. In the winter, he is snowboarding and skiing, and in the summer, hiking, floating, and kayaking are on the docket. Rich continues to work as a travel advisor with Cruise Planners, and I support him how I can in this business and a few other home businesses he runs. We’ve enclosed a business card for you or someone you know who would like to go on a trip somewhere fun. We both continue to volunteer at Bad Rock Volunteer Fire Department and Quick Response Unit. Rich went through Fire 1 Academy this spring and now plays a leadership role with our firefighters as a lieutenant.
Our Joe would have been 31 last month and married 5 years the month before that. It is hard to believe he has been gone for over 3 ½ years now. He is missed every single day. His trusty dog, Moose, joined him in heaven this year after an illness. If you saw the video of those two being reunited after Joe’s Middle East deployment in 2017, you can just imagine what it must have been like to have their souls together again. Michelle continues her government job, and I am sure she is thankful to start being paid again. She continues to crush it on the mats in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and showers love on her remaining dog, Jenna. Michelle seems to have caught the travel bug as well and has been to some wonderful spots. We are so proud of her and love her very much.
Tim has moved! This boy doesn’t do it halfway. He left his job with women’s basketball in San Diego and moved across THE ENTIRE COUNTRY to North Carolina to work with men’s basketball at Campbell University. He lives halfway between his job and Raleigh and seems to really enjoy working with this brand-new coaching staff. Tim is living alone for the first time ever and is taking advantage of the solitude after a long workday. We went to visit him during the week of Thanksgiving and loved getting to know his new area. We caught a game while we were there and will catch another one at Gonzaga later in the month. Tim is working hard, as usual, and we couldn’t be prouder of the professional coach and man he has become. He is further away from where we are but in a much better place professionally and personally. It is still surreal to see your kid on TV during basketball games. We are so proud of him and love him so much.
Lily is going to be 21 early next month! I cannot wait to see the faces of the waitstaff in restaurants who still try to give her children’s menus when she is old enough to order a beer. She is halfway through her junior year in college at the Kansas City Art Institute where she is majoring in illustration and minoring in entrepreneurship. She and two classmates live in a duplex near the school. Lily seems to enjoy school but has been coming back to Montana between semesters. Over the summer, she worked at a zipline place nearby. She and her friends continue to go to anime conventions across the Midwest and absolutely blow us away with their costumes. We enjoyed seeing her in NC over Thanksgiving and are looking forward to her arriving for Christmas break. We are so proud of how brave she has been to follow her dream of being an artist and we love her more than words can say.
I am busy mostly with my job as QRU (quick response unit) Captain at our volunteer fire department. I not only am an EMT who is on call 24/7 but am an instructor for First Aid, Stop the Bleed, and CPR at our fire department. I teach EMS classes to our emergency medical providers every month and coordinate at the county and state level each month as well. I help with behind-the-scenes business stuff for Rich and enjoy sharing our travel experiences with others. My health remains stable for now and I am running with that as we have some big international trips planned in 2026 – Australia/New Zealand, and Africa are calling my name. Until then, I spend my down time trying out new recipes, walking the area with Tallinn, reading, and participating in webinars online.
Speaking of travel…we were mostly homebodies this year as many people came to us! We did some traveling for work…. a work cruise out of San Diego in January. I know, work cruise…. sounds rough. Well, try being in a classroom all day learning travel advisor stuff rather than sitting by the pool or enjoying fun activities on board. We did another work cruise to the Bahamas in October. Honestly, the jury is out on these work cruises for me. We did get released to enjoy the ports when we stopped, which was wonderful. We snorkeled with sea lions in the ocean and that was pretty darn cool. I really enjoy learning about other places, cultures and foods and we try to accomplish that wherever we go. We also took trips to Houston and Florida twice last year to visit our parents. Rich’s mom and my dad are in the end stages of dementia, so we try to visit when we can…and support our parents who are their caretakers. Rich’s brother had his retirement ceremony in late October in D.C., and we attended the festivities. We are sure proud of his military career. We look forward to seeing what is next for him.
Shameless plug – if you or someone you know want help planning a trip, contact us! We are paid by the vendors, not the people we help, so there is no cost to them. We don’t just work with cruise lines but also with lots of land tours and all-inclusive resorts all over the world. Our parent company is very well known in the travel business and can help us get pretty good deals. Let us take over the minutia of travel planning so you can worry about what to pack. We can even advise you on that! We are not in the travel advisor business for the money. We literally just want to help people make their bucket list vacations come true. We have been blessed to have traveled the world, and we take notes as we go to help others.
Shameless plug #2…come visit us in Montana! We would love to have you come and spend time with us. Every time of year has its own beauty and things to do. Give us a call and we’ll pencil you into Rich and Cyndi’s free bed and breakfast! The nearest airport to us is 15 minutes away – Glacier Park International Airport (FCA)…so it is very doable!
Our thoughts and prayers are with each one of you during this Christmas season and into 2026. We would love to hear from you! Give us a call sometime so we can catch up!
Much love,
Rich & Cyndi Messina
Rich 402-659-2012
Cyndi 402-686-0975 http://www.messinamusings.com
Crown Jewel Cruise Planners 406-215-2115 http://www.crownjewelcruiseplanners.com
Messina Musings 