My apologies to non Christian friends for the wish on the card. Usually I pick the Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings wish but I didn’t like those choices this year so I ended up with the standard Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And yet I’m still sending it to my non Christian friends in hopes they will forgive my insensitivity and understand my real wish is to show I’m thinking of them

And here’s just what you’ve been waiting for. The letter. Our version of the cheesy, my kids are perfect, holiday letter. I love getting them and since there are so many people I like to stay in touch with but just am not able to on a regular basis the letter does serve to update on the very basics of what the family is up to. And yes, it is all the good stuff but really, who wants to read in the holiday letter that my son is in trouble at school for fighting and my daughter is wild beyond belief. They look like angels in the picture so that’s my story and don’t make me change it.

Here goes:

Happy Holidays!

Since I took last year off from sending out Christmas cards I decided to make a big effort to not only get the cards out, but get them out in a timely manner. So here you go…a brief rundown on each of us here in San Jose.

Alana is 7 and in the second grade. Her favorite things are drawing and singing. She’s having trouble deciding if she should be a rock star or an astronaut when she grows up (we should all have these troubles). The latest decision is to be a rock star first and then go to the moon. Second grade is her favorite grade so far (as was first grade and kindergarten at the time) and she enjoys math at school. She’s a peanut with a big personality and had a great time acting in her first play with The Ch!ldren’s Mus!cal Theater, San Jose.

Austin is 11 and in sixth grade. Middle school. I still wonder how that happened because he was a baby just a minute ago. His latest passions are singing in a barbershop style chorus group and playing tennis. The chorus group is a wonderful experience for him because he is the youngest member but all the men like having him around. It is like having 50 grandpas, 30 dads and 10 older brothers for one night a week. He is playing tennis quite a bit and thinks he might want to play in tournaments. He still likes performing in plays when he gets the chance. He is definitely (his words) going to be an astronaut when he grows up (I’m not sure why we have all this sudden interest in space in my family).

The past year was one of big changes for Gary (and all of us, really). After six months of unemployment (thanks economy), he got a call from an ex coworker whose husband was starting a phone company in Santa Barbara. He went down for two weeks of work and now has a full time job. The good part is that he is employed and the company is doing well. The bad part is that it is in Santa Barbara which, for anyone unfamiliar with California geography, is a four plus hour drive away from San Jose. He has an apartment down there and commutes home on the weekends. He’s getting lots of ‘reading’ time in listening to books on tape.

Not much has changed for me. Other than ferrying the kids around and keeping up with the house stuff, I’m doing bookkeeping for two clients. Hopefully I will be working a bit more in the coming year. I continue to volunteer at the kids’ school, with the theater when the kids are doing plays and with a volunteer league here in town. All of this keeps me pretty busy.

We didn’t go on any exciting trips this year. The kids and I did get back to Texas to visit some of our friends there but otherwise it has been small weekend vacations around California. Having Gary living in a resort town makes it easy to get the feel of a vacation even if we are just visiting dad.

Best wishes for an enjoyable holiday season and peace in the New Year.

From all of us,