So after posting on Facebook about whether holiday letters are totally annoying or just a little annoying, I wrote a holiday letter to go into the grand production that is my Christmas cards. (The cards usually include: hand written address, hand stamped stamp on envelope, stamped return address, Christmas letter, picture and personal note to recipient. I sent out 80 this year. I have already purchased next year’s Christmas cards.)
Well, Facebook told me that other people’s Christmas letters were annoying and braggy, but that mine were entertaining, charming and practically a public service. This was good, since regardless of the outcome of the poll I was going to send them. Of course, don’t think I wasn’t thinking ahead. I KNEW that my Christmas letter was as good a prewritten blog post! Win!
So with no further ado, for those of you who did NOT get a Christmas card from me this year, here is my Christmas letter:
Christmas 2010
Dear Friends,
February found a big change in our family. After over 7 years with B Applications, I felt ready for some new challenges. On the 22nd of February, I started in a new role with XYZ Corporation. On March 1st, Millipore was acquired by ABC Corporation. Surprise! It’s been a wild ride since then. I’ve moved from programming, to project management, to business analysis. I’ve gone, in one year, from a company of 17 people to a company of over 40,000 worldwide. I wanted to grow professionally – I’ve gotten that in spades! So far, I’m really enjoying it!
Changing my job had some other effects. Sadly Abuela — the woman who took care of Grey and Thane since Grey was 2 months old — was right next my old job. She was not anywhere near my new job. So with sad hearts, we said goodbye. Grey and Thane started going to the YMCA in our home town, along with many of their best neighborhood friends.
My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding this summer. For our honeymoon, we traveled to Greece and visited every Byzantine church in Athens (and a few that were actually Episcopalian). For our 10th anniversary, we went a little further East, to the ancient city of Istanbul. It was fantastic. We wandered the labyrinthine streets where the palace had once been, stood in the center of Justinian’s Hippodrome, climbed the walls of the Fortress of Europe, walked under the high vaulted domes of Hagia Sophia, sat on the rocks of the Bosphorus watching a continent’s worth of shipping vessels and learned to love aubergine.
Grey turned five this fall. It’s amazing the difference a year makes. He’s now a very active reader and particularly loves the Owly books. In addition to preschool, he’s spent a year doing aikido and has earned his yellow stripe. He’s taking swimming lessons on Saturdays, and on Mondays he’s taking a cooking class that seems to specialize in the gooey and sweet. There’s still plenty of leftover time for running around, playing on his beloved “screens”, coloring, building with Legos and playing with his friends.
Thane is two, with all that means. After getting ear tubes last February, his language abilities have just exploded. He talks all the time, with amazing fluency, audibility and persistence. (That’s a nice way of saying the kid is never quiet.) His primary passions are cars (especially emergency vehicles) and dinosaurs. Thanks to Jane Yolen’s “How Do Dinosaurs…” books, his favorite dinosaurs include Pachycephalasaurus, Tapejara and Neovenator.
It’s hard to capture a full year in one page. The boys and I went to California
for 4 days to see my grandmother. We went camping in New Hampshire 4
times. Adam has continued to grow professionally at his job.
The cats are both still fat and lazy.
We hope that you and your families also had a year of
growth, fun and joy together with another one to come!
The section above was a PITA to format. There was a Christmas tree at the bottom of the stationary.
Love, Us
My Truant Pen 