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January 16, 2006

It's already half-way through January and I still haven't written that "Holiday" letter that I've been promising myself I was going to write before the end of 2005. Sooooo.... I'm taking a little more of the pressure off and abandoning further the traditional holiday letter format. What's more, I'm giving up on my goal of having a perfectly typeset web page with fancy pictures strewn about and who knows what other kinds of internet craziness. Instead, you just get me and the whatever random news I remember to throw in so that I can call this project of mine done and move on to the next one guilt free.

You feel loved don't you. I know you do.

Anyway, I really am sorry for the shoddy work, but I have an excuse and it's a doozy. I promise. It's also my first piece of news: Erin and I bought a house. We bought a house in December. Why December, you might ask? Why move a week before Christmas? Why spend one of the busiest times of the year doing the one thing that takes more time than most any other thing? I don't know. It just sort of happened. We thought hey, here's an interesting ad in the paper. And then fwoosh, we're caught up in this whirlwind of visiting houses, talking to banks, cleaning...

We spent over a week deciding whether or not this was really the house for us. As it turned out, we finally made our offer on the same night as someone else. If we'd waited one more evening, we probably would have missed the opportunity. And while, it's been a lot of work and the garage is still stuffed to the brim and boxes still lurk in most every corner, we are all very happy with the house. It already feels like home.

The house is just over 2000 square feet and sits on about half an acre of partially wooded land. It's a nice step up from the 1200 square feet of our previous home. The house was built in the mid-eighties but definitely belonged to people who were more comfortable with the fashions of the 70's. But despite some dated fixtures, it's well built and in good condition. We've got minor odd jobs to do and some voluntary updating on our wish list, but there's nothing that's so urgent that we have to give it precedence over getting settled in and comfortable. Each passing week brings us noticeably closer to where we want to be, so I know we'll get there, even if it takes us awhile yet.

I could go on for a bit describing the design of the house and how we're using it, but you'll just glaze over and skip through that section anyway. So I'll just hit the highlights. (That way you can skim them faster!) We're out of town a bit with very nice neighbors. There are a couple of little girls next door that Alison is already befriending. Outside we've got a moderately sized lawn that I think could field either a nice game of croquet or volleyball, but probably not both at the same time. Volunteers are welcome to come help test it out this summer. There's also a nice wooden deck off the back of the house that should prove quite nice for barbecues and squirrel watching. The remainder of the yard is landscaped naturally with lots of trees, shrubs, ferns, etc. Our very own tiny forest.

Inside, a nicely-sized kitchen sits in the central portion of the house. It's well designed and enjoyable to use. It may even tempt me back into the cooking I've mostly put off over the last few years. Surrounding the kitchen are the dining room, and 3 living areas that offer plenty of room for multiple activities without getting in each other's way. And finally the 3 bedrooms are in the smaller upstairs area that sits over one half of the house.

I'm very happy to finally have a guest room. Dad's already graciously come by to try it out. We even drug the spare bed out of the garage so that he didn't have to sleep on the floor. It may not be quarters fit for royalty, but they're plenty adequate for few nights rest and way cheaper than a hotel.

There is a certain irony to our move that doesn't have anything to do with the insanity of shifting everything you own from one place to another over the busy holiday season. This was also the end of a year in which we'd put a considerable amount of effort into finishing up all the major "to do's" in Erin's old house. We painted, we pruned, we organized the garage, worked on plumbing and replaced worn out electrical outlets and almond-colored light switches. Erin put the final touches on the various gardens and I even finally unpacked my last boxes of books in October. (So it took me a year.) But I'm pretty sure we would have done all of those things even if we'd anticipated moving (except I would have left the books in the boxes). I'm sure those improvements and the ones from the year before went a long way towards selling the house as quickly as we did. Erin received her offer only 4 days after putting the house on the market.

Fortunately, it wasn't just a year full of work, work, and more work. This year I was able to spend a lot more time visiting with family and catching up with a few distant friends than I generally have in the past. Notable events include two weddings in north-eastern Washington, my cousin's over the fourth of July and my brother's over labour day. Both events gave us lots of time to visit with my side of the family and also afforded us the opportunity to visit one of Erin's former high school cohorts as well as her very hospitable aunt and uncle.

In between we squeezed a family camping trip that included Erin's entire immediate family as well as my Dad. We spent 4 days in August at Spencer Spit on Lopez Island in the San Juans. The weather was perfect and there was as much walking on the beach, bicycling around the island, roasting marshmallows, getting squirted by clams, and napping in the shade as anyone could have hoped for.

As many of the people reading this already know, it's been a bit of a challenging year for my father and his health. But through a combination of stubbornness and the supportive prayers of family and friends he has managed to pull through it all. In the meantime, he's proven once again that there's still room for a little miracle now and then around this world. And while his struggles were reminding me of how fragile and unexpected life can be, the people around us were reminding me of how caring they really were. There were a number of people I was able to see or speak with that I probably wouldn't have taken the time to visit had no-one been ill all summer. This year I hope to be able to keep up some of those connections and perhaps reforge a few others, all with no-one spending any time in the hospital.

I should say that Erin and I were not the only ones having all the fun this summer. Alison's had a rather busy year, as well. She turned six this year and started the first grade. She's also been exploring the wide world of children's sports trying to figure out which things she likes the most. This year she played basketball, t-ball, soccer , and took some swimming classes. So quite a few summer evenings were spent sitting on the sidelines watching children run into each other. I'm not a huge fan of spectator sports, but it is hard to argue with the cuteness factor. It was certainly a good opportunity to play amateur photographer now and then.

Alison's final big adventure for the year was slipping and breaking her ankle on Christmas Eve while playing with her cousin's in the park. She was a brave trooper in the emergency room. Fortunately, it was just a minor fracture and she only had to spend about a week with crutches. She's still wearing a small ankle brace much of the time while she finishes healing up, but she's definitely running around at a full 100%.

And that pretty much brings our year to a close. I'd intended to include a few pictures of the years activities inside this letter. However, I'm already over a month late with this so I'm going to skip that step and just direct you to my pictures on Flickr. By default, those are displayed in the (reverse) order that I put them up. You may also view them in the (reverse) order they were taken or by subject matter.

For reasons of privacy, I have setup most of the "people" pictures so that only friends and family can see them. To view these, you'll need to log into a (free) flickr.com account and then send me an email so that I can add you to my friends and family list. For those that do not wish to create an account, I've created a guest account that you can use, so that no-one has to miss any of the goofy kid pictures. If you haven't already received the name/password in your email, let me know and I'll send them to you.

As time permits, I plan to put all of the pictures I'd like to share into my flickr account. So if you're interested in seeing them, it might be worth creating an account. If you're not... well... don't tell me. I'll be crushed!

Thanks for reading,