Holiday Letter

I do the annual holiday letter a little differently, but I think it's one of those things that fits my blog title and speaks for itself :)  I figure that its a good way to review the players of interest for this blog.

Hello to all our friends and family,

We have a kindergardener in the house and a Microsoft employee and hmmm, a happy art owner.  There have been lots of exciting developments this year!  Once again, I've reviewed the year's calendar and come up with a multiple choice quiz.  So, here's a fun review of our news for everyone!  :-)

1. This year Cameron turned:

a) six and had a party at GymStarz Gymnastics

b) sixty and perfected his waltz

c) sixteen and picked a plane as his first wheels

2. Leaving Pelago to work at Microsoft: Live Labs, Andrew has:

a) been promoted to a manger after seven months

       b) contributed a key element to the recently released application      

          (www.getpivot.com) and bought his first rollerblades

       c) not worked a single weekend day and developed a passion for    

           both absinthe and martinis

        d) learned the ropes of commuting to Bellevue instead of Seattle along with the 

            literal ropes of a local climbing gym (passing his belay test)

e) become a fan of his wife's footsie jamies or all of the above

3.After a bumpy start, Cameron has successfully worked through challenges with the help of both his Kindergarden and special education teachers and spent time outside of school:

1. perfecting his glockenspiel playing for Kindermusik class and his social skills through a nine month play-group-based curriculum
2. trying out a soccer group and attending his first day camp (he wants to go to Outdoors For All camp for 10 weeks this summer)
3. hiking, including exploring the Olympic Peninsula with the help of his new compass from the tooth fairy (two teeth lost and six wiggly so far)
4. seeing the circus, completing projects in his "office" (above his bed) or a through d

4. Rachel and Andrew took a(n):

a) idyllic, surprise, solo trip each planned by the other

b) online History Through Art course 

c) tour of both Nucor Steel and the Satsop nuclear site

      d) dip into artistic bliss with the arrival of a bronze statue / pastel painting and   

          into our their muscle reserves to climb Mt. St. Helens

      e) pause in our routines for hosting pleasures with visits from blind friends, grandparents, and our in- 

          creasingly vibrant Objectivist social group

f) coffee break on the roof or a, b, c, d and e

5. Cameron and Rachel shared two heart warming trips to Connecticut for:

a) the birth of Rachel's best friend's first child and a joint Holiday / New years celebration

b) hurricane preparedness and bonfire safety

6. Rachel relished mom-hood, her baking passion (mmm, brown butter pumpkin cupcakes with maple pecan frosting), the annual family gathering in California for Thanksgiving / Hanukah, closing the legal nursing business, becoming an aunt, and extra fun with: 

a) watching the world figure skating championships live in LA with her dad

b) writing Cameron's idiom dictionary with all sorts of goofy pictures

      c) learning cheese making is too much work, but making yogurt and  

          jerky are easy staples

      d) hopping her personal jet to sample the world's top restaurants every night

          and sleep till noon every day, or just too content with life to depart for culi   

          nary travels... yet :)

We hope you've all had a wonderful year!

Happy Holidays,

Hmmm, definitely have some figuring out to do on the formatting and pictures, but I'm improving!

These are the works of art mentioned which have so enriched our lives this year:
http://www.romanticrealism.com/jensen/futureman.php
http://www.romanticrealism.com/sparks/brandi.php