Our 2004 Holiday Letter

Here you are, opening mail when you've got a million other things you should probably be doing. Do you really have time to read this? There's nothing much in this letter, so you might as well, put it down, and get on to the phone bill.

Honest, there's not much more here but the usual droning about Scott in kindergarten, Alli in preschool, Brent at Synopsys, and Julie as a full-time mom. Okay, there was the night Julie cooked a fabulous goulash with the real Hungarian paprika. Besides that, the year was unremarkable, so you're better off stopping right here.

Okay, you asked for it: Scott graduated Stanford (preschool), loves Ms Block (his new teacher), practices penmanship, digs dinosaurs, runs railroads, goads Guinea Pigs, links Lego's, and frolics with his friends. Alli started Stanford, flicks Frisbees, pets puppies, sings songs, comforts the crying, plays pretend, and does everything by herself (don't try to help her!). Julie redecorates rooms, quiets quarrels, taxis tykes, room-parents kindergarten, and generally keeps everything from flying apart. Brent prints pictures, plays politics, pretends to program, plans perambulations, and generally does whatever seems amusing at the time.

More? Our family skied Sun Valley, dinosphered Indianapolis, museumed Manhattan, loped Wyoming, and meandered Morro Bay. We visited Happy Hollow, the beach, the Zoo, the Aquarium, the Discovery Museum, the Exploratorium, Chevy's, the Jungle, Chuck E Cheese, Bamboola, Dave and Buster's, Great America and Golfland so many times they've all joined in our minds into a single blur of screaming kids and spilt apple juice.

In retrospect, we might someday say these were the best times in our lives. How would we know? Would they be filled with the mundane, but sprinkled with the sublime? In the best times, how often would you take out the trash for every brilliant beam of happiness you see flash across your child's face?

You've almost made it to the end. As reward, a joke: Q: Why does Santa wear red underwear? A: He's a man - he did all his laundry in one load.

We wish you all the best in the coming year.