Here’s the family Christmas letter that went out with the cards (ever so slightly edited):
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
(or substitute your own winter holiday)
Hubby: Hubby continues to enjoy his job as a Master Instrumentation Technician at Genentech (http://www.gene.com), here in South City . His workload has been re-adjusted to be saner, which has helped his stress level. He continues to golf when he can, maintaining a 21 or 22 handicap and recently played his personal best nine holes with a score of 42. In January, he started a blog (http://www.andrewh.blog.com). This April, we participated in the March of Dimes’ WalkAmerica in memory of Paul, attaining “Top Walker” status by raising over $5,000 to help sick and premature babies. From time to time, hubby can be seen riding to and from work on the bicycle he bought this year. We still regularly spend time with our friends from SAND (Support After Neonatal Death), even outside the support group meetings. In November, we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary with a relaxing trip to Squaw Valley . This year was the first time we were able to spend Thanksgiving with hubby’s family, which was very special for us. Although we don’t have any official responsibilities these days, we remain active in and grateful for our church as always (It may have a new, more appropriate name, but it’s the same great church we’ve been with for a combined total of nearly 39 years! See http://www.bacc.cc.).
ERICA: In December, 2004, I picked up my knitting needles in an effort to channel my grief. Shortly thereafter, I started knitting baby hats for the Intensive Care Nursery at UCSF. When I delivered my donation in August, the box contained 73 hats of various colors and sizes. Since then, I have joined The Preemie Project (http://www.thepreemieproject.com), which provides “Bonnets, Blankets, and Booties” (and burial items) to hospitals. Through the year, I’ve made innumerable scarves, accessories, felted bags, and other items, culminating in my being a vendor at Thing One’s school holiday boutique. In November, Hubby and I were honored to speak on a panel of bereaved parents at Synergy, a nursing conference for high-risk OB nurses and neonatal nurses. We were eager to help train nurses from other hospitals to give the same care to parents of dying babies we received. My story, The Knitting, was published this month by Knitty (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/FEATtheknitting.html). If I’m not knitting, I’m probably reading knitblogs or updating my own blog (http://www.ericah.blog.com). I attend a weekly knit night, participate in several Yahoo groups, go to Curves, help in the library at school, and am the PTA Hospitality Chair, so is it any wonder I’m finally getting some grey hair? I can’t decide if I want to be Ann Coulter or Barbara Walker when I grow up.
Thing One: Thing One (7) loves second grade and is doing very well academically. She’s a natural reader; our biggest challenge with her reading is finding books that are hard enough for her but still age-appropriate. She loves her ballet class and just made her big debut as a “winkie” in the local Park & Rec production of “The Nutcracker”. Thing One’s favorite song is Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day (Really!).
Thing Two: Thing Two (4 ½) loves her Park & Rec preschool classes and her teachers, Miss Claudia and Miss Joan. She seems to be the math lover of the family and is showing strong signs of becoming a “class clown”, so kindergarten next year will be interesting. Both girls are still talking about the big family vacation we took to Disneyland over the summer and the many visits from Grandma off and on through the year. Thing Two loves cats. No, Thing Two is fanatical about cats. Please don’t give her any more toy cats; she already has too many!
JENNA (a.k.a. “The Beast”): On April 1st, Jenna (3) came for a one-night sleepover and never left. She was rescued as a puppy by Reunion Rescue (http://www.reunionrescue.com). When her last family had life changes and couldn’t keep her, we were able to do a “foster-adoption”. Having her has been a lot of work, but she has added so much to our family, and we wouldn’t trade our sweet Pit Bull/Some Kind of Cattle Dog “Lovey Dog” for anything. If Jenna had a favorite song, it would be Buy a Dog by Luce.
PAUL: He may not be here with us, but we think of him every day. His birthday was a bittersweet celebration, and his “angel day” was incredibly sad, but we continue to be grateful that God entrusted him to our family. We’re grateful for the good that has come about because of him; it makes the waves of grief just a tiny bit easier to take.
I went to go tell Thing Two something and found her like this. Thing One didn’t seem to have noticed and was still watching the movie.
We always take a picture of the four of us at some point on Christmas Day (usually before we open presents) for the “Christmas Memories” book. Today, we didn’t get around to it till after dinner time. As you can see, only half of us made it a day-long jammie day. Hubby and Thing Two eventually put clothes on. Me, as soon as my robe had been through the washer and dryer, I put it on! I love these kind of robes, and they’re getting harder to find any more.
For some dumb reason, the printer didn’t come with a USB cable, though it needed one. Hubby went to Walgreens to get one. After a looong time of fiddling with it, discovering that it could print directly from the camera, but not from the computer, he finally found the problem. The brand-new, fresh-out-of-the-box USB cable had bent pins; it was broken! So, back to Walgreens for a new one. Of course, other people had made similar Walgreens runs during the day, so they were sold out of the “better” USB cable, so he had to get the “regular” one, but now IT WORKS! Yippee! 
