Rather than work on my book yesterday, I decided to write a holiday letter. Here it is, for your enjoyment:
Dear Friends and Family,
We thought this year we would start a tradition of writing an annual holiday letter. However, if this proves to be a semi-annual or once in a decade tradition, try not to hold it against us. This was quite an eventful year for us. We had milestones in our personal, business, and spiritual lives. We thought we’d share a little bit about the last year with you.
First, our little son, Connor was baptized last February. We were all delighted, except perhaps Connor, who did not enjoy having a stranger pour cold water over his head. We managed to escape the church before any real crying began, so we’re going to go ahead count that as a positive event. His first birthday was also a semi-success. We celebrated with a large luau, complete with leis and Hawaiian food. All the adults in attendance had a wonderful time; especially some of our male family members who enjoyed our twin pull tap/kegerator. Connor barely recognized that it was his birthday other than the fact he grew annoyed by the dozens of people getting in the way of him watching Kung Fu Panda and he was allowed to have as many pancakes as he wanted.
Aside from these milestones, Connor has had a relatively calm year. Or at least as calm as a toddler can have. Connor is an extremely active little guy, being roughly the size of a three year old, with the physical agility to match. This makes for a fun combination since our little “caveman” is mostly communicating via grunt. He has fully grasped the ancient concept of might makes right. A friend of ours likened having a toddler to going everywhere with a drunk. We would go so far as to say going anywhere with Connor is like traveling with an angry foreign dictator, in which all communication is a series of threats, followed by bargaining, finally appeasement.
In other news, Brian has finally rejoined the land of the living, after he spent the last year and a half making the game Call of Duty: Black Ops. In case you missed the massive media campaign surrounding the game, complete with promo Jeeps and star-studded commercials, it’s one of the biggest games of the year. We’re happy to have him back with the family and we are taking him slowly through a re-emergence program to help him cope with life outside of the office. On the plus side, we did enjoy a trip to Amsterdam, courtesy of Activision, in order to promote the game. And though Brian doesn’t speak one-word of Dutch, we’re certain the hour-long interview he gave to the Dutch media was a success.
Lastly Erin and the dogs, Penny and Dodger, are enjoying life in sunny Huntington Beach. She and the dogs thought it was best to bring the rest of the family along with them, and purchased a home on the edge of the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Erin is happy to report that Penny is doing very well after her knee-surgery in the spring, for which her neurotic recovery was one of the most stressful and harrowing experiences in all the Andersons’ lives. Also, Dodger is now receiving allergy shots for his hay fever, but the doctors have informed Erin that there is nothing they can do to help with his willful idiocy. Erin splits what little free time she has between the Angry Birds iPhone game, reading trashy fantasy novels on her Kindle and sometimes writing on her blog (mrserinanderson.wordpress.com). She is now in the process of writing a young adult novel of her own. Since she is primarily writing during naptimes and after bedtime, you can look for this novel to hit shelves sometime in 2028, after Connor goes to college.
All in all, life is good at the Anderson household and we hope it’s the same for you!
Happy Holidays! With joy and affection, Erin, Brian, Connor, Penny, and Dodger
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