Greetings  friends, family and random internet readers – welcome to our 2014 open Christmas letter. I’ve struggled for weeks to write this because (as long time readers will remember) my old cat Ruka was always responsible for handling this for me. Sure she was surly and uncooperative but she did it and all I had to do was buy stamps.

In the spirit of the late great Ruka – Feliz Navidad!

This year some really good stuff happened – Lucy let me cut her hair, Jason brewed some really good beer and I finally learned how to spell “definitely”.

Also some not good stuff happened – Ruka died, Lucy once got a splinter stuck so far in her foot that we nearly had to amputate to get it out – this has instilled a deep fear of wood in her.

Highlights include a wonderful grown-up vacation that I got to take with my favorite BFF where we explored and drank our way through New York City and small towns in the Poconos. Lucy, Jason & I got to spend two great weeks together – one in Maine and one in North Carolina with our respective parents.

And we have managed to get our house (that was still very new last Christmas) in order. We bought new furniture and planted a cherry tree. We even bought a new car to make the driveway look fancier.

This has been a great year for Lucy and there is a part of me that wants to keep her forever four years old. Nothing can match her enthusiasm or her despair – whether happy or sad she throws herself 100% in to whatever it is. She is so excited for Christmas she can hardly sit still – she got the same way for every major (and not so major) holiday this year.

Jason is doing well – working on his twelfth year at the major telecommunications corporation that employees him, he continues to manage things I do not fully understand. This year he got really really good at mowing grass and shoveling snow – and will caution anyone who listens never to buy house on a corner lot.

I received good news just recently – I have been offered a finance manager position in a well-respected nonprofit organization which is all I can tell you for now since I don’t start my new job until January 12^th (I need to save some good information for next year’s newsletter) but in the meantime I am bidding adieu (for the second time) to the University that has supported my for many many years – it’s both lamentable and exciting. I am ready for change!

Here are some random pictures which if I had my shit together would have made up our Christmas cards and been mailed to all of you (well, not you random internet browser). Enjoy and I hope you all have a safe and happy new year!