Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas! We hope you are all enjoying the warmth of the season wherever you are! This year, Patrick and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. It's been a great adventure, filled with tremendous joy – some sorrows and challenges – and much love. We are rich with good friends, a loving and supportive family and a beautiful child whom we adore. And in our tenth year together, we are blessed with a home of our own.

Yes - we bought a house!! This spring we found a great place just east of San Diego, in La Mesa. We're walking distance from a quaint downtown village with shops, cafes and a weekly farmers market. La Mesa hosts events throughout the year like classic car shows, a fall festival and a Christmas parade.

Our house needed some work – and we tackled a few major projects right away. We knocked out a couple of walls to open up the living/dining area, dry-walled over the wood paneling, and installed hardwood floors throughout. Renovation immediately after moving house was stressful and chaotic – but we’re really happy with the ways things turned out! We still have plenty of things to keep us busy, but we’re looking forward to doing them together. One of the reasons we chose this house was because we knew we could make into a home.

The best part of the house is the yard. It’s big and rugged and exactly the kind of place where imaginations run wild! Needless to say, Sam and Charlie LOVE it! It’s also a blank slate for future projects like a garden and a sundeck. And of course, we love the pool! It made us a little nervous at first, but installing a safety fence was one of our first priorities when we moved in. It’s given us peace of mind for Sam – as well as Charlie, who walked right in (and needed to be rescued) on our first night in the new house! Sam had a great time in the water and by the end of the summer, he was able to swim the length of the pool all by himself!

While the new house took up a lot of our energy – we still had time to enjoy life in Southern California. In July, we all attended Comic Con International, San Diego’s annual comic book festival.

Sam recently discovered Star Wars in a big way – so this was the perfect opportunity to see some of his favorite characters up close.

Another big event for Sam (and Patrick!) was a visit to Legoland. a huge theme park with elaborate lego displays and interactive rides and games.

Sam loves hanging out at the park with his best friend, Dara.

We still enjoy visiting the San Diego Zoo, the Model Railroad Museum and the World Beat Center, where Sam participates in a weekly African drumming class.

We went hiking at Torrey Pines and Los Penasquitos Canyon and enjoyed a late summer camping trip in Julian. We found a year-round ice skating rink, just a few miles from our house – and we took Sam skating for the first time this fall.

For Halloween, we all got dressed up to enjoy Family Day in Balboa Park.

We were happy to host quite a few visitors this year! My friend Heather was the first guest in the new house – giving me a much needed break from the stress of renovation! In June, Bob and Dianne came for a visit – which included many trips to Home Depot, a whole lot of paint, and thankfully some fun afternoons by the pool! We were blessed with a long visit from Heidi – who came to stay with us for awhile and enjoy the California sunshine. And – thanks to a work conference nearby – Paul and Julie were able to spend a weekend with us in October. It’s always so nice to see friends and family! Please come visit us anytime!! Here's Sam with his Auntie Heidi ready for a day at the zoo.

Patrick continues to enjoy his job working in a fun environment with smart, creative people. 

Trion Worlds released their first game this year – RIFT – which is doing incredibly well. The game Patrick's team is working on will be out sometime next year. He's also teaching part-time at the Art Institute in San Diego. When he's not making games or teaching classes on how to make them, Patrick has been indulging Sam in the finer points of Spore. If you're reading this using Chrome or Firefox, check out this 3d web page Patrick made for him to display his creatures. Sam also has fun building virtual train tracks on Patrick's computer using a web application designed just for him.

I'm still enjoying my time with Sam – watching him learn and grow every day. It's been a really rewarding experience! I'm also looking forward to attending our neighborhood book club. And I'm hoping to dedicate more time to writing this year. I've been exploring some creative outlets and plan to participate in a writing group starting in January.

As this year comes to a close, we are looking forward to a visit to Northern California. We're leaving Christmas Day – as soon as all the wrapping paper has been ripped off the presents - heading to Newman to see Sam's birth family. From there, we'll go to Oakland to see our dear friends Heather and Brian. We can't wait to visit some of our old haunts in the Bay Area!

It's been a great year! As we close for now – we wish all of you peace, comfort, joy – and much, much love.

Happy Holidays from here to there – across the miles, be they many or few.

Michelle, Patrick, Sam and Charlie