Dear Friends and Family,

It is with great joy that we write our Christmas letter this year! As many of you already know, we look forward to welcoming a new baby into our lives this spring. We feel so very blessed and happy to be adopting a child - and will bring him home from the hospital this May. (Yes, it's a BOY.!!!) We promise to keep you all updated as we move ahead - and of course, provide tons of pictures when the time comes! For now, we only have these pictures. One of them is a little x-rated!! (tee hee!)

This year has been full of surprise and wonder for us. One of the biggest surprises, (literally!!) was Charlie. Our cute little Christmas puppy from last year, grew and grew and GREW - into a 100 lb. hound dog!! He's much (much!) bigger than we anticipated - but he's the happiest dog ever - a total sweetheart and huge clown! And he must be very handsome, because total strangers stop us on the street all the time to ask - What kind of dog is that??? Everyone loves him - with the exception of Casey, who has been less than thrilled to share his house with such a big lug. (Don't worry - he lets Charlie know who's boss!) Here are some before and after pix of Charlie.

With our growing family, we needed more room! We looked for and found the cutest two-bedroom house in Mountain View . Although moving twice in one year was a huge headache - we hope and plan to stay put for awhile now. This is a great place and we couldn't be happier!

Here are some pictures of our new home.

It's a bit off the beaten path - which we love, but we've since added a second car to make life a little easier. After careful consideration, we chose a true California car - a 1968 VW Squareback. She's a great little car - and perfect for hauling the huge hound dog around! Lulu looks like this:

Patrick is still loving his job at Electronic Arts. During the past year, he finished his work on James Bond and The Godfather - and was promoted to a great position on the SIMS team. If you have a broadband internet connection and want to see a demonstration of Patrick's recent work, you can click this link. (Be prepared to wait about 10 minutes - this download can run in the background while you read.)

The SIMS most recent game is called PETS - and to celebrate, EA held a dog show for employee pets. We are very proud to say that Charlie won first place in the large breed category!!

Our SIMS family ->

I'm still doing massage and teaching at the National Holistic Institute in San Jose . I enjoy my work a lot - but will be leaving soon to begin my dream job as a mom. We feel really lucky that I'll be able to stay home and take care of our little one full-time.

I'm still coaching with Girls on the Run in East Palo Alto - and hope to continue doing that part-time through early May. Each season, the girls train to do a 5k run in Golden Gate Park As you can see, Patrick and Charlie were on hand to help out! Charlie is my daily running partner now - but Patrick and I did our traditional Bridge to Bridge Run in October - and Run Wild over Thanksgiving weekend. Here's us trotting along.

We always feel so lucky to live in such an amazing place, where we can enjoy such natural beauty right out our back door. We love hiking and were able to do quite a bit this year - mostly in Muir Woods and the elk preserve at Tomales Point:

My friend Heather got married this past February at Ocean Beach in San Francisco - and in April we all spent a fun weekend in Minnesota celebrating with family and friends back home.

We're looking forward to kicking off the new year with a visit from Mom and Dad C. in January. We have lots of exciting things planned, including a 10-mile hike. hope they're up for it!! And although we think it's quite chilly here right now, we're pretty sure it'll seem warm compared to Wisconsin . Sadly, our blood has thinned considerably and we're fairly certain we wouldn't survive a Midwestern winter at this point! -- Although we miss you all terribly, especially this time of year. Click here to find out what our weather is like today.

We're thinking of you and sending you warm wishes of the season! We hope this holiday finds everyone healthy and happy. We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Peace, Love and Joy!