Dear Family and Friends: With everything that has
happened in 2008 we decided to take a different approach to our annual
holiday letter. This year our missive moves into a web-based format
that allows for more photos than ever! Also, we created a link to an archive of
all our previous holiday letters for those who want to re-visit our
adventures of years past. We are always amazed at the changes,
especially in our kids, from one year to the next. After a relatively
uneventful first six months of 2008, our family found itself caught up
in the country's economic turmoil when we decided to buy a house in
July. Thinking our old townhouse would sell within a few months, we
moved to a place we chose so that Steven (12/30/95) and Emily (3/14/98)
would no longer have to share a bedroom. As we write, in January 2009,
we are still paying two mortgages, and from the extremely slow trickle
of people who have looked at our townhouse, we fear we may be in this
leaky boat for some time to come. The good news is, we love our new
place! The house, only a mile or so from our old place, is surrounded
lush woodlands and is only 50 yards or so away along a paved walking
path from a beautiful lake where we can fish and sail. In the summer we
feel like we live in a treehouse as we look out every window into green
leaves. In winter, when the leaves are all gone, we have quite a nice
view of the lake!
Fortunately, before we
realized how deep a financial hole we were in, Anne and the kids were
able to enjoy a trip to Brussels and Paris for the kids to reconnect
with their old school chums and their birthplace; and with Tony we all
had a wonderful week in Maine at a cottage Tony's sister Donna rents
every summer, and some time in California with Anne's family.
Tony has been the
salvation of the family by working 60-hour weeks for most of the year.
Together with cutting back our expenses to the bone, Tony's many hours
on the job for Northrop-Grumman have kept us afloat financially. The
silver lining has been that the kids spend more time at home with us and
playing with each other instead of at extra-curricular activities, and
we have gotten creative (and eco-friendly!) with postage-saving ideas
like this electronic letter!
Of the things that stayed
the same, one has been, thankfully, our families. Anne's mom Jean (aka
Nana) turned a happy and pretty-healthy age 80 and the Stenzel clan
(Anne's three brothers and their families) gathered in San Clemente in
August to celebrate. At year's end we enjoyed having Tony's sister and
brother and their spouses join us to celebrate a family Christmas in our
new home. We are so fortunate to have such a warm and interesting
group of relatives that we are always thrilled to spend time with!
We hope you enjoy this new
way of sharing our year with you. We always enjoy hearing from you and
we thank the many friends and family members who have already sent us
paper and electronic greetings this holiday season. Wishing everyone a
happy and healthy 2009!
All our love, The Barbaros |