the epistle

When I was a kid Christmas cards would arrive, often accompanied by what my parents referred to as "the epistle", a letter catching us up on all the news from the sender's little corner of the world.

It's been an eventful year at the threedogsandababy house so I thought it might be time for an epistle of our own. I didn't have the guts to send it though. For some odd reason, it seems perfectly fine to post it here.


This is my first attempt at a real, grown-up holiday letter so please be nice and don’t tell me that you put it into the recycling bin immediately after opening. It’s been a busy year and not everyone reads my blog. (Probably a good thing.) The most prevalent theme is CD’s travel. He made 11 trips this year. We will enjoy the frequent flyer miles and hotel rewards eventually but I hope he is able to cut back on his time away in 2007.

January: CD started his new job as Senior Software Engineer with Apple, working out of their Pittsburgh office but with a group based in Cupertino, CA. Penguin celebrated her 8th birthday.

February: Piper succumbed to an auto-immune problem at just 4 years of age. We are thankful she was ill for just a few days but miss her terribly. We created The Piper Fund for Post-mortem Research with the Clumber Spaniel Club of America in her memory, hoping to collect data that will lead to more investigation into Clumber health issues. It is going very well so far. Drop me an email if you’d like to purchase a 2007 calendar to benefit the Fund. The calendar is filled with photos of wonderful Clumbers and Piper herself graces the cover.

March: Nothing happened in March. Oh wait, we did go to Indiana for the Clumber national specialty, but I’m probably trying to block that week from my memory. It’s all kind of a blur since Oliver didn’t sleep much and I had the board and general meetings to attend to. CD shared the driving with me but spent the week in Dallas for IETF.

April: Oliver celebrated his first birthday, or rather, we celebrated surviving our first year as parents. Within weeks of his birthday he weaned, walked, and started sleeping through the night. It was a very good month.

May: CD had a work trip to Boston so Oliver and I went along, spending a few days with Kate in Spencer, MA and a day in Williamstown, before reuniting with CD and heading to Maine for Memorial Day weekend. Needless to say, walking and talking Oliver was a huge hit with the family.

June: Chewy celebrated his 12th birthday. He’s doing very well for his age. He sleeps a lot and doesn’t hear very much but still enjoys life, as long as his meals appear at the right time and he gets his tummy rubs.

July and August: CD traveled a lot, but was home long enough. Baby Daboo v2.0, the girl version, is expected to arrive in mid-April. I finally found out what CD was working on for Apple, thanks to Steve Jobs’ keynote at WWDC. Working at Apple is a little like working for an intelligence agency. Now that CD’s project is public and open source he can talk a bit about what he is doing without having to kill me.

September and October: CD got the news that he would not be asked to re-locate to Cupertino so I spent most of my time looking at houses. Real estate is fun! We found a house we like in a great location and closed on Halloween. Demolition on the kitchen, including began almost immediately. We are also gutting two, possibly three, bathrooms, removing windows, making other windows and doors larger, etc. Everything should be done by early March, just in time for me to be entirely worthless during the move. I will spend some of my maternity leave sending out change of address / baby announcement cards.

November: Leaving the house renovations in very good hands, we visited CD’s family in England. Oliver liked London Eye and the Zoo, but most of all he liked the bunnies that live with Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Sally, Caroline and Laura.

December: We are spending lots of time deciding on materials and fixtures for the new house. Our dear friend Jenni, who sang at our wedding, flew in from Omaha to help us with the decorating. All those off-white walls are overwhelming to me. Jenni is saving me from committing too many crimes of interior fashion. Alas, she had only 47 hours to accomplish the task. (Sounds like a bad reality show!) CD made trip number 11 just before Christmas, and nearly didn’t make it back in time to go to Maine for the holiday. I had not been there for Christmas since 1997. Other than the lack of snow, it was a great trip and Oliver had a wonderful time with all the relatives.

We hope all is well where you are and wish you all the best in 2007.