2004

2004, as you'll read below, marked the first Christmas card of the Modern Era and incorporated commentary on the whole fam. It also marks the first use (probably) of little decorative border graphics on the page. I used the little squiggly Christmas Trees. Up until this point I'd been printing on paper that included a decorative border of twinkling lights or presents or santas or something. Now, I'd let my toner cartridge do the heavy lifting. It was a bold choice for the laser printing connoisseur of the time.

Christmas 2004

Hello from the Newest Branch of the Martins,

Our new family hopes your old family is having the happiest of holiday seasons this year. Along with our best wishes, please enjoy this trendy, black and white holiday shot of us to stick up on your wall with tape, take down, stack up, guiltily leaf through a couple times and then finally throw away in February.

For those of you who are familiar with my normal Christmas letter, you are in for a big treat this year. My letter has turned into OUR letter! That’s right, for those of you not already in the know, Rob and Jean were married this June 18. We have a daughter, Ali, who is now 9 years old (uh, she was a premie?) who you all met on last year’s card when we were engaged (Jean and I, that is). So this year, you’ll hear from each of us! And, for the rest of the year you can wonder if we actually wrote our parts or if Rob just made them all up… Buddy the dog and Biskits the cat didn’t make the cut for the card picture this year, but they continue to do as well as could be expected for dogs and cats living together.

Well, this has been a phenomenally busy year. I know it seems like I say that every Christmas letter, but that’s mainly because I copy and paste most of it from year to year. Aside from moving into our new home and combining our two households (mainly involving moving Rob’s stuff into the basement), the planning and execution of our wedding in Leesburg and honeymoon in Mexico, we had the trip to Arizona for Chad and Sharon’s wedding, Rob did 12 motorcycle rallies with Two Wheel Radio, we had a wonderful beach week down in the Outer Banks, got Ali situated in her new school, made it through Jean’s 40th Birthday in November at a little inn in Virginia., and lived through (so far) the construction, de-construction, re-construction and landscaping projects at our new house… the only way it could have been busier would be if we had a baby! So, like idiots, we’re trying that too.

Let’s start out with the Wedding! June 18 was the date. It was a balmy 97 degrees with a relative humidity of about 312%. The barometer was steady, because it had rusted solid as a result of the heat and humidity. But yet we persevered in having what was arguably the best wedding we’ve ever both been in. Thanks so much to all of you who attended and had fun and helped us out so much that week. Our families were so helpful, we loved having you all there, and we were so glad everyone had fun together, and that there were no fist-fights – well, few fist-fights – and that no animals were harmed in the filming of the wedding. We got a few great wedding photos, and one of them is our card, so that’s your preview of our album. We decided to forego a traditional wedding album, and we got all our pictures on CD instead. But only a week after the wedding, we found out someone had ripped illegal MP3s of our wedding pictures onto Napster, and we received none of the royalties (if you don’t get that one, ask one of your kids). **<Now, if you don't get it, ask one of your parents>**Hopefully we’ll have them up online sometime for you to look at them. Our honeymoon was great. I’ll let Jean tell you all about the things we did together on our honeymoon.

Jean: …

Ahem, well I suppose she’s still too choked up with love to speak. Anyway, in August we had a week’s vacation in the Outer Banks with our friends the Longs. You know, cause we hadn’t had enough vacation yet. We had an awesome time, arriving 5 days after one hurricane and hustling home 3 days before another one got there.

You all remember Ali from last year when her name was Alex. She’s still the same sweet and wonderful girl, she just now wears a burqa. No, actually there are 3 kids in her new 4th grade class named Alexander/ra so the boy is called Alex, the other girl is Lexi and Ali is, well, Ali. She loves her new school, and we are very happy with it and with her progress. Ali decided this year she’d very much like to go to JMU, my alma mater, when she is college age. That thought makes me feel very proud and very, very old. She played softball again this fall, and did well, steadily improving. This year she was in the league where the girls pitch. It is riveting sports entertainment, whose motto “Don’t miss a single Walk!” says it all. Her latest project has been teaching herself to do cartwheels and practicing them about 25 times a day at every opportunity. She’s getting good! But here’s more from the mouth of the babe herself.

Ali: HI….I can do a cartwheel! Have a  Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Believe me, she usually talks more when I’m not typing what she says… I have been keeping myself busy this fall with our extensive Landscaping Project and House Reconstruction. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that the good job growth numbers in the Washington, DC area can be directly attributed to our house. Since the delivery of the house in April, we’ve had several bouts with a wet basement, missing and dying sod, they dug up and resealed the whole foundation, it’s been an interesting ordeal. While we’ve had nothing really major wrong, it’s the string of sometimes-related little things that take forever to get addressed in any new house. It’s been much more of an ordeal for Jean who hates the clutter and mess they create than for Rob and Ali who thrive in that environment. Since I’ve had a lot of free time, the builder and contractors really love me, and the constant attention I demand from them. I think it really makes them feel wanted when I stand watching from behind them, coffee cup in hand, pointing out wherever they miss a spot… To add to the confusion, we undertook a huge landscaping project with a back patio, pergola, fence, stone wall and a bunch of plants, of course. It has been a lot of fun to plan, design, and install, but has taken longer than expected (normal) and came in a liiiiitle over budget (of course) and created LOTS more clutter. Jean can tell you all about it.

Jean: …

She’s apparently too flushed with admiration at my excellent project management skills to comment, so we’ll move on. While I’ve been working the outside, Jean has been busy in her free time on the inside of the house. Her projects, however, tend to actually make the house look *better* right away, and that just ticks me off. She’s done all of her projects at the same time she’s been doing her full-time job at Accenture. Jean has been steadily taking on more responsibility at work. She’s working directly for the guy in charge of all of Accenture’s government work in the US in one role, and working with the guys in charge of Accenture’s work on intelligence agencies in another role. If that sounds like two full time jobs, well Jean would agree with you there. She’s doing really well as a Senior Manager, and has the support of everyone she works with, and I’m proud of her and happy to support her here on the homefront.

Our most recent little project has been trying to have a baby. And it’s more than just the constant rehearsals we used to do as newlyweds, we’re actually serious now. We’ve been discussing a few scenarios with our work situation. Jean’s job is going really well. It’s close by and she’s able to work from home often. The stay-at-home mom gig could be appealing, though, as she’s always worked, even when Ali was little. So I may be looking for work if we decide Jean will stay home, or I may be doing more house-husbandry (which does not involve getting the house to have babies) in support of Jean’s career, about which she waffles between “going for it” and “getting the hell out of it”. I’ll probably continue with Two Wheel Radio either way in some form or other. It has been a great company for the last couple of years. Sales have been strong, triple last year. From this point on, we should be able to distribute our products through other rally retailers and through the internet. So I don’t have to be on the road, and I can do it part time while either working or taking care of Ali and the house and any babies that pop out. Our builders and landscaping contractors have offered to help me look for something that will be 60-80 hours per week, preferably with a lot of travel.

Well that’s about it for our exciting news. We wish all of you the best this holiday. We were so thankful to have all of you as friends and family and to have seen so much of all of you this year. Our little family is so precious to me and all of you are as well. I look forward to 2005 and beyond with more excitement and hope than I’ve felt in memory, and we look forward to sharing it with you all. Wow, that was mushy. Luckily I can pass that part off as something Jean or Ali wrote. You won’t know the difference.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everybody! **<We all signed this one by hand. Aly loved it>**

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