Hello Everyone –

It has been an eventful year and we thought that this would be the year – the year we finally get a holiday letter out!!!

We are slowly crafting the life that we want to live.  Right now, as Alisa writes this letter Paul is racking our cabernet sauvignon & zinfandel wines.  We decided to obtain fresh varietal grape juice this September from a California vineyard and try our hands at winemaking where we have more complete control than the other types of grape wines we have made in the past.  Cabernet will have to age for a couple of years before it is ready to drink – so ask it how it turns out in two Decembers. 

We are developing a business plan to open a winery.  We have discovered that it is no easy feat.  Licensing must be obtained on the federal, state, and city level.  For now, we are carefully perfecting our recipes – so far, strawberry, watermelon, and cranberry wines are the ones we have been most pleased with.  However, we are open to try making wine out of almost anything – from kiwis to tomatoes.  (If you have any ideas of wines you would like us to try to create, just let us know!)  We have come up with a name for our future winery, “Rubber Duck Wines”.  It seems very appropriate, since the exclusive winemaking community does not take fruit wines seriously, we decided we would be a little tongue-in-cheek as well.  Paul is taking his calling as the “Chef for Drunks” very seriously.  He has created some amazing recipes for hard lemonade, cinnamon schnapps, and a lemon beer.  Let us know if you are interested in trying any of these delights. 

Working with fermentation has got us interested in other types of food preservation.  Last night we embarked on our first attempt to make sauerkraut and in about six months we plan to make pickles by submerging cucumbers in brine.  Our garden and yard is finally truly flourishing.  We discovered that the key to a productive garden is regular water, and the only way to get regular water is to put everything on automated timers.  This year we added 4 more trees to our orange & grapefruit trees: lemon, lime, apple, and banana.  Next year we hope to start our own small vineyard.  We are nearly done with the soil preparations.

Our computer business has been taking off this year.  Alisa has had to bring in a lady to help with the kids and house three days a week to keep up with that and the music teaching.  Paul continues as the IT Administrator for a local three office dermatology practice.  He has to deal with office politics, but over all it is a pretty decent place to work.  In his “spare” time he runs jobs for our own computer company and has accomplished a major feat – shedding 200 pounds in less than a year!  Alisa thinks he looks great.  A little over a year ago he went to a very capable surgeon in Tijuana and had a lapband placed, which has been a very helpful tool. 

The kids…oh, the kids!  We love them and at the same time they drive us crazy.  Chelsea is the apple of her Daddy’s eye.  She bats her blue eyes, follows her brothers around and is closer to saying words we can understand every day.  Her big brothers are usually very kind to her, and bring her food and sometimes play with her.  Chelsea has learned from them to say “Hi” and wave her hand, which she uses over and over again throughout the day.  She loves our kitty Rogue very much, and since the cat naps on her changing table, she rolls over and gives the kitty hugs.  Christopher is our observer.  He likes to stand back and figure out new situations.  He is very loyal and likes telling Zachary, “Nah, nah, nah, nah! (No, no, no, no!)”.  Christopher likes putting things in order.  We will find things around the house arranged “just so” and know that Christopher was there.  He can swing on the big kid swing.  Today, he helped Mommy put ornaments on the Christmas tree.  Zachary, on the other hand, was more interested in pulling all of ornaments off of tree and trying to climb into the tree.  He is our firecracker.  There is never a dull moment with Zachary around.  He is very verbal, very social, and constantly babbles phrases – some of which we can understand, such as “I wanna ‘nana”, and “What’d’you do?”, and “the car go”, and “alright gaba”.  (No, we have no idea what “gaba” and “gabi” mean to Zachary, but he says those words all the time.)  Zachary tries to ride our cookie-dough colored dog like a horse, but he hasn’t managed more than 3 seconds of success at that yet.  Both boys love Sesame Street and Baby Einstein videos, and Mommy & Daddy are very grateful for that because it makes coordinating our menagerie just a little bit easier. 

We find that we work too hard, but slowly we are finding the pace we want to take life at.  Paul has instituted morning coffee with Alisa, and we enjoy coordinating our schedules and connecting at that early hour.  We take on lots of projects and are slowly working through them – this year our front yard and back yard were put in, the outside of our master bath put in, and we have most of the fixtures installed in the inside as well.  It is done enough to start using it, and we are enjoying having our own little place to retreat from the cares of the world.  Life is busy, but good.  When we left the mormon church two years ago we didn’t quite know what to expect of our lives.  However, with our eyes open we are carving our niche in this world.

Love,

Paul, Alisa, Christopher, Zachary, and Chelsea