2004 HOLLAND FAMILY REPORT

A is for alphabet, our theme for this year. Why? Because... B is for baby! We welcomed Paul Jackson Holland ("Jackson") on May 21. He's a healthy, happy, sweet baby and we're completely in love with him. (Click here for Jackson's gallery page.) C is for CC, who spent the first half of the year pregnant and the second half learning how to be a mom. Meanwhile, she's keeping up with her stable of freelance writing clients and pursuing several new hobbies, including making baby food and learning to knit (hello, June Cleaver!). D is for David, who is still working at Wells Fargo Bank and enjoying it (as much as you can enjoy work). He's thrilled to be a dad and has even joined a gym so he can stay in shape to keep up with his son. E is for expensive, which having a baby turns out to be. (All those cute little outfits and toys really add up!) F is for family, with whom we spent a lot of time this year. We rang in 2004 with CC's family, and her parents also spent 10 days with us in May after Jackson arrived. In February, Dave organized the annual Holland Ski Trip to Lake Tahoe, which included a full complement of Hollands, a huge snowstorm, and plenty of fun. Turkey Day and Christmas were also spent with Dave's family. G is for groundstrokes: we’re still playing as much tennis as possible. H is for home projects. This year, we managed to furnish and decorate the baby’s room, build a storage loft in our garage, install central air conditioning, get a new dishwasher, fix some wiring, and replace a broken water pipe. (Okay, so we hired competent people to do most of it for us. We’ll still take the credit.) I is for Ikea, the furniture superstore that keeps us in baby decor. J is for Jackson. He’s really cute. We think we'll keep him. K is for kat. (Hey, "C" was taken!) Bobo is enjoying his nine lives and continuing his cold war with Lucky the dog. L is for Lucky, who tore the doggie equivalent of her ACL in March after playing too hard. After a very expensive surgery and a long rehabilitation, she’s as good as new. M is for milestones. It’s humbling, awe-inspiring, and entertaining watching Jackson grow! N is for newspaper. CC returned to her roots with a short contract at the San Francisco Chronicle (as a copy editor instead of reporter), but discovered that despite her anal tendencies, it wasn’t her calling. O is for overdraft protection, which is essential when you have a new mom who is both shop-happy and sleep- (and memory-) deprived. (Checkbook? Balance? What?) P is for Pilot -- Honda Pilot, that is. We bought our new "family vehicle" in January, thus officially becoming bourgeois, gas-guzzling pigs. (Sheepishly, we must admit we love it.) Q is for -- ah, heck, who cares. R is for road trips! We took two Southern California jaunts this year. Our first, in late January, was to Palm Springs, Pismo Beach, and Monterey. Our second took us to San Clemente and Newport Beach and included Jackson, who made his first surf safari with us. S is for Super Bowl Champions -- again! Yes, CC's beloved and long-suffering Patriots proved that Tom Brady is no fluke and that New England deserved its second crown in 2004. S is also for Sox -- Red Sox -- and for Series, as in World Series! What a year for Boston sports fans. T is for travel, which we don’t really do anymore now that we’re parents. So you can forget about getting any new updates from exotic locales for a while. (Can you send us postcards from your vacations instead?) U is for UPS driver, with whom we’re now on a first-name basis. Hooray for Internet shopping, the salvation of new mothers everywhere! V is for very good friends, with whom we’re blessed. Thanks to all of you who’ve shared in our trials and joys this year, provided support (and hand-me-downs!) to stressed-out new parents, and graciously overlooked our crankiness, flakiness, forgetfulness, rudeness, and other -nesses too numerous to name. W is for wet, which seems to be a frequent state for Jackson. Who knew there were so many bodily fluids to contend with? Add in his first foods (mushed and strained everything) and you get one soggy son. X is for x-tremely long, which is what this letter is getting. Y are you still reading this? Sheesh, you must really be bored. Z you next year!