The Christmas Letter

I don't remember when I first started sending out a yearly family letter with our Christmas cards, but it had to have been before 1997 because I have kept a copy filed away since then.  It's a strange thing looking through this file.  Letter by letter I can review what we have been doing for the past twelve years, it makes the years fly by in condensed form.  Just a little bit scary that life passes that quickly.  At the same time it brings back some incredible memories of friends and family, places, adventures lived, lessons learned, all treasured.  Today I finished this year's letter.  I used my calendar to review the year and decide what to write.  Some things were so much fun I wished they wouldn't end, but those times just seem to slip through my fingers.  And then there were some very sad and painful times I'd just as soon let slip away.  In the end we learn from those moments too, hopefully.  All in all, 2009 was a good year.