Merry Christmas 2009!

Greetings of peace & joy to all. And a special warm welcome to visitors who received our Christmas photo card and felt duty bound to visit our blog. Welcome, and thanks for dropping by.

(To see more pics from Christmas Sunday service, including some in-focus ones where I am not wondering, "gee, I wonder what will happen if I twist this thingy on my camera", click here.)

We started blogging in October 2004 (see an amusing picture of how teeny the two kids looked back then). At the time, I thought of the blog a time as a replacement for the Christmas letter with the added benefit of more authentic and frequent updates. While there is joy -- and value -- in looking back at an entire year of work and school and life, it's also tempting if you're only doing it once a year to adopt the self-congratulatory tone of an alumni magazine. With a blog, you can be self-congratulatory every day of the week. :-)

So here we are, 795 posts later. We must confess, though, that our rate of blog posts slowed dramatically, as 2009 became for us (like for the rest of the world), the year of micro-updates delivered via Facebook status updates (see Frank's and Fedora's) and Twitter tweets (see Frank's stream @withfries2 and Fedora's stream @flchen1).

Still, this is the appropriate outlet for paragraph- and Christmas-letter sized thoughts (as opposed to the sentence- and 140-character sized updates), so here we go with the year-in-review for the Chen clan:

• Frank started a new job with Andreessen Horowitz, a startup venture capital company based in Menlo Park.
• The cozy intimacy of a 10-person firm -- especially since this is Frank's third time out with co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz (#1: Netscape, #2: Loudcloud/Opsware) -- is a welcome contrast from the lumbering anonymity of tech behemoth HP.
• He is learning a ton (which he loves) and feeds on the energy that naturally bubbles out of tech entrepreneurs.
• A few days each week (weather permitting), he's doing the 26-mile round trip commute to work on his mighty steed, the Giant Twist Freedom DX electric assist bike. To date, he's logged over 1,000 miles, 1,160 pounds of offset CO2, 110,000 calories, and 1 near accident. Since this is a Christmas letter, he will avoid a salty dress down of drivers who don't share the road and simply say, "blessed are the bike riders, for they shall inherit the road." :-)
• This is also Frank's first full year on the Fellowship Bible Church board, where he is introducing useful bits of the business world (e.g., setting objectives, aligning our spending behind those goals, and adopting best practices) to the church. (You may quietly hum "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat" to yourself as you read.)
• In typical Silicon Valley geek fashion, he wonders idly whether this is the year to learn how to play Settlers of Catan (rather than golf).
  
  
• Fedora is shaking her head at her own foolishness in thinking that with all the kids in school (for at least part of each day), she'd have more free time this year. She volunteers at their schools and contrary to any rumors, does actually leave school grounds during the day. And no, she's not secretly running a business using school resources. The days zip by in a blur of kid herding and avoiding household chores.
  
  
• Colin ("serious young man") is halfway through 4th grade, and in an abrupt shift of metaphors, is rounding 3rd base and windmilling hard for home on his elementary school education. How is that even possible?
• His teachers tell us he's doing well, though remains somewhat reserved in class (a carbon copy of both his parents).
• Outside of school, he enjoys video games, drawing, origami, watching TV, and collecting Pokemon cards. (His parents are thinking "professional video game player" or "professional video game designer" might be good career trajectories.)
  
  
• Katye ("look out, here I come") is a 1st grader, and her teacher is a Huge Fan. It helps that she'll likely pass the 5th grade reading level by year-end, good news for the school's median test scores.
• Her teacher one day declared, "if I could pay her to come to my class, I would" on account of her energy level, eagerness to participate, and willingess to play with anyone.
• Her self-proclaimed hobbies: watching Pokemon on TV, playing with her animal friends (but still no dolls), playing Webkinz, drawing, writing stories, and above all reading.
  
  
• Cameron ("think twice if you think I'm getting left behind") just started a half-day pre-kindergarten at Gloria Dei (as his sister did before him).
• This makes mornings a little challenging, as two caravans must leave the house and arrive at their destinations by 8 and 8:15 am. Luckily, Frank can usually trot him over before going to work.
• He just started getting into video games this year, and his favorites are Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, and Wii Sports Resort. As I am writing this post, he has just completed the Forest (level 5) Showdown on Wii Sports Resort. So now he has gotten as far his daddy (Colin is, of course, way past this level.)
• Mom and dad are proud that at the annual children's Christmas service program at the school, he managed to remember his lines, hand gestures, and music -- or at least, close enough for pre-K purposes.
  

We wish you and your family a peaceful, joyful, and love-filled holiday season. Come by and visit, either electronically or physically. We'd love to see you either way.