Happy New Year, and Back to Business

Let’s see, where to begin? 
I will say, it’s much easier to just post little updates as you go on
Facebook or Twitter, but I’m trying to stay true to the blog that I’ve started
here, and I know some of you don’t do the other forms of social media.   So, I
took a little blog break, now I am catching up.

As you might know, we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in
Carmel, visiting Stephan’s parents and generally winding down from what
everyone seems to agree was a very intense year (2009).  I don’t know why, but didn’t 2009 seem like
the longest year ever?  Good things did
happen during the year, but overall I think I speak for everyone when I say “Damn,
I’m glad that’s over.”  2010 is already shaping up to be better– I hope that's true for you as well.

We had a great time during the holidays, due in no small
part to the fact that we were staying at this amazing house up in the Carmel
Highlands, with a view that looked like this:

Believe me, I am sad to have to leave this place and go back to the real world.  At least now I know where I want to retire!  Might I recommend a trip to the Carmel Highlands if you are needing some beautiful nature to recharge you?  It really doesn't have a bad angle. 

Speaking of Christmas, here is one of the highlights that I would like to feature in case you didn't see it on Facebook, because it was quite amazing.  Maybe you don't know this about him, but Stephan is the best son ever, and always does something special for his parents every Christmas.  Last year, he took a very old family photo and PhotoShopped it with the heads of current family members, which was a very big hit.  This year, though, he really outdid himself, and I wanted to make sure the gift was not only properly commended for its amazingness, but also immortalized on the internet.  So, here's the story.

Remember last year, when I was cleaning out the dusty and depressing storage unit?  I don't really want to ruin my festive holiday mood by describing it, but let's just say it has ALOT of old stuff in it, some of which was my mom's, and every year I go there and clean out a little more of it.  This year I happened to unearth an old box of stuff from Stephan's childhood, so we cleaned and organized that as well.  In one of the boxes we found a bunch of old cassette tapes, including one with a fuzzy, 30-year old recording of Stephan playing the guitar and singing the Cat Stevens song "Father and Son."  So, over the course of the year, Stephan digitized this old recording, cleaned it up (for sound quality), then recorded updated vocals, so he is essentially doing a duet with himself, where the young version of Stephan is singing from the past.  

If I try to explain it any further it will will just sound overly technical, so I'll just go ahead and let you listen to the final version, which was given as a gift to his father.  Oh, and if you can listen to this all the way through and it doesn't make you tear up, I would suggest you sign yourself up for a heart transplant. Even I, the family pragmatist, still can't get through the whole thing without a Kleenex.   

 So, welcome back, and I hope you are having a good year so far!  

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