Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family,

In an effort to reach the most of you, as well as help save the environment, we have decided to do our Christmas letter on the blog!

We have had yet another whirlwind year! This time last year we were decorating our tree in NYC, having recently arrived and just getting used to the bitter cold, public transportation and Shane’s very busy new job. We continued to survive and eventually thrive in NYC for most of 2009. We were blessed with wonderful friends and fellowship that made the city feel small and homey, while we were still able to enjoy all the culture, arts and diversity that living in a large city encourages.

In June Shane and I headed for Anchorage, Alaska. We went salmon fishing and managed to bring home 35 pounds of fresh Alaskan salmon! We were able to attend the wedding of a friend, which was beautiful, and when we left at 11pm it was still light outside! We also went on a glacier cruise and got to see amazing glaciers, humpback and killer whales and a ton of other wildlife, up close. After Anchorage we headed for Vancouver which is a beautiful city that we thoroughly enjoyed.

By summer we thought we had fallen into a routine, when we got the news that Shane had an opportunity to work for 2 years in London. We jumped at the chance, of course, but were (and still are!) sad to leave our NYC friends behind. So, 2 months later we boarded a plane, crossed the Atlantic and made London our new home.

We hit the ground running and managed to visit Paris, Norway and Belgium in the first few months. (Shane also snuck a business trip to Amsterdam.) The proximity to all of Europe still amazes us and we are excited for some of our upcoming vacations!

And just when we thought life couldn’t get much more hectic, we had one more surprise, Sarah is pregnant! Thankfully our London house has a small extra room that can be converted into a nursery so come June 3, 2010, T3 will have somewhere to sleep (or scream, but hopefully more sleeping than screaming!)

As we settle into London we were blessed with several connections of other expats who recently moved as well and have the beginnings of a great community of people. We are looking forward to the excitement and changes that will come next year but we know that none of this would be possible without the love and support of all of you reading this. We miss and love you all and wish you the very Merriest Christmas and Happy New Years!

Love, Sarah and Shane