our (late) holiday letter

Patrick and I were pretty pleased with this (late) letter, so we'll be sending it out with our (late) holiday cards.
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Happy New Year!

Life got a tad chaotic at Chez Gadrow in December, so this, our holiday letter, has morphed into a New Year’s letter – and a late one at that! I’m sure you’ll forgive the tardiness of its arrival on your doorstep when you see how much we have to tell. Besides, isn’t it nice to have a bit of holiday cheer in January, long after all those punctual people’s letters have been packed up with the rest of the seasonal decorations? ☺

2007 was very good to Patrick and Amanda. The biggest news, of course, was that we were married on May 19 at Patrick’s parents’ beautiful home. Thanks to the generous assistance (read: manual labor) of family and friends, the location, ceremony, and reception were absolutely lovely – truly, the best day of our lives. We honeymooned in Sanibel, Florida and enjoyed every sunny, sandy, relaxing minute of it. Upon our return, Amanda started a new job working with old friends, and Patrick took on some new projects at his company. Over the course of the summer, we made quite a few improvements to our new home: a fence for the back yard, a completely renovated bathroom, lots of yard work, and a gut-renovated master bedroom, much of which was done single-handedly by Patrick the Handy. Our attempts at fun little weekend getaways failed miserably – we got rained out at both the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and the NASCAR races at the New Hampshire International Speedway. Being our cheery selves, we managed to enjoy parts of those experiences despite the weather; at the very least, we will treasure the soggy photos and stories!

In other news, Amanda took and (mostly) passed her Ph.D. qualifying exams, enabling her to begin work on her dissertation. She has no idea what the exact topic will be as of yet, but eighteenth-century Spanish zarzuela are looking pretty good at this point. Patrick took the lead on the home renovations, designing the new kitchen and making many small changes all around the house to make it cozy and organized. Wedded bliss suits us both very well; we feel blessed to be so happy, healthy, and content in each other.

And so we come to the end of the year. Amanda highly enjoyed teaching beginner musicians in the fall, and gave the final exam for her course on December 18. That next day, she went to work to find that her company had folded and she was out of a job! Being an optimist, she was instantly glad for some time off around the holidays; being a pragmatist, she started looking for a new job that same day. She already has several interviews and many more leads and is confident that she will have something new in no time, but what a way to end the year! Patrick, on the other hand, had a very nice end of the year, culminating in a week off over Christmas and a bonus from his employer. We both enjoyed that week thoroughly, spending it with the families and relaxing after the madness of mid-December.

We rang in 2008 with high hopes for a year as interesting and satisfying as 2007, and with plans for all sorts of new adventures: a new job for Amanda, a renovated kitchen, a new garden in the spring, a weekend getaway or two, and a thousand other small surprises over the course of the year. We wish you all the very best this year, too, and hope that it will not be long before we see you again.

All our best,