Dear Family and Friends,

Well, 2008 proved to be (yet another) blessed, exciting one in the Summers’ household despite a few (literal) missteps. As Rick writes this letter, he’s hopped up on Percocet after sustaining a serious back injury in Las Vegas. While perching precariously on a tall rock in the Flamingo hotel’s wildlife habitat – it was the best angle from which to photograph the majestic birds – a sacred ibis spooked and Rick slipped. He’s hoping to have surgery soon, before President-elect Barack Obama takes office, institutes socialized medicine and destroys our great American health care system. Meanwhile, during his downtime, Rick’s studying up on his Spanish, which will likely be the new national language of the United States once the new administration is in the White House – or, should we say, Casa Blanca?

You may have noticed that photos of Alison’s and Amy’s husbands have disappeared from the annual Christmas letter. Or maybe not. We didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that two of the three girls are now divorced; we figured instead of actually addressing it, we’d just Photoshop the images of the ex-husbands out and never speak of them again in these pages. Amy’s now living back at home and it’s nice to have her sleeping in her old room. We missed the smell of cigarette smoke and sound of the garage door opening and closing in the middle of the night – the hallmarks of Amy’s high school days. After splitting up with her husband, Alison moved out of her recently remodeled beach house and now pays outrageous rent for a 300-square-foot loft in Sand City. Ah, those crazy Californians!

And speaking of crazies, errr, Californians, Gwen and her husband, Scott, still live in their tiny one-bathroom home in Pacific Grove. They paid $1 million for it and now its value has decreased to $400,000. In addition to the housing market tanking, Gwen still isn’t pregnant, despite thousands of dollars spent on fertility treatment. She’s dealing with the stress – and hormones – by cleaning incessantly while Scott copes by drinking into oblivion every night. Well, we know it will happen when it’s supposed to, and they will be wonderful parents. Maybe next year you’ll be looking at pictures of triplets in this letter!

Because of a lack of grandchildren, Rick and Eileen have adopted cats: Lola, Rocco, Roxie, Fancy, Tiger and Naughty. We think there might be a seventh, but it looks a lot like Tiger, so we may be counting him twice. Whatever the exact number, we enjoy dressing them in baby clothes, and pushing them in baby buggies around the park. Sometimes this elicits odd looks from the neighbors, but we see nothing wrong with taking our grandcats out for an afternoon stroll.

The snow is really falling outside, so let’s hope Eileen finished mowing the lawn, trimming the trees, hanging the Christmas lights – and cooking dinner. The kids insist the Earth’s temperature is rising, but baby, it’s cold outside! And time for another painkiller.

From our family to yours, have a blessed and happy holiday season.

With Love,

Rick, Eileen, Alison, Gwen and Amy Summers