Holiday Letter 2001

December 2001

Friends-

Season’s Greetings from Elmira, New York where the times remain interesting. We are a larger family this year by about 25 pounds, all of that attributable to the newly arrived (March 19, 2001) John Connor Hanson. Of course, we have been a larger family each of the last four years as well, but previously Eric had been solely responsible for the gain.

The holiday wreath on our door has entered its third year of service which is very impressive for a natural wreath (please read last year's holiday note to see how this is possible). It is joined on the house this year by another perfectly good, and very large, pine wreath that some unresourceful person left on the curb after last year's holiday season. Eric still remembers how excited Ellen and her mom were when they returned home after that find. Holiday decorating at the Hanson house doesn't stop with a couple of well-preserved wreaths. All year the entrance to our library is guarded by a two-foot Santa and adorned with little, white lights. Santa can also be found in the dining room, foyer and on the living room mantle. Wreaths and pine boughs abound. A ‘Christmas Village’ has materialized on the pool table.

Home ownership has become a bit less stressful this year as we have lowered our expectations and extended our timeline on many projects. Eric's 10 day office remodeling project that was entering its sixth month when we wrote last winter is now entering month eighteen, but Ellen has completed a few of the projects she has instigated. The dining room, with help from Mama Roe, no longer sports the 'Christmas wrap' wallpaper that was such a conversation starter, one of the upstairs bathrooms that we never use has been redone with help from Papa Roe Remodeling and the stone piles in the backyard have been restacked into walls with help from the Johnny P Construction Company. Unfortunately, the availability of these reliable contractors is spotty; while the reliability of the available contractors seems to be a bit more questionable. A case in point, one fine day early this summer a man stops at the house and asks if we need any trees taken down. "Isn't this fortuitous", we think, because, coincidently we need four very, very dead trees taken down. So, Eric explains to the man that we need these trees taken down as he walks around the yard pointing out each of the four. After the second crash Eric goes out to check the progress and sees a medium size pine tree down. To paraphrase the exchange that takes place as the tree guy explains how he cut down the live pine tree twenty feet away from the dead cherry tree:

Tree guy: "The bark looks the same, but you'd think I would have figured it out when I was up there cutting down all those branches with pine needles."

Eric: "Actually, I was hoping you would have figured it out before then."

Next on Eric's list is converting the entire basement into a rec room. A bar, pool table, race track, foosball, pinball, home theatre - the works. Ellen's list may vary slightly.

For those of you trying to keep up with Connor's exploits it's best to visit the website frequently. In his first nine months Connor has now outgrown three age groups worth of clothing, taken his first steps, raised his vocabulary to three words, gotten his first two teeth, invented several new games involving food, appeared on TV, visited Atlanta, Boston and New York City, seen a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, gone hiking in Vermont twice, hit the rides at Six Flags-Darien Lake and been photographed 1319 times by Ellen.

Wishing you a happy holiday season and an interesting year,

Eric, Ellen & Connor

Holiday Letter 2000

December 2000

Friends-

Season’s Greetings from Elmira, New York where we are pioneering the recycling of holiday wreaths. Ellen cleverly saved the pine wreath which hung upon our front door last holiday season. This year that same wreath, covered in Better-than-Natural Green spray paint, adorns our house yet again. It’s been another interesting year in the Hanson household.

Among the things we’ve learned in the past year is that home ownership isn’t for everyone. It is also full of surprises. We had a surprise this March when the snow melted we found that the lazy bastards who sold us the house previous owners had left us some raking to do. Enough raking to fill one-hundred-twenty large garbage bags. For those of you not familiar with the City of Elmira’s rules for trash removal, that is roughly one-hundred-fourteen more bags than they will remove per week. Our garage became a compost heap.

Once the bags of leaves were safely stored in the garage we were able to address other issues including: the relative sparsity of grass in the yard (still an issue), Eric’s insistence that a basketball hoop be installed (one was - though maybe not quite the one Eric had in mind), Ellen’s insistence that Eric get a large life-insurance policy (he did), Eric’s insistence that last year’s Christmas tree be taken down (it was - in late February), Eric’s one week remodeling project of his third floor office (in it’s sixth month now), the remodeling of a second floor bedroom (done - this was our last joint project), Ellen’s refinishing of the library floor (done - this was a bigger task than it sounds), Ellen’s remodeling of another second floor bedroom (almost done), Ellen’s insistence that she be pregnant (she is), Eric’s insistence that he acquire a new sports car to get him through his mid-life crisis (one was - though definitely not the one Eric had in mind [it had no room for a car seat]), Ellen’s remodeling of a second floor bathroom (almost done), Eric’s rewiring of his temporary second floor office while construction continues on his third floor office (done), repairs to the slate roof (started - warning: these things can be expensive), raking of the yard this fall (done - with the help of a leaf-sweeper contraption), and preparation of the nursery for the arrival of John Connor Hanson (moving slow - the local artist hired to do the murals [Eric’s father] - has been rather self-paced). The two major issues remaining seem to be training Eric to make the bed in the morning and training Eric to put garbage in the garbage can.

On January 1, Eric and Ellen will be hosting the New Year’s Day Bowl Game Party. This kicks-off at 11:00 am with the Cotton and Outback Bowls. The Gator, Citrus, Rose and Fiesta Bowls follow. Consider this an invitation. For information, directions, a schedule of upcoming events or just to talk to Ellen please call (607) 732-3697, email or visit our website.

Wishing you a happy holiday season and an interesting year,

Eric & Ellen