We hope you enjoy!
Sean, Mary, & Katie
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2008’s season finale saw our heroes, Sean and Mary, looking ahead to a major life change. Talk about a cliff-hanger… We welcome you now to the 4th installment of:
The Christmas Letter (2009)
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FOOTBALL (Did you doubt I’d start with this?): It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Best: A 4th quarter comeback in Atlanta vs. Alabama earned Florida yet another SEC championship and a ticket to play Oklahoma in the BCS National Championship for the 2008 football season. We won’t talk about what I ended up paying to get a ticket, but long story short, I was fortunate enough to go to Miami and watch Florida beat Oklahoma to secure their 3rd National Championship (2nd in 3 years). Worst: After a promising 12-0 start to the 2009 football season, Florida suffered a disappointing loss to Alabama in a repeat of last year’s SEC championship game. While a Sugar Bowl match-up against Cincinnati isn’t a bad consolation prize, another title sure would have been nice. At the end of the day, it still is great to be a Florida Gator! Make no mistake though; I will root for Alabama over Texas. Keep it in the SEC, baby!WORKING FOR THE MAN: The beginning of 2009 saw Mary growing increasingly pregnant and trying to finalize (and defend) her dissertation proposal before going out on leave. Unfortunately, things didn’t work as planned (pregnancies are harder than one might think) and Mary is still currently sans proposal. But she’s preparing to start anew in the spring of 2010 and I doubt it will be long before she’s back on track! Meanwhile I celebrated 5 years working with ESG (still working in the area of PeopleSoft) and just finished a large software upgrade for a client in Philadelphia. This project kept me on the road pretty steadily from April through mid-November, though I’ve been doing my best to enjoy vacation/downtime since completing that project while waiting for another to start.
A LITTLE LOVE GOES A LONG WAY: Lots of exciting things happen over the course of one’s lifetime, but for us few rival the events of August 6th, 2009. Eleven days after Mary’s target due date of July 26th, we decided, along with her doctor, that it was best to induce labor. We were helped along in our decision by the fact that we had been awake a good portion of the night before with Mary going through some early labor pains. At around noon we were admitted to the hospital, though our doctor was kind enough to let me run out and grab Mary a quick lunch from Boston Market before we got started. After all, nothing says “delivering babies” like turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, and cornbread. All things considered, the labor process went fairly smoothly (I didn’t feel a thing!) ;-). We started the induction at around 2:30 pm and by 9:44 pm, had a beautiful baby girl, all without the aid of an epidural! Katherine Alice (aka Katie) joined us at 7lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long with a head full of dark brown hair. It was a little touch and go there for a while, but after 4 months we’ve decided that we’re going to keep her . We have been thoroughly blessed to have such a healthy, beautiful, and sweet little girl. And the fact that she has slept through the night starting the first week she came home from the hospital sure doesn’t hurt! We were also fortunate to have Jenny (Mary’s mom) join us for about a month to help us get the hang of things. This was especially helpful since my client only gave me one week off to be home after Katie was born and my trips to Philadelphia resumed August 17th.
TRIPPING: No, it’s not what you think. Over the course of the year we managed to go on a number of trips, in addition to my all-important pilgrimage to South Florida.
> In May Mary and I journeyed to Mt. Vernon, OH for her 5 year Kenyon College reunion. A baby shower thrown by Mary’s Mom and Grandmother also allowed us an opportunity to visit with a good number of Mary’s family.
> In September (while Katie was only about a month old) I ventured alone to Maryland for the wedding of one of my best friends, JP, where I had been asked to be his best man. JP and his beautiful bride Jenny celebrated their vows in a small Catholic service followed by a lively celebration.
> In November, I completed my PeopleSoft project for Quest and we immediately left for vacation. In fact, I think I flew home Friday night and we literally hit the road the next day. At about 3 months old, we figured Katie was finally old enough to do some serious hiking. So we headed west to Big Bend National Park where we spent about 4 days hiking some incredible trails in the Chisos Mountains of Southwest Texas. I can’t be certain, but I’m thinking Katie got the easy end of the deal as seen here…
> A few days after returning from Big Bend, we headed off to Ocean Springs, MS for thanksgiving with my immediate family, my Dad’s sister, and her family. There were 11 of us, and except for Jenny (who joined us from Baton Rouge), everyone there met Katie for the first time. Between this and the Big Bend trip, we put nearly 2,500 miles on our car over a 2-week period. C-R-A-Z-Y!
> As we near the end of the year, Mary, Katie, and I will be joining Jenny and Charles (Mary’s brother) in Baton Rouge for a week surrounding Christmas. We hope to catch up with a number of Mary’s friends and also introduce Katie to some good old fashioned Louisiana cuisine! She likes her breast milk spicy!
> Looking ahead to next year, we’d like to try to make the rounds with Katie to visit Ohio (Mary’s family), Orlando (additional family on my side), and Maryland (friends). We’re also hoping to head to North Carolina for a ski trip with some of my college friends. Do they make skis for a 6 month old???
AS THE SUN SETS ON ANOTHER YEAR: We’re truly blessed for all that we have been given and look forward to another exciting year with our newly enlarged family. I apologize if we have been a bit out of touch with some of you. But know that we’d love to hear from all of you and if you ever happen to be in Austin, look us up. We’ll show you a little Texas hospitality and take you out for some barbecue!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Sean, Mary, Katie, Annie, and Riley
E-mail: sean_p_love@hotmail.com / mary.sutcliffe@gmail.com
Home Phone: 512.535.3875
Sean (Cell): 512.769.2187
Mary (Cell): 512.791.4949
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