I love getting Christmas cards. I love the trickle of mail that appears in our HK mail box, and the happy bunches that come through our mail forwarding service. I enjoy the whole deal – noting trends in design, color, and type of photo, reading what everyone is up to, seeing how kids have grown – and I deeply appreciate the effort that goes into getting every card done and out in that holiday window.

I didn’t send them this year. When we arrived in the US for Christmas break, I had already missed the pre-holiday deadline for online cards. I told myself I was waiting to see if we might have an address change (our lease was up), and after all, I was busy packing and sorting out Jed’s birthday and our Christmas from afar since our entire holiday would be spent in the US. Plus, I couldn’t get quite the right picture of the boys – you know, the one that shows how the boys have grown and demonstrates that we are a clever, fun-loving, (insert your favorite slightly aspirational descriptor here) family. I figured it would be easy to snap a pic of the boys after the jetlag wore off, on a good ski day, or out in the yard, or in front of a snowy bunch of trees, or, or, or.

An early attempt.

Then, instead of joining us for Jed’s birthday in Truckee, Tommy landed at Mass General in Boston. A tiny “bite” on the top of his foot turned out to be a seriously strong bacterial infection that led to over 3 weeks of no fun, including a 3 day hospital stay, trips to ERs in two different states, trial and (mostly) error antibiotics, many, many rounds of IV antibiotics, and eventually a surgical cut across the top of his foot in the hopes the infection would drain.  After delaying our return until Tommy could fly, we arrived back in Hong Kong weary and . . . cardless.

So the Baxter Christmas card never happened. Slowly the holidays have ticked by – the window for Happy 2015! passed by, then Valentine’s Day, then Chinese New Year, then St Patrick’s Day (we are part Irish, after all). Easter is next up. Maybe I’ll get it all together and send a Happy Spring! card, but don’t hold your breath. My apologies for the skip, and don’t take me off your list! I loved getting your holiday cards, and I hope to return the favor sometime before next Christmas.

When we packed up our Scituate house and headed to Hong Kong 3 years ago, we stopped in Truckee, CA on our way over.  Unexpectedly, we found a little house on a big stretch of land.  With our Scituate house on the market, it felt like a touchstone that would keep us connected to the US. I did think Tommy was completely crazy to try and buy a house literally on our way out of the country; I’m usually the impulsive one. But it worked out, and I am so glad it did.

Our house in Truckee is what makes Hong Kong survivable. For all the benefits of our adopted city, it can be exhausting. The pollution here gets worse every year (that’s another blog post), and the thrum of the city is palpable. In Hong Kong, the lights are bright, the crowds are close, and there’s always noise.  In Truckee we have the stars. It’s dark and stunningly quiet. We might see someone walking their dog once in awhile, but for the most part our little slice of nature feels deserted. The internet is dial-up, and you really do need 4-wheel drive in the winter.  We all love it.