Subject: Weekend Update: Christmas '99
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 10:31:13 -0500

The shop closed down early on Thursday afternoon as Mr. Scrooge (me) 
was the first to leave the office.  I took Miranda to the North 
Billerica train station where she boarded one bound for Boston, meeting
friends for a matinee at the Wang Center.  Sugar Plum Fairies and men
in tight tights danced to Tchiakovski's Nutcracker Ballet and she
reported that it was a wonderful holiday experience.

Joy was putting the final touches on our annual Christmas at the Manor
party, having baked and baked all week. We missed quite a few guests
for one bah humbug reason or another, especially the influenza humbug.
We enjoyed the company of over 50 guests who ate and gabbed and traded
stories of maulings at the mall and terrible traffic.  We always enjoy
hosting gatherings for our friends.

This year, my family informed me that I was breaking with tradition
by attending the Christmas Eve service of another church, electing
to be with Steve and Sharon's family and my parents for the evening.
I hadn't realized that we had an unbroken string of a dozen years or
so at our church's Christmas Eve service.  Ah well.  We wanted to 
get down and see Steve and Sharon's new home; a spacious split entry
with plenty of development and maintenance opportunities for them to
become handy around the house.  It is a good thing Steve has a brother
in the vicinity to help him with those hard-to-tackle projects, and 
perhaps a good thing that I am not that brother, being a good 80-minute
drive away.  ;-)

On Christmas morning, most of us arose around 9AM, except for Andrew
who waited as patiently as he could downstairs until about 8:30AM.
After a Crawford traditional breakfast of Pop Tarts (which might 
actually be a Joy-ism because I doubt Faith or Hope would eat Pop
Tarts), and Mandy built a fire in the woodstove, we sat down in the
barn to exchange our gifts. We started with Andrew's gifts to each of 
us and progressed through the ages until the wrapping paper had
accumulated around our feet up to our shins.  Although all of the gifts
were sincerely appreciated, and some of them need to be exchanged for 
smaller sizes, there was one present of note that I said that I did
not like.  I lied.  Jessica gave me a bi-fold picture frame with a
recent picture of her on the left and a picture of my 4-year old
Jessica on the right.  The caption read that no matter how big
she got, she would always be my little girl.  Shame on her for 
such a shameless assault on my emotional state, at the tender age
I'm at, too.

Mom and Dad Metcalfe (and Schahtzi) joined us on Christmas afternoon.
More gifts were exchanged and we had a good time of fellowship. They
stayed overnight to attend church with us the next morning.  The other
Metcalfes (John, Steve, and Russ and their families, sans Jennifer),
arrived later on Sunday for a turkey dinner and there was much stuffing.
We pulled out some 15-year old video for Melissa's boyfriend's benefit.
I knew all that video taping I did all those years ago would come in 
handy someday as embarrassment or bribery material.  Russell and Nancy
added to their family this Christmas with a puppy, making us the only
Metcalfe family without canine companionship and veterinary bills. I
almost broke down and got a dog for Joy's birthday but she opted for
emeralds instead, which are easier to care for while on vacation and
don't shed.  The puppy was very cute, though, and Little Russell was
especially overjoyed by the gift.

This letter is being sent from home because Cadence is shut down until
after Y2K, which we hope to be a good year for all of us.  God bless you
each in the coming year and beyond.

Mark
-- 
+---_-----------+ Mark Metcalfe, metcalfe@cadence.com
| c a d e n c e | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.    Phone: (978) 446-6451
+---------------+ PCB Systems Division, Technical Communications Manager